Penetration testing may be a separate endeavor, or it may be an integral part of IT security risk management during the development lifecycle of a product system. The security of a product is not solely dependent on the technical aspects of IT, but is also influenced by the security best practices associated with that product. Specifically, efforts to enhance product security involve security requirements analysis, risk analysis, threat modeling, code review and operational security.
Often considered the final and most invasive form of security assessment, penetration testing must be performed by qualified professionals. The person may or may not know the specifics of the target prior to conducting the assessment. Penetration testing can be used to evaluate all IT infrastructures, including applications, network devices, operating systems, communication devices, physical security, and human psychology. The work product of a penetration test is a penetration test report. Such a report is divided into multiple sections describing the security weaknesses found in the current target system, and will discuss possible countermeasures and other recommendations for improvement. The full application of penetration testing methodology helps testers to understand and thoroughly analyze current defenses at all stages of a penetration test.
Types of Penetration Testing
While there are various types of penetration testing, the industry generally divides them into two categories: white-box testing and black-box testing.
1. Black-box testing
When conducting black-box testing, a security auditor evaluates the security of the network infrastructure from the outside without knowing the internal technical construction of the unit under test. In all phases of penetration testing, black-box testing exposes the target's security issues with the help of real-world hacking techniques, and can even reveal security weaknesses that have not yet been exploited by others. Penetration testers should be able to understand security weaknesses, categorize them and rank them according to the risk level (high, medium or low). Typically, the risk level depends on the magnitude of the harm that the weakness in question could create. Seasoned penetration testing experts should be able to identify all attack patterns that can trigger a security incident. When the testers have completed all the tests of black box testing, they organize the necessary information related to the security status of the test object and describe these identified risks using the language of the business, which is then summarized in a written report. The market price for black-box testing is usually higher than that for white-box testing.
2, white-box testing
White-box testing auditors can obtain a variety of internal information or even non-public information of the unit under test, so penetration testers have a broader perspective. If the white-box testing method is used to evaluate security vulnerabilities, the tester can achieve the highest evaluation accuracy with minimal workload. White-box testing starts from the environment of the system under test itself, and comprehensively eliminates internal security problems, thus increasing the difficulty of penetrating the system from outside the organization. Black box testing does not work in this way. The number of steps required for white box testing is comparable to black box testing. In addition, if white box testing can be integrated with the regular development lifecycle, it is possible to eliminate the full range of security hazards at the earliest possible time before an intruder discovers or even exploits a security weakness. This makes white-box testing less time-consuming, less costly, and less technically challenging than black-box testing in terms of identifying and resolving security weaknesses across the board.