External Penetration Testing: Identifying Weaknesses in Your Systems

External Penetration Testing: Identifying Weaknesses in Your Systems
by

External penetration testing is an attack simulated on the outer environment of a system by a pen test team to ascertain the security level of the external defenses. This outer environment is usually those applications of the system that are readily accessible through public methods and the internet.

Pen testers are used to check for critical vulnerabilities that can be used to gain access to the system’s internal network. Not to be confused with an internal penetration test which is carried out to simulate an environment with an attacker already in the system.

During penetration testing, the team attacks web-facing assets to attempt to breach security measures.

Process

External penetration would take different processes that can be followed to obtain information about the system and then gain access and exploit the system. During a security assessment, the pen testing team will follow certain procedures before gaining access to the external network.

Planning Phase

Before the external penetration test begins, the tester, usually an ethical hacker hired by the security team or the organization will conduct an information-gathering process or vulnerability scanning. The pen tester gets all the information they can about the subdomains, log-in portals, technological systems in use by the web applications, email addresses of users, and user credentials for gaining access to the system.

Assesment

The penetration tester then evaluates all the information gathered about the system to find the easiest way to gain access to the system. To minimize the possibility of making a mistake or being detected by security protocols, the easiest approach is usually preferred.

As a result of this process, the roadmap for external penetration tests can be laid out in a way that reflects the objective of the tests.

Intrusion

With the identified vulnerabilities, the external penetration tester then uses the information to gain access. This can be accomplished through brute force attacks on login credentials, password sprays, or plain old phishing for passwords.

At this point, the penetration test is at an advanced level as the tester will gain access to the system and try to avoid other security authentication protocols. The tester then works within the system to find applications with access to the internal system or users with clearance levels to the internal network.

Analysis

With the external network accessed, the tester then shares his findings and methods as designed in the scope of attack with the cybersecurity team. Successful network penetration means there are vulnerable spots in the system’s line of code that allow for unauthorized access.

The designers and developers use this information to fix the exploits and bugs present in the system and also check for false positives.

Rescanning

The external pentest can then be carried out again to check whether the vulnerabilities were fixed or if new ones were introduced into the system.

The tools used by pen testers are mostly open-source software with some purchases. These applications can be used by anyone with knowledge of their application. Hiring ethical hackers can be an expensive process, so training in-house testers can be a more viable option.

The tools include Burp Site Pro, Metasploit frameworks, Nmap, Hydra, Nessus, Wireshark, Sqlmap, Archini, and other endless software and new methods being developed to beat security systems.

Importance of Pen Testing

Penetration tests allow security teams to be aware of the threats and vulnerabilities in the system. The vulnerabilities are then immediately fixed and new tests are conducted. Having a secure external network means information and data are well secured.

Constant testing also ensures compliance regulations are always met and data breaches are avoided. It can cost a lot to mitigate after they occur and can affect many in the organization. It is less expensive to use security expenditures to protect the system, so as to prevent more serious threats.

The social engineering process during the analysis of the pen test also keeps staff alert to ways they can be used to gain access to the system. This reduces the chances of exploitation, but not completely.

Internal penetration teams can become expensive to maintain when the external network can be better secured by outsourcing cheaper external testers.

citemaster
Latest posts by citemaster (see all)

Related Posts: