In a cybersecurity incident, one hacker gained access to a Fortune 500 financial firm using an old-fashioned PBX telephony management system. The company technicians had recognized the threat and promptly changed the administrative password. However, they forgot to remove a factory-installed field technician account. Using the technician account, the hacker managed to clone the company’s IT help desk number, used it to dupe a customer and obtain his password. Later, he used the password to log on to the user’s account himself and got hold of the more sensitive data stored in their financial and human resource management systems. By the time, the technicians became suspicious about the issue, the hacker have fulfilled his intention and stole some valuable information from the database. Fortunately, this incident was planned by the company itself, hiring a penetration tester to assess the vulnerabilities of its system and how these could be used to exploit the company’s services.
Test cases like this are known as penetration testing, a process commonly used by the ethical hackers. Below, we discuss the definition and processes of penetration testing in details.
The Definition of Penetration Test
Also known as pen test, penetration testing is a systemic process of simulating cyberattacks performed against an information system – computers, network, and web applications. Performed as part of a comprehensive vulnerability assessment, it is used to find out the vulnerabilities of the defence mechanisms of a given system that a cybercriminal can use to his/ her advantage. It is also used to test the security policies of an organization, whether or not it complies with the regulatory requirements, the awareness of the employees, as well as the abilities of a company to deal with a security occurrence.
Disguising as black-hat hackers, a company employed IT professional attempts to gain illegal access to data and other sensitive resources of a network system. Some of the most common strategies are:
Social Engineering
Password Cracking tools
Breaching front-end or backend servers
Breaching Application Protocol (API) interfaces
The Importance of Penetration Test
There is no use of predicting vulnerabilities without assessing the implications of those risks. As penetration test simulates a real cyberattack exploitations, it can uncover all the vulnerabilities deeply hidden in a system long before the actual criminals can take advantage of them. By putting employees in dealing with the situations, it also can help in assessing their abilities, along with the overall effectiveness and the swiftness of the cybersecurity measures in place. Most importantly, regular pen testing can help a company to comply with the PCI, HIPAA, and ISO 27001 regulations, saving an enormous amount of money in fines.
The Methods of a Penetration Test
There are a few different methods of performing a penetration test. Those are:
External Testing: With a goal of gaining access and stealing data, this method involves targeting the web applications, DNS servers or other systems visible on the internet.
Internal Testing: To figure out the vulnerabilities of lost credentials, this method gives access to the internal software and simulates an attack like an insider.
Blind Testing: In this method, the tester gets access to no information except for the name of the company.
Double-blind Testing: As the name suggests, this is an extended form of the previous method, where the IT security personnel get no prior notice regarding the testing just like a real incident.
Targeted Testing: In contrast to the previous method, the testers and the security personnel works side-by-side in order to simultaneously perform attacks and assessing their responses.
The Process of a Penetration Test
Penetration testing can either be performed manually or with the help of an automated software. In both ways, the technicians follow a systemic process to identify, exploit, and find the mitigations. The process involves the following steps:
Observation and Planning: First and foremost, the process requires to select one or more systems to be tested. It also involves defining the scope and goals of the test. Then, it requires gathering enough information, including the names of the domains and networks, potential vulnerabilities, etc. By analyzing the information, the technicians then decide on the most effective methods to be used.
Scanning: In this step, the experts try to understand how the applications and systems are designed to respond in case of intrusion attempts. It usually involves using a static or dynamic analysis tool to scan the source codes in a running state.
Gaining Access: With the help of some known malicious attack such as SQL injections, XML parsers, cross-site scripting, etc.; the testers gain implicit access to the target and perform exploitation such as stealing the sensitive data.
Maintaining Access: This is the step, where the testers maintain their access for as much as a month in order to create a persistent attack scenario. It enables them to gain in-depth access, and assess how long it takes for the employees or the system to be aware of the threats.
Analysis: In this step, the results of the tests get compiled into a detailed report. It includes details about the vulnerabilities, the level of data breach, the amount of times required for detection, etc. Moreover, it also recommends the patches and configurations to remove the weaknesses and safeguard against real potential attacks.
To conclude, penetration testing is not a standalone process to find a comprehensive overview of the system vulnerabilities. Rather, it’s an important tool or process that every company – be it large, medium, or small should include as part of their holistic vulnerability assessment. By using some dramatic methods, it encourages attacks on the system’s known or unknown vulnerabilities in order to figure out the real life ramifications of such attacks. Despite being a risky method that can potentially damage the system, penetration test can save businesses from incurring a lot of potential damage caused by cyberattacks.