What Is Penetration Testing & PenTest-As-A-Service? Why Are They Essential?
TPenetration testing tests the resiliency of a system against unauthorized intrusions. Simply put, it is the process that tests to what extent any digital system can withstand hacks & attacks. Penetration tests, also pentest, simulate attacks against a system and try to locate security issues, loopholes, bugs, and any exploits that can cause a chink in the system’s armor. Generally conducted by white-hat hackers, the ultimate goal is to identify and fix security issues that would otherwise remain aloof.
Cloud computing services have led to the development of penetration testing or pentest-as-a-service. PenTest-as-a-service offers necessary resources for testing systems via the cloud, enabling testers to carry out both continuous and point-in-time penetration tests. In addition, penTest-as-a-service or PaaS helps organizations develop effective ways to manage vulnerability programs that Rate My Paper helps them find, determine, prioritize, resolve, and mitigate security issues.
The Entire Scope Of Penetration Testing
Why Do We Need Penetration Testing?
This is the digital world we live in. Digital information systems are now being used to store critical data & carry out crucial operations. Entire businesses and sectors depend upon intricate systems, right from stock markets & financial institutions to online homework writing services, Narrative Writing Help services, educational institutions, & MOOCs.
Naturally, these have become a prime target for malicious hackers & attackers. Armed with formidable skills & knowledge, these maleficent entities steal valuable data to hold people at ransom, hijack systems, and even crash infrastructure, bringing things to a grinding halt. The resultant losses would be crippling, to say nothing of the serious privacy issues that may arise.
penetration testing became a critical aspect of the software & system testing process. With the rise of cloud computing & automation, PTaaS now allows businesses to integrate pen-testing with design & development through reliable & real-time insights.
How Does Penetration Testing Work?
White-hat ackers conduct penetration testing to find gaps and chinks in a system’s security. Simulated cyber-attacks detect vulnerabilities by persistently trying to breach different aspects of application systems, including the APIs, the front-end, the back-end, etc. The insights obtained are crucial from PenTest processes that enable companies to beef up their systems, fine-tune their policies, and patch any detected vulnerabilities.
A generic penetration testing process comprises the following:
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Planning & Reconnaissance
The first step is all about accruing a pre-emptive idea about the system to be tested and the objectives & outcomes of the whole process. Key aspects of this process include:
- A gameplan determines the scope and goals of the test, the systems to be tested, and the methods & processes to be employed
- Gather thorough information and intelligence to understand better how the system works and the most evident & probable vulnerabilities.
Scanning
The next stage is determining how the target application will respond & react to breaches & intrusions.
- Static Analysis looks at the code powering the application and determines how it behaves while running.
- Dynamic Analysis inspects codes as the system runs, giving a real-time view of the application’s performance.
Gaining Access
This is the stage where penetration testers perform different attacks on the applications and the underlying systems. Different attacks may be executed depending upon the eventual outcomes, the nature of the systems, and the applicational environment.
Some of the most common kinds of cyberattacks employed are:
- Cross-Site Scripting: A common attacking vector, cross-site scripting injects harmful code into unsecured and vulnerable web applications. Depending on the intensity, cross-site scripting may lead to sensitive data breaches, Trojan horse injections, or modification of a web page’s content.
- SQL Injection: SQL or Structured Query Languages injection involves hackers injecting malicious codes into the SQL code of a database server and fooling the server into revealing sensitive information.
- Backdoor Vulnerabilities: These are malware that nullifies authentication processes of systems and allows remote backdoor access. Malicious individuals gain access to databases, files, codes, and the like & wreak havoc. They can hijack the entire system & use it as they feel.
- Denial of Service Attack: Denial or distributed denial of service attacks overwhelm a targeted system with too many requests, denying genuine request access by eating up resources and bandwidth. Attackers generally attack a system from multiple different devices.
When it comes to penetration testing, testers carry out attacks to identify vulnerabilities. It is akin to testing the durability of the system’s security and identifying any gaps, flaws, or weaknesses.
Maintaining Access
This stage involves waiting and watching how long a breach may last.
esters use techniques to imitate long-term persistent threats, which can remain undetected & active in a system for months and slowly progress towards the most sensitive data.
Analysis
The final stage involves analyzing the results of the entire penetration test. Reports, statistics, and data visualizations are presented & compiled into a report. PenTest reports offer details about:
- The particular vulnerabilities identified and exploited;
- All the sensitive data that was accessed
- The total duration for which the intruding entity was able to remain in the system undetected
All such information helps engineers and the system security personnel make well-informed decisions & craft strategies for patching all potential vulnerabilities & reinforce the system against any attacks in the future.
PaaS &Its Rising Importance
Traditionally, penetration testing results and insights were generally provided at the end of the software testing of a typical SDLC. Unfortunately, such insights were useless and did not lead to any effective remediation.
- PaaS one-up generic SaaS delivered penetration testing processes.
- PaaS platforms are immensely flexible and scalable, well suited for different types of business of any scale & size.
- Following are the other prominent benefits of PaaS à.
- Detailed Reports
- Support From Vendor’s Penetration Testing Teams
- Dedicated Teams For Every Client
- Holistic Testing Programs And Custom Reporting Tools
- Pre-Emptive Feedback
- Real-Time Reports
- Hacker-Like Testing
- Availing penetration testing as a service from a reputed vendor can make systems highly resilient against significant attacks. PaaS providers likeRedbot Security, Rapid 7, Secureworks, Fire-Eye, NetSpi, etc., employ tactics & methods used in major cyberattacks & generally used by cybercrime organizations to push systems to the test.
- Another prominent feature is the agile methodologies used by most PaaS providers. This makes the entire process flexible, allowing minor code modifications & easy patches. Furthermore, continual and pre-emptive feedback allows businesses to execute remediation strategies quickly.
All in all, penetration testing-as-a-service is the evolution of generic PenTesting that improves efficiency in operations & brings system security measures much closer to the system design & developmental process.
That’s about it for this write-up. I hope it was an informative and exciting read for one & all.
Summary: Penetration testing or white-hat hacking tests digital systems for vulnerabilities by unleashing attacks and then identifying weaknesses in the security. Penetration Security as a Service takes Pen-Testing one step further, and this article closely examines both Pen-Testing & PaaS.
Author-Bio: Jack Thoms is a software developer, security analyst, and penetration tester with one of the USA’s leading penetration testing firms. He is also a part-time tutor with MyAssignmenthelp.com, a global assignment and homework writing service provider.
