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Penetration Testing

Penetration testing.jpg
Penetration testing.jpg

Penetration testing, often abbreviated as "pen testing," is a cyber security assessment technique that simulates real-world cyberattacks on an organisation's IT systems, networks, and applications to identify security vulnerabilities and weaknesses. The primary objective of penetration testing is to assess the security posture of an organisation's infrastructure and applications and evaluate its ability to withstand and respond to security threats and attacks.

 

Penetration testing is a valuable cyber security assessment technique that the team at Revio deploy for our clients to help them identify and mitigate security risks, validate security controls, and improve their overall resilience to cyber threats and attacks. By simulating real-world attack scenarios, penetration testing provides organisations with actionable insights into their security posture and enables them to proactively address vulnerabilities and strengthen their defences against potential cyber threats.

Our penetration testing solutions provide all or some of the following:

  1. Scope Definition:  
    Our first step in penetration testing is defining the scope of the assessment, which includes identifying the systems, networks, applications, and assets to be tested. The scope may also specify the testing methodology, objectives, and any limitations or constraints to be considered during the assessment.

     

  2. Reconnaissance:
    Our penetration testing team conducts reconnaissance to gather information about the target organisation's infrastructure, network topology, systems, and applications. This may involve passive reconnaissance techniques such as OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) gathering, network scanning, and enumeration to identify potential attack vectors and entry points.

     

  3. Vulnerability Assessment:
    The penetration testing team performs a vulnerability assessment to identify known vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and weaknesses in the target systems and applications. This may involve using automated vulnerability scanning tools to identify common security flaws, such as outdated software versions, missing patches, insecure configurations, and default credentials.

     

  4. Exploitation:
    Once vulnerabilities are identified, the penetration testing team attempts to exploit them to gain unauthorised access to systems, networks, or sensitive data. This may involve using exploit scripts, tools, or techniques to take advantage of security weaknesses and bypass access controls, escalate privileges, or execute arbitrary code on target systems.

     

  5. Privilege Escalation:
    In some cases, the penetration testing team may attempt to escalate privileges to gain higher levels of access to target systems or resources. This may involve exploiting vulnerabilities in authentication mechanisms, operating systems, or applications to gain administrative privileges or access to sensitive data.

     

  6. Lateral Movement:
    After gaining initial access to a target system or network, our penetration testing team may attempt to move laterally within an environment to explore additional attack paths and compromise additional systems or resources. This may involve exploiting trust relationships, weak access controls, or misconfigured permissions to pivot between systems and expand the scope of the penetration test.

     

  7. Data Exfiltration:
    As part of the penetration testing process, our team may attempt to exfiltrate sensitive data from the target environment to assess an organisation's ability to detect and respond to data breaches. This may involve extracting and exfiltrating sensitive files, databases, or other confidential information without detection.

     

  8. Reporting and Remediation:
    After completing the penetration testing activities we prepare a detailed report documenting the findings, including identified vulnerabilities, exploitation techniques, and recommendations for remediation. The report typically includes prioritised recommendations for mitigating identified risks, improving security controls, and strengthening organisation's overall security posture.

     

  9. Post-Testing Activities:
    Following the penetration testing engagement, an organisation should prioritise and implement the recommended remediation measures to address identified vulnerabilities and weaknesses. Additionally, the organisation may conduct post-testing activities such as validating remediation efforts, retesting previously identified vulnerabilities, and updating security policies and procedures based on lessons learned from the penetration testing exercise.

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