The Pentesting has been since its inception most widely used analysis technique for the , and debugging. Currently, it is considered one of the more important.
We all know that the entrances and exits offer a lot of informationwhere the attacker can use it however he wants, and it is there, where a pentester must act, so that these thefts can be prevented.
Later we will explain to you in exact science what this type of activity consists of, and who is known as a pentester. In this article, We have all the information on this topic, including its history.
What is pentesting and what is this type of cybersecurity testing for?
Pentesting It is a technique that has been widely implemented today., due to the large attacks and frauds that run on the Internet. It is a subject that it is closely related to cybersecurity. The word pentesting is a compound of penetration and testingand refers to the practice or countermeasure used to prevent bugs or vulnerabilities.
This is one of the professions or branch of cybersecurity currently more in demandso that organizations and large industries may have a greater defense against computer dangers. A cybersecurity pentester or auditor has a fairly wide area of application, and should not be limited to a simple penetration test, since his work is to avoid failures, and determine the scope of each one of them, within the system.
History and Origin When was this test to detect vulnerabilities born?
Computer security was a topic of debate, which lasted many years, starting from 1960, where attacks on communication networks were very constant. But the real start of pentesting, it was in june 1965where a conference convened by La System Development Corporation (SDC) to discuss security issues and the computer crisis that was occurring at the time.
It was at that conference where one of the participants, from the SDC, was able to invade the system, evading all security protections, which were added to it, circumventing the structure and protection of AN/FSQ-32. For this moment, there were only two models of that computerand one of them was the one who used the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Clearly, such an act was great alarm throughout the information society.
After so much study, it was in the spring of 1967 where originated the word penetration, thus granted to indicate violations of a security system. Those who gave such a name to these attacks were; Willis Ware, Harold Petersen and Rein Tern (RAND Corporation), and Bernard Peters of the National Security Agency (NSA). Already at the time, all computer experts used the methods of an attacker to identify vulnerabilities.
The United States government supported the investigation, forming teams for the study of penetrations, with the name of Team Tiger. After 1970, after the appearance of the tiger team, it was where the word was created pentesting indicating computer penetration. In 1980, there were already different techniques and tools for this work, and it was the step for the improvement and detection of vulnerabilities in a system, until today.
Types of pentests How are these security tests classified?
Now that we know a little about the history of tests to detect vulnerabilities, we proceed to know what are the different classifications of these safety tests.
Go for it:
network services
This test consists of the analysis of the firewall configuration, by means of the Stafeful filter study. The objective is identify the different vulnerabilities found in network services, weakening system security.
Web Application
This is the analysis is done in depth, for the study in web applications. Through this, can detect when there are intruders or our page is being attacked. The detailed analysis report, allows us to find the root cause of all the problemlike determining possible vulnerabilities that can give way to the intrusion of an attacker.
Customer Side
Through this test software can be explored, applications, content and web browsers. Like all analyses, it is used to Obtain data on the threats and vulnerabilities found.
Wireless Network Test
As its name indicates, allows the analysis of wireless networks that are in the corporation. The tests are based on close study of network protocols, their access points and permissions for asset management.
Social Engineering Test
social engineering attacks, are the most common todayand through this test, we can review or review all the access points of these campaigns, in addition to determining when we have collaborated on them.
What information can we get after performing a pentest?
After performing a pentest, you can extract different types of information. This depends on the type of test or evaluation that is carried out.
Next, we will show you their classifications:
White Box
All the information and data structure of the system is known, including passwords, IP addresses, firewalls, and more. This type of analysis in the most complete, and provides essential information to identify vulnerabilities in system architecture
black box
It is the analysis known as royal pentestingand provides information regarding the threats, attacks, and failures found in the network structure. The processes that are executed in this type of pentesting, act more like a cybercriminal attackthat is, as if the analysis were carried out from a external point of the network server.
Gray Box
The latter, is the most recommended pentester, since it is the hybrid of the two previous ones. It consists of obtaining information of the auditor type, and attacker, the information obtained, have both points of view.
List of the main tools used to conduct penetration tests
the pentesters use different tools, which allows to study/understand all the threats and the level of aggression of each one. The objective will always focus on obtaining information from security breaches exist in a network.
The tools most used to do this type of work are the following:
kali linux
The great is one of the distros of linux which we have mentioned more in our ethical hacker articles. Now, we will mention about this, its great system obtained since its last update. Offering us new functionalities with the Metasploit 5.0 pentesting suite, and Kernel 4.19 updates. Kali Linux also gives us a version known as Out Of The Boxdesigned for computer network attacks, offering us more than 300 pentesting and cybersecurity tools.
nmap
This tool is one of the most recognized in the world of pentesting, valued for its great scanner. With the use of nmap (Network Mapper), we can map the system, obtaining information from the ports of a machine, and what we can find in them. The information that is obtained it is of the utmost importanceand can be used to understand the device operationknow what version of the app you use, or simply access the service ID through it.
metasploit
Regarding the analysis and vulnerability detectionis found the great Metasploit. A tool, highly known for the efficiency of his work in terms of networks, security, applications, and connected hardware.
The analysis process, consists of subjecting the target to one or different exploits containing the database for this tool. This whole process starts when a code is inserted to the destination, to explore all its information. Using Metasploit, we can understand what are the different types of vulnerabilities that exist within a network or system, allowing us to extract as much information as possible, to strengthen, or generate security measures against the infected or damaged sector.
wireshark
With Wireshark, we can get information from a network, . The process consists of capturing traffic in real timeallowing us to accurately determine, what are the anomalies that occur. It is normally used for the study of protocols, IP and . However, this tool is not limited, because is able to offer further researchinvolving almost all the protocols of a network.
sql map
SQL injections, allows us the deep analysis of the databasesallowing us to know what are the vulnerabilities found with the intention of dispelling them. Sqlmap offers us the best way, not only because of its great comfort, but also because of your excellence in workto obtain this information and exploit all possible threats existing in our database, including breaches in database servers.
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