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Process of Penetration Testing

Penetration test which is often called a “pen test” or sometimes even “ethical hacking” is the process by which an authorized simulated cyberattack on a computer system is performed to evaluate the security of the system and to check for exploitable vulnerabilities. 

Penetration testing involves the same techniques a hacker would use in order to find any weaknesses in your business web application security. In return, this will help you to identify any aspect of the system that you need to assess so you can fix detected vulnerabilities. 

Below are the various steps used for penetration testing: 

  1. Information Gathering/Planning

Planning often includes describing the goals and objectives of the tasks you are completing (penetration testing). The purpose of this is to allow both the client and tester to have a mutual understanding of what is expected during the penetration process. The basic information provided in this stage includes domain names and mail servers. 

  1.  Reconnaissance

After collecting basic information, the process is then moved to the reconnaissance stage. This includes gaining additional information that may have been missed or even unknown. The main objective is to obtain complete and detailed information on the systems from both public and private sources in order to produce an attack strategy. Some of the sources include dumpster diving, domain registration information, and network scanning. The purpose of this is to help the tester to identify the best attack surface and potential vulnerabilities.

  1.  Discovery and Scanning

In this step, the pen-tester uses different tools to examine the target website or system for weaknesses and to scan target assets for discovering vulnerabilities.  This will highlight the different ports and services that were open and available for targeted hosts, also testing how the system reacted to the intrusion attempts. Tools used in this step will be based on the findings in the reconnaissance step. 

  1.  Vulnerability Assessment

This assessment is organized in order to get insight and pinpoint any possible security weaknesses that may authorize an attacker to obtain access to the technology being tested. The main objective for this stage is to see if the vulnerability can be exploited long enough for an outsider to gain in-depth access to the organization’s most sensitive data.  

  1.  Analysis and Report Preparation

This step is basically where the information gathered is compiled into a report. The report includes the initial objectives, vulnerabilities that were found, how the vulnerabilities were found, the amount of time the tester was able to remain in the system without being detected, and how vulnerabilities were exploited. 

The information is analyzed in order to provide the necessary recommendations and fix presenting vulnerabilities to prevent any future attacks.

Appfinity Technologies provides a one of a kind security testing. We take the time to understand your system and do thorough testings. In order to produce an effective penetration test, it requires a conscientious effort to find presenting weaknesses. Above are the steps we follow in order to resolve any detected vulnerabilities.

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