Phases of Penetration Testing 

Penetration testing is an essential aspect of cyber security that strives to ensure that systems, networks, and applications are protected against malicious attacks. By using ethical hackers to test the security measures of their systems, organisations can see the weak points in their system’s defence. After a pen test, companies can fortify their defences and protect their data.

Phases of Penetration Testing

There are six stages in penetration testing. 

Planning and Pre-Engagement Phase 

A successful pen test begins with the planning and pre-engagement phase. In this stage, testers audit the business to understand its goals, objectives, and operations. Testers also study the business’s applications, systems, and tools in this phase. 

When they are done studying the business and its operations, the pen tester draws up an engagement plan. This plan is essential for the success of the penetration testing, and it contains all significant stakeholders, areas of concentration for the pen test, the penetration process, and any authorisation needed.

Reconnaissance and Intelligence Gathering Phase 

The next phase is the reconnaissance and Intelligence gathering stage. In this stage, the pen testers do a recon of the system, much like malicious hackers do, to find out everything there is to know about the system.

Pen testers use tools like Recon-NG to study the system and applications, looking for the vulnerable points in their defence. During this stage, pen testers may also employ search engine queries and social engineering to evaluate the system’s defence thoroughly.

Vulnerability Analysis 

Now that the testers know where the weak points are, the next step is to do a vulnerability assessment. During the vulnerability analysis stage, testers attempt to breach the system’s security via the vulnerable points using automated penetration testing tools.

Testers use two methods to test the integrity of the system’s security – static and dynamic analyses. The dynamic analysis examines the code in real-time as it runs. The static analysis looks at an application code to predict its response to an attack. 

Vulnerability Exploitation 

The fourth phase of penetration testing is vulnerability management, and this is where the action starts. Here, testers start exploiting all the weaknesses they noted in the previous stages in a coordinated environment. The attack on the system is designed to simulate an actual cyber attack. 

When the attacker gains access to the system, they copy the actions of a proper cyber attacker by either extracting data or launching a web app attack. In this stage, testers note how easy it is to gain access to the system without detection. 

Testers have to document everything they do from this stage properly. This includes the tools used, the security weaknesses, steps taken, methods of entry and observations about the system. They can even go one step further by arranging the incursion points according to how easy it is to exploit them. 

Full System Compromisation

At this stage, testers have infiltrated the system. The next step is to see how much control over the system they can gain from the incursion point. Instead of just gaining access, testers will try to take control of the system and access the most protected layers of the system.

They will also note how long and how much they can compromise the system without detection. 

Risk Analysis and Reporting

Third party risk assessment and reporting is the risk phase in the penetration test. At this stage, the penetration tester will have thoroughly tested and documented their findings. 

The tester will then prepare a document outlining the testing process stages and their findings at every stage. This report should contain all the vulnerabilities in the system, the steps taken to infiltrate the system, and what the tester did to clean up after it. Finally, the report should contain suggestions on what the business can do to improve its cyber security.

Conclusion 

A typical pen test lasts anywhere between 2 to 4 four weeks. During that time, the tester goes through the six stages outlined above. At the end of the penetration test, you should be able to identify the security vulnerabilities in the system and how reinforce them for more protection.