Technology cloud report original.
As the network security situation becomes more and more serious, enterprises are now paying more and more attention to network security construction, and regular penetration testing is becoming a trend.
Network security penetration testing can help enterprises think from the perspective of attackers and quickly understand the shortcomings of enterprises in network defense. By combing the enterprise's IT assets, looking for vulnerabilities and attack paths, in order to better repair or deal with risks.
Although carrying out penetration testing is very important for enterprises, when many enterprises prepare to formulate penetration testing plans, their understanding and requirements for penetration testing services often have many deviations from the actual service conditions.
So, how should enterprises correctly understand the work of penetration testing and effectively avoid misunderstandings?
Key Features of Penetration Testing
For some enterprise security teams, it can be difficult to separate penetration testing from vulnerability testing, bug bounties, and the emerging BAS (Intrusion and Attack Simulation) technology. Indeed, these security technologies and services overlap in many ways, but they all have their own characteristics.
In essence, penetration testing is a real attack behavior that mainly relies on security experts or teams to artificially imitate attackers. Its purpose is to find the most effective way to enter the target network at different levels of the digital infrastructure.
Vulnerability testing is primarily about finding flaws in software applications and helping organizations understand how to fix them. And bug bounty programs are usually limited to mobile or web applications and may not match real breaches.
The goal of bug bounty hunters is to find bugs as quickly as possible and submit reports for rewards, not to investigate and fix problems in depth.
Intrusion and Attack Simulation (BAS) is an emerging security protection technology. It follows a design logic of "scan, exploit, and repeat," relying on tools to automate the execution of tests with little to no involvement from security personnel.
BAS projects are continuous in nature and dynamically generate test results as the network changes.
In general, penetration testing has two key characteristics compared to other similar security techniques: first, it is done by humans and relies heavily on manual offensive tactics; second, it defaults to all digital systems There will always be security flaws, which require a comprehensive security assessment, and determine the priority of repair according to the degree of damage after being attacked.
Consider value not cost
According to different testing methods and objectives, penetration testing is usually divided into external testing, internal testing, blind testing, targeted testing, etc.
However, in order to save costs, many companies often choose cheaper test providers and test methods, thinking that the results of various types of tests will be similar, but this is not the case.
First, as with most services, the degree of penetration testing varies widely, ranging from extensive testing covering all areas of the network to non-extensive testing targeting a few areas of the network.
Secondly, there are many companies that provide penetration testing services. These companies have their own strengths and weaknesses. Their technologies also have their own advantages and disadvantages, and the ways of presenting test results are also good and bad. It is necessary for the enterprise to ensure that the capabilities of the selected testing team can meet the testing needs.
With the deepening of digital transformation, various data assets are invaluable to enterprises. Once the data is illegally leaked, the goodwill of the organization will be seriously damaged.
And if the attacker's goal is to extort money, the amount of ransom they demand is usually much higher than the cost budget of the penetration test.
Therefore, the cost invested in penetration testing can be said to be insignificant when compared with the economic losses caused by cyber attacks. Companies should focus on finding value from testing, not cost, based on actual needs.
Penetration testing methodology and process
Penetration Testing Methodology
Black-box testing: treat the test object as a black box, and the security does not consider the internal structure of the test object;
White-box testing: consider the test object as an open box, and testers can design or select test cases by saying information about the internal logical structure of the test object;
Gray box testing: Between white box and black box, it is a software testing method based on limited knowledge of the internal details of the test object.
Penetration Testing Goals
Host operating system testing, database system testing, application system testing, and network equipment testing.
Penetration Testing Process
Penetration testing has an execution standard (PTES), and its core idea is to define a real penetration testing process by establishing a baseline of basic principles required for penetration testing.
The standard divides the penetration testing process into seven stages, which are: early interaction stage, intelligence collection stage, threat modeling stage, vulnerability analysis stage, penetration attack stage, post-penetration attack stage, and reporting stage.
Early Interaction Phase
In the early interaction stage, the penetration testing team mainly conducts interactive discussions with the client organization. This phase usually involves activities such as gathering customer requirements, preparing test plans, defining test scope and boundaries, defining business objectives, project management and planning.
Penetration testing must first submit specific implementation plans such as implementation methods, implementation time, implementation personnel, and implementation tools to the client, and obtain corresponding written entrustment and authorization from the client.
It should be ensured that the client is aware of all the details and risks of the penetration test, and all processes are under the control of the client.
Information collection and analysis stage
Information collection is the premise of every step of penetration attack. Through information collection, we can formulate a simulated attack test plan in a targeted manner, improve the success rate of simulated attacks, and effectively reduce the adverse impact of attack tests on the normal operation of the system.
This step mainly includes white-box collection, human resources intelligence, site visits, finding external network entrances, and identifying defense mechanisms.
Threat Modeling Phase
Threat modeling mainly uses the information obtained during the intelligence gathering phase to identify possible security holes and weaknesses on the target system.
In the threat modeling phase, it is usually necessary to view the client organization as an adversary, and then try to exploit the weaknesses of the target system from the perspective and thinking of an attacker.
The work at this stage is mainly: business process analysis, threat opponent/community analysis, threat opponent/community analysis.
Vulnerability Analysis Phase
The vulnerability analysis stage is mainly to analyze and understand the information obtained from the previous links, which attack paths are feasible.
In particular, it is necessary to focus on the analysis of port and vulnerability scanning results, extracted service "flag" information, and other key information obtained during intelligence gathering.
Penetration attack stage
Penetration attacks are mainly penetration attacks that conduct in-depth research and testing on the target system, rather than conducting a large number of aimless penetration tests.
post-exploitation attack stage
The post-penetration attack stage is mainly to identify the key infrastructure from the compromised client organization system, and to find the most valuable information and assets. It mainly includes: infrastructure analysis, high-value target identification, plundering of sensitive information, concealment and eradication, and authority maintenance.
Penetration Test Report
The report is the most important factor in the penetration testing process, and the report document will be used to communicate what was done during the penetration testing process, how to do it, and most importantly, tell the client organization how to fix the security holes and weaknesses found.
Penetration testing pitfalls
A good result from the test is only a good start, but enterprises should not be complacent, which does not mean that the enterprise's network security protection work is safe.
As long as an organization's digital systems are functioning, it will always face new and emerging threats. Cybercriminals are constantly on the lookout for vulnerabilities in systems, and if there is a long gap between penetration tests, they have the opportunity to discover new vulnerabilities that can be exploited before the enterprise.
Good test results only affirm the achievements of past construction and motivate organizations to continue to pay attention to investment in safety. Therefore, organizations should conduct penetration testing on an ongoing basis to eliminate emerging threats and ensure that systems are threat-free.
In addition, there is a long-standing misconception about penetration testing that external personnel can perform penetration testing more effectively than internal personnel. The reason is that external personnel are not familiar with the enterprise's digital systems and therefore can be more objective.
While objectivity is key to effective penetration testing, knowing the business system doesn't mean you can't be objective.
In fact, penetration testing can be done by internal employees, professional service providers, or other third-party organizations. Penetration testing consists of standard procedures and performance metrics. As long as testers can strictly follow the testing guidelines, the test results are valid.
For enterprises, the focus of selection should not be on hiring external or internal testers, but on finding testers who can do a good job.
epilogue
With the continuous expansion and upgrading of network security threats, penetration testing has become a key process for modern enterprise organizations to actively identify security vulnerabilities and potential risks.
Unfortunately, there are still many organizations that don't see the value of proactively assessing their security posture, and some that do penetration testing, but primarily to meet compliance requirements.
But regardless of the purpose of conducting penetration testing, as long as the test results can be used to make meaningful changes, the work is successful and effective.
Enterprises should learn from the key findings of the testing and take appropriate actions to strengthen the organization's security defenses.
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