Penetration testing is becoming a common practice in organizations nowadays. The purpose of advanced penetration testing is to identify vulnerabilities in the security posture, raise employee awareness programs, and mitigate the critical risks found within the IT environment. These tests also help management make strategical decisions such as determining security budget and formulating strategies to reinforce the defenses.
Here are the
steps involved in Advanced
penetration testing methodologies.
1. Planning and preparation
In this phase, the organization and pen testing team share the
information and plan with each other. An agreement is signed by both sides that
provide them legal protection. Other than this approach, methodology and scope
of penetration testing are determined at this stage.
2. Scanning/assessment
In this phase, the pen-testing team design a plan, prepares the list of
tools, and gather all the information about the target network and vulnerable
services. The discoveries are analyzed, and the team decides how
vulnerabilities can be exploited.
3. Exploitation
In this phase, identified vulnerabilities are exploited after the
authorization is granted by the client. Pen testers break into the system using
the information collected in the previous stages. To exploit the
vulnerabilities pen testing team uses various attack vectors, including broken
authentication, invalid input, denial of service (DoS), cookie poisoning, SQL
injection, cross-site scripting, social engineering attacks, and many more.
4. Reporting and cleanup
If the pen testing team finds critical security issues during the entire
process, it is addressed to the client. The team also shares recommendations to
fix those issues. A final report is prepared to contain all the assessment
results and recommendations to strengthen the organization's security posture.
All the information created during the pen testing process is removed from the
compromised system.
The clean up involves the following activities:
·
Removing
of the executables, scripts, and files from the compromised system
·
Removing
any user account created to reach the target machine
·
Reconfiguring
setting back to its previous state
Closure
Penetration
tests play a crucial role in the security assessment strategy. Organizations
must conduct advanced penetration testing at regular intervals to prevent the
reputational and financial damage caused by the complex cyber-threats of the
modern days.
Learn
advanced penetration testing methodologies with Infosec Train
Infosec
Train offers an advanced penetration testing course that has been meticulously
designed by subject matter experts to take your penetration testing skills to
the next level.
https://www.infosectrain.com/courses/advanced-penetration-testing-online-training-course/
Get yourself
enrolled today!