Software vulnerabilities are more common than you think. They’re usually introduced during the software development and implementation phase. Web Application security is the area of most risk from a security breach standpoint, therefore, external penetration testing is very important to protect your system from getting compromised.
External pen testing involves reviewing vulnerabilities that could be exploited by external users without the appropriate rights or credentials to access a system. If you’re not familiar with this concept, here’s a guide containing three crucial stages of external penetration testing:
Planning
The planning stage involves deciding the scope of the project. The client provides target information, which includes IP addresses, URLs, and decides areas that require rigorous testing with their service provider.
Furthermore, a meeting is conducted with the client to review the rules of engagements, decide the project timeline, establish goals, and document any limitations. It helps to ensure that the pen testing process will go smoothly and prevent disputes.
Execution
There are five phases of external pen testing process:
Reconnaissance: This phase involves open-source intelligence gathering to identify any sensitive information such as email addresses, usernames, software information, etc. Testers also look for data that shouldn’t be available to the public.
The objective is to gather maximum information to use during the subsequent phases of external pen-testing. It also helps create a richer profile of an organisation’s security strengths and weaknesses.
Threat Modelling: This phase involves evaluating the type of threats surrounding the system of an organisation. Learning about the severity and types of threat helps understand risks and determine an attack path similar to real-world attacks.
Vulnerability Analysis: This analysis involves discovery and enumeration of all in-scope applications. Using automated and manual techniques, testers aim to identify existing vulnerabilities and previously published weaknesses of the system.
Every service is manually examined and tested for default credentials. Moreover, an unauthenticated portion of web applications is carefully inspected for vulnerabilities.
Exploitation: The tester attempt to exploit all vulnerabilities identified during earlier stages to penetrate inside the system, just like any cybercriminal would. It helps to create a realistic risk profile and to analyse the probability of attack chains.
Moreover, it also tests the effectiveness of mitigating controls that are placed to deter these types of attacks, if any.
Post Exploitation: Once the exploitation phase is completed, the collected information is used to rank identified vulnerabilities. Creating a list that prioritises these risks helps to formulate an effective plan that will help to eliminate these weaknesses to keep the system secure.
Post-Execution
Once the execution stage is completed, the pen testing service provider will provide a document that contains all their findings. The assessment report will include critical issues discovered, risk profiles, and overall security levels of the organisation.
It will also contain remedial actions and suggestions, among other information that can help an organisation to mitigate these issues. These reports go through quality assurance and address questions pertinent to assessment output to facilitate the organisation to take appropriate steps.
Looking to improve the security of your systems by conducting external pen testing? Well, let us at Lean Security help you with the support you need. Protect your sensitive information from cybercriminals by hiring our top-quality external penetration testing services. To find out more, get in touch with us today!