Cybersecurity is becoming a demanding career for freshers because it is one of the fast-growing fields in the IT and Non-IT sectors. In the digital world, we have connected to the internet for various reasons. As everything becomes internet-based, we use the internet to store data on the cloud, possible to purchase on e-commerce sites, bulletin boards, newsgroups, social media sites, etc. So, interconnected devices and smartphones have become information powerhouses.
According to the survey, it is stated that more than 400 billion devices are connected to the internet, which gave rise to the cyber attack. Due to this, the demand for cyber security specialists and ethical hackers has become the most sought-after career among freshers because it is a challenging career in the IT sector. Every year, the need for a skilled specialist is increasing by 3%.
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Systems connected to the internet more frequently expose themselves to attacks from all over the world. Every organization and company must protect its resources and information from such attacks. For computer engineers looking for work in the cutting-edge and quickly expanding field of cybersecurity, this increased need opens up numerous job opportunities. Ethical hacking is an excellent opportunity to increase the network and system’s security by inspecting for these vulnerabilities.
In this blog, we shall discuss what is penetration testing, a few penetration testing tools, types of penetration testing and who is the penetration tester.
What is penetration testing?
Penetration testing is also called pen testing. Pen testing is used to find whether your system is a security breach and exploits vulnerabilities. Penetration testing is used to boost the web application firewall and strengthen the security of the web-based application.
Web application penetration testing utilizes Ethical hackers to breach the system and the system’s applications, that is, application protocol interfaces /backend and frontend servers, to discover vulnerabilities. Moreover, they find security holes like unsterilized inputs vulnerable to code injection attacks. The penetration test’s perspectives can be used to polish your WAF security procedures and patch any vulnerabilities.
Now, we shall look at Penetration testing tools and who is a penetration tester.
Penetration testing tools
- Astra Pentest
- NMAP
- Metasploit
- WireShark
- Burp Suite
- Nessus
- Nikto
- Intruder
- W3AF
- SQLmap
These are a few penetration testing tools that help automate specific tasks, enhance testing efficiency and uncover issues that might be challenging to find using manual analysis techniques.
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Types of penetration testing
- Network Service Penetration Testing.
- Web Application Penetration Testing.
- Internal/External Infrastructure Penetration Testing
- Wireless Penetration Testing.
- Social Engineering Penetration Testing.
- Physical Penetration Testing
These are the few penetration testing, and many others, such as Mobile Application Testing and build and configuration review, are used to determine the technical threat of software and hardware vulnerabilities.
Who is the penetration tester?
Penetration testers are authorized person who performs an ethical attack on the system network to demine security efficacy. The penetration tester is responsible for strengthening the system’s security using the tools and techniques to protect the system from attacks. Moreover, they evaluate the weaknesses in a system.
Furthermore, they utilize various techniques to strengthen the security of the businesses. They can assess a system’s resilience to attacks from authenticated and unauthenticated positions and various system roles. A pen test can explore any system component with the proper scope.
Now, we shall move further to understand the Penetration testing phases and Penetration testing stages.
Penetration testing phases
- Reconnaissance.
- Scanning.
- Gain Access.
- Maintain Access.
- Cover Tracks.
Penetration testing stages
Planning and reconnaissance
- Must understand the hackers’ goal, the target devices’ purpose and the method the hacker utilized to hack the system.
- Must understand how to use the penetration testing tool to find the vulnerability.
- Gather information such as network and website names, mail servers, etc., to learn more about a target’s operations and potential weaknesses.
Scanning
The next step is to recognize how the application will react to different intrusion attempts. Usually, the following techniques are used for this:
- Static analysis – Examine the application’s code and evaluate the running code’s behaviour. The tools will help you scan the complete code in a single pass.
- Dynamic analysis – Examining the code of an application while it is active. This scanning method is more beneficial because it gives a real-time view of an application’s functionality.
Gaining Access
This stage involves web application attacks. The attack includes:
- Cross-site scripting
- SQL injection
- Backdoors
These types of attacks will help discover the target’s vulnerabilities, and the pen tester will try to find a way to exploit the weaknesses by escalating privileges, stealing data, intercepting traffic, etc., to comprehend the harm they can induce.
Maintaining access
This phase aims to determine whether the defect can be used to establish a firm foothold in the system that has been exploited—long enough for a malicious actor to obtain extensive access. The objective is to find high-level persistent threats which can stay in a system for months and steal the most sensitive data from an organisation.
Analysis
The penetration test’s findings are then put together in a report that includes the following information:
- The pen tester will find the exploitation of the particular weaknesses
- Find how sensitive data is accessed without the permission
- The pen tester will remain on detecting and spend time solving the crucial issues in the network or system.
- Troubleshooting application and code issues.
Security personnel examine this data to assist in configuring an enterprise’s WAF settings and other app security tools to fix vulnerabilities and defend against upcoming attacks.
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Penetration testing methods
External testing
External penetration tests target a company’s online assets, such as the website, email servers, domain name servers, and web applications (DNS). Access is gained to collect valuable data.
Internal testing
A pen tester with access to an app behind its firewall mimics a malicious insider attack during an internal test. This isn’t necessarily a malicious employee simulation. A worker whose credentials were obtained due to a phishing attempt is a frequent starting point.
Blind testing
A tester participating in a blind test is provided with the name of the company being tested. Security workers can now see how an application attack might proceed in real-time.
Double-blind testing
In a double-blind test, security professionals are unaware of the simulated attack before it occurs. They will only have the opportunity to strengthen their defences after a breach attempt, much like in the real world.
Targeted testing
In this case, security personnel and the tester cooperate and keep each other updated on their whereabouts. A security team can use this useful training exercise to get immediate feedback from a hacker’s perspective.
Penetration testing and web application firewalls
WAFs and penetration testing are two different but require security techniques. The tester must leverage WAF data, such as logs, for several types of pen testing (aside from blind and double-blind tests) to identify and take advantage of an application’s vulnerabilities.
The results of pen testing can also be useful to WAF administrators. When a test is finished, WAF configurations are modified to defend against any vulnerabilities.
Finally, pen testing complies with parts of the PCI DSS and SOC 2 compliance standards for security auditing methods. Only the use of a certified WAF can satisfy some criteria, such as PCI-DSS 6.6. However, doing so doesn’t lessen the value of pen testing because of the advantages outlined above, and it is capable of enhancing WAF implementations.
Now that you have understood what is penetration testing, penetration testing tools, the role of penetration tester, and the types of penetration testing. So, to have a profound understanding of hacking, you can join Ethical Hacking Course in Coimbatore, which will help you understand the techniques, strategies and tools required to become ethical