Penetration testing is a simulated attack run by ethical hackers – sometimes also called “white hat hackers” or “good hackers” - or other legitimate bodies commissioned to do so. They will work to try and breach systems, applications, servers, or any other kind of digital items, and if successful, will recommend ways to fix the vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by someone else.
Sometimes, it can be hard to know where vulnerabilities lie in your systems until they’re exposed. The problem is that if they’re identified and exploited by a cybercriminal or another malicious actor, then it’s often far too late to do anything about it.
With the scale and sophistication of cyberattacks rising all the time, this means organizations need to be on the front foot, spotting and addressing those potential weaknesses before anyone else has a chance to. That’s where penetration testing (also known as a pentest) comes in.
In this article, we’ll explore how cybersecurity penetration testing works in detail: different methods, variations in approach, and the key differences when comparing vulnerability scanning vs penetration testing.
Why is penetration testing an important part of cybersecurity?
When it comes to cybersecurity, penetration testing should be a key part of any organization’s strategy and ideally should take place every year - or when new systems and applications are added to the estate. Good pen testing can help with:
Proactive security protection and incident response
Uncovering vulnerabilities before cybercriminals have the opportunity can help close off any gaps in security and strengthen defenses overall. Kaspersky’s penetration testing service can simulate attacks with ethical hackers to expose these vulnerabilities, ensuring your devices and systems remain secure. This proactive approach helps identify potential threats early, making it easier to address them before they can be exploited.
Meeting compliance demands
The legal requirements around cybersecurity and data protection are getting stronger and stronger all the time, from GDPR in Europe to CCPA in California. Penetration testing can help demonstrate to regulators that vulnerabilities are being addressed, which can help avoid any legal and financial consequences that may arise through non-compliance.
Maximizing security visibility
A pentest can deliver new levels of insight into the security posture of a specific system or application, and so a regular pen testing strategy can highlight the quality of security organization-wide. This insight can help inform wider security decisions, from putting new solutions in place to the areas where investment should be allocated.
Ensuring new software and hardware is safe
Any new applications and systems will have an effect on existing systems and infrastructure and may have some vulnerabilities that the IT security team may not know about. Penetration testing these new solutions as early as possible can make sure that they are implemented and used securely without introducing new vulnerabilities.
Maintaining public confidence
The public is more aware than ever of security breaches and data misuse, especially when details enter the public domain. Using penetration testing to minimize the risk of a security breach can reduce the chances of an attack causing damage to an organization’s reputation, and by extension, its bottom line.
What are the typical penetration testing steps?
There are several different types and methods of penetration testing (which we’ll explore later on in this article). But the principles of a good pentest will generally follow this five-step process:
Planning
Defining the overarching objective of the pentest, such as the systems or applications involved and the testing methods that would be best suited to it. This runs alongside intelligence-gathering around the target’s details and the potential vulnerabilities involved.
Scanning
Analyzing the target to understand how it is likely to respond to the intended method of attack. This can either be ‘static’, where code is assessed to see how the target is likely to behave, or ‘dynamic’, where the code is assessed in real-time while the application or system is running.
Establishing access
At this stage, attacks will be staged with the intention of exposing the vulnerabilities: this can be done through a range of tactics such as backdoors and cross-site scripting. If the pen testing team gains access, then they will try to simulate malicious activity such as data theft, adding privileges, and seizing web and network traffic.
Maintaining access
Once access has been established, the pen testing team will see if they can maintain that access over a long period of time and gradually ramp up the extent of the malicious activities, they’re able to achieve. By doing so, they can establish exactly how far a cybercriminal would be able to go and how much damage they could theoretically do.
Analysis
At the end of the attack, all the actions and results of the penetration testing project are delivered in a report. This quantifies which vulnerabilities were exploited, for how long, and the data and applications that they were able to access. These insights can then help an organization configure its security settings and make changes to close off those vulnerabilities accordingly.
What are the different types of pentest?
The principles listed above are applied to seven main types of penetration testing, each of which can be applied to different targets and use cases:
Internal and external network tests
This is perhaps the most common type of penetration testing, where the pen testing team will try to breach or get around firewalls, routers, ports, proxy services, and intrusion detection/prevention systems. This can either be done internally to simulate attacks by rogue actors within an organization, or externally by teams who can only use information that is in the public domain.
Web applications
This type of pentest will attempt to compromise a web application, targeting areas such as browsers, plugins, applets, APIs, and any related connections and systems. These tests can be complex as they can span many different programming languages and target web pages that are live and online but are important due to the constantly changing Internet and cybersecurity landscapes.
Physical and edge computing
Even in the era of the cloud, physical hacking is still a major threat, in no small part because of the rise of devices connected to the Internet of Things (IoT). Pen testing teams can, therefore, be commissioned to target security systems, surveillance cameras, digitally connected locks, security passes, and other sensors and data centers. This can be done either with the security team knowing what’s happening (so they can be aware of the situation) or without them being told (to assess how they respond).
Red teams and blue teams
This type of penetration testing is twofold, where the ‘red team’ acts as the ethical hackers, and the ‘blue team’ assumes the role of the security team charged with leading the response to the cyberattack. Not only does this allow an organization to simulate an attack and test system or application resilience, but it also provides useful training for the security team to learn how to shut down threats quickly and effectively.
Cloud security
Keeping cloud data and applications is safe, but penetration testing should be handled with care because it involves attacking services under the control of a third-party cloud provider. Good pentest teams will contact cloud providers well in advance to notify them of their intentions and will be informed what they are and are not allowed to attack. Generally, cloud penetration testing will attempt to exploit access controls, storage, virtual machines, applications, APIs, and any potential misconfiguration.
Social engineering
Social engineering is effectively where a pen testing team pretends to stage a phishing or trust-based cyber-attack. They will try to dupe people or staff into giving away sensitive information or passwords that will connect them to that information. This can be a useful exercise in highlighting where human error is causing security issues and where improvements need to be made in training and education around security best practices.
Wireless networks
When wireless networks are set up with passwords that are easy to guess or with permissions that are easy to exploit, they can become gateways for cybercriminals to stage attacks. Penetration testing will ensure that the right encryption and credentials are in place and will also simulate denial of service (DoS) attacks to test the network’s resilience to that type of threat.
Are there different ways of approaching pen testing?
Different pen testing teams have different ways of approaching testing, depending on what organizations have asked them to do and how much time and funding they have available. These three methods are:
Black box
This is where penetration testing teams are not given any information by the organization about the target. It’s up to the team to map out the network, system, applications, and assets involved and then stage an attack based on this discovery and research work. While this is the most time-consuming of the three types, it is the one that delivers the most comprehensive and realistic results.
White box
At the other end of the scale, white box penetration testing means organizations will share full information about the target and the wider IT architecture with the pentest team, including any relevant credentials and network maps. This is a faster and more cost-effective way of verifying the security of assets when other network areas have already been assessed or when organizations just want to double-check that everything is as it should be.
Gray box
Gray box penetration testing, as the name suggests, sits somewhere in the middle of the first two options. In this scenario, an organization will share specific data or information with the pentest team so that they have a starting point to work from. Typically, these will be certain passwords or credentials that could be used to gain access to a system; sharing these with the penetration testers will allow them to simulate what would happen in these particular circumstances.
Vulnerability scanning vs penetration testing: are they the same?
Vulnerability scanning is often confused with penetration testing, but they are two very different endeavors, and it’s important to understand the differences.
Vulnerability scanning is much more limited in scope and only works to discover any vulnerabilities that may be lurking within the infrastructure. It’s much quicker and cheaper to execute than penetration testing and doesn’t require as much input from experienced cybersecurity professionals.
On the other hand, penetration testing provides a vastly more comprehensive view of vulnerabilities, the likelihood of them being exploited by malicious actors, and the extent of the damage that could be caused as a result. This delivers a much more informed view, backed by expert processes such as Kaspersky Penetration Testing, that allows organizations to make informed decisions about cybersecurity and incident response in the long term. Explore Kaspersky's penetration testing solutions today and take proactive steps to protect your business.
Related Articles:
Related Products:
