What is Pentest?
Pentest is defined as an attack simulation that aims to gain unauthorized access to target systems, networks, and data. It is applied by identifying, analyzing, and evaluating the existence of defined target systems and applications for vulnerabilities, and then exploiting these vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access to systems, data, and authorizations.
Phases of Pentest
To prevent the exploitation of these vulnerabilities that allow access to data and authorizations by leveraging flaws in IT systems, and to mitigate potential attacks by malicious hackers with minimal issues, conducting a pentest before being exposed to such attacks will be highly beneficial for your information, documents, data, networks, and systems.
We can list the phases of a pentest as follows:
- The first step is reconnaissance. This phase involves passively gathering information about the system to be tested without active scanning.
- The second step is scanning and enumeration. If no issues are encountered in the first phase, active scanning of the system is performed in this step.
- The third step is gaining access, where the goal is to reach a vulnerability in the system.
- In the fourth step, if a system vulnerability is reached in the third phase, control of the system begins.
- The fifth step is clearing the tracks, where we erase all the actions we have performed, essentially removing any traces we might leave behind.
Types of Pentest
There are three different types of pentest:
- Internal Network Penetration Test: This is conducted to determine which data can be accessed from open systems within the relevant institution or organization.
- External Network Penetration Test: This is performed to determine which data can be accessed from externally exposed systems.
- Web Application Penetration Test: This checks for system attacks that could originate from inside or outside web applications.
You can visit relevant online companies on their websites to obtain services and information regarding pentesting.
