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To protect your application, system, or network from vulnerabilities, the best way would be to know the loopholes of the system along with its protection measures. To perform penetration testing, there is no need for any prior knowledge or background experience in hacking. With this write up, you can start as a newbie and can become an expert in penetration testing and website security to protect your hardware and software downtime and loss of data. Because, the protection of network and data are the most important for any business organization, and understanding HOW it is vulnerable is the best way to prevent your system from the various zombie attacks.
Penetration Testing or Pen-testing is a process of testing the security weaknesses of an application, system, or network. If we want to check -
Let us understand it in a very simple way by taking an example of a house. There are multiple entry points in your house, that is doors and windows, and these are important to let you in and out of the house. However, you want only the people of your family or friends or the authorized people only should enter your house, nobody else. Now, you want to check the possibilities and weaknesses of the entry and exit systems of your house. To test this security, you can call a person who is proficient in checking such security methods so that this person will come and check your house for all the security measures.
To perform this, the security person will try to break to security and come into your house using all the possible means. At the end of this test, he will create a report where he’ll show all the security weaknesses in your house and will give you some recommendations. This is exactly what happens in a Pen Test. A person with expertise in Pen-testing or an authorized person in Pen-testing tries to enter into the application or system by breaking all the security measures, and then tries to find out all the security weaknesses and produces a report at the end. To ensure security, multiple security tests are being conducted.
What should be tested?
Read: Add More Quality to Your Skills by Enrolling in QA Certification
When you are ready to become a Pen tester or ready to test the security of your system or applications, ensure that you only test the systems that you are legally allowed to test. For example, do not try to break any other systems, do not try to break into your friend’s social media account as these are illegal and wrong both. Also, make sure that you should not test your social media accounts or your system, as it will lock your account and system forever and you’ll lose your data.
It will be better to always have a separate system for test purposes so that if that account or system gets locked, then you are not worried. Also, always have a separate environment or a separate system to perform Penetration testing. Do not perform it on your laptop or system because it can crash your system, and then it can erase all the data and information stored on your system. If you want to test someone else’s system or the organization you are working in, it is better to have written proof from them before initializing Penetration testing.
The type of penetration testing depends upon the scope and the organizational requirements. Penetration testing is of three types: -
Pen testers undertake the vulnerability finding approach before the attackers intrude in. The specific criteria to select the best penetration tool is listed below:
Read: How To Become An Automation Testing Expert?
Tool Name | Purpose | Portability | Expected Cost |
Hping | Port Scanning Remote OC fingerprinting | Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, | Free |
Nmap | Network Scanning Port Scanning OS Detection | Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, OS X, HP-UX, NetBSD, Sun, OpenBSD, Solaris, IRIX, Mac, etc. | Free |
SuperScan | Runs queries including ping, whois, hostname lookups, etc. Detects open UDP/TCP ports and determines which services are running on those ports. | Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 | Free |
p0f | Os fingerprinting Firewall detection | Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Mac OS X, Solaris, Windows, and AIX | Free |
Xprobe | Remote active OS fingerprinting Port Scanning TCP fingerprinting | Linux | Free |
Httprint | Web server fingerprinting SSL detection Detect web-enabled devices (e.g., wireless access points, switches, modems, routers) | Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Win32 (command line & GUI | Free |
Nessus | Detect vulnerabilities that allow a remote cracker to control/access sensitive data | Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, Apple, Oracle Solaris, Windows | Free to limited edition |
GFI LANguard | Detect network vulnerabilities | Windows Server 2003/2008, Windows 7 Ultimate/ Vista, Windows 2000 Professional, Business/XP, Server 2000/2003/2008 | Only Trial Version Free |
Iss Scanner | Detect network vulnerabilities | Windows 2000 Professional with SP4, Windows Server 2003 Standard with SO1, Windows XP Professional with SP1a | Only Trial Version Free |
Shadow Security Scanner | Detect network vulnerabilities, audit proxy and LDAP servers | Windows but scan servers built on any platform | Only Trial Version Free |
Metasploit Framework | Develop and execute exploit code against a remote target Test vulnerability of computer systems | All versions of Unix and Windows | Free |
Brutus | Telnet, FTP, and Http password cracker | Windows 9x/NT/2000 | Free |
1) External Testing: This method aims the assets of an organization that is visible on the internet to gain access and also extra valuable data.
2) Internal Testing: The tester with this access to an application or system behind its firewall ais simulated by an attack by the malicious insider.
3) Blind Testing: The pen tester here is only given the name of the organization so that the system security personnel get a real-time look at how an actual application or system assault happens.
4) Double-Blind Testing: Here, the security personnel within the organization would have no idea regarding the assault same as like it happens in real attempted breaches.
Read: Black Box Testing vs White Box Testing – What are the Key Differences?
5) Targeted Testing: In this method, the pen tester and the security personnel both work together for the vulnerabilities. This is a valuable method as it offers instant suggestions from the hacker’s point of view.
As the name suggests, manual pen-testing is performed by human beings who are expert in this field, and automated pen-testing is performed by machine only.
Manual Penetration Testing | Automated Penetration Testing |
Manual Testing requires expert professionals to run the tests | Automated test tools provide clear reports with less experienced professionals |
Manual Testing requires Excel and other tools to track it | Automation Testing has centralized and standard tools |
In Manual Testing, sample results vary from test to test | In the case of Automated Tests, results do not vary from test to test |
Memory Cleaning up should be remembered by users | Automated Testing will have comprehensive cleanups |
The methods included in manual pen-testing are data collection, vulnerability assessment, actual exploit, report preparation, etc. | The automated pen-testing is performed by using pen-testing tools like Nmap, Aircrack-ng, Wifiphisher, Burp Site, OWASP ZAP, etc. |
Manual penetration testing is of two types- Focused manual pen-testing and Comprehensive manual pen-testing. | Automated pen-testing can be any of the three types: Black box pen-testing, white box pen-testing, and grey box pen-testing. |
So, at the end of this write-up, you are now familiar with what Penetration testing is, its phases, types, tools, and the various penetration testing test scenarios. Penetration testing has always been a bumpy ride. But remember, to create new standards and enjoy this ride. Tell us in the comments section below when are you planning to perform your first hack?
Read: Software Development Life Cycle VS Software Testing Life Cycle (SDLC and STLC)
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