7 Steps for Penetration Testing: Importance

Last Updated on 2 weeks by Touhid

Penetration testing or pen testing is a type of security testing where cyber security specialists find out the vulnerabilities in an application, network, or server that attackers can exploit.

In this post, we will focus on the steps for penetration testing and the required tools and techniques for penetration testing.

Steps for Penetration Testing

What are the steps for penetration testing? There are seven stages of penetration testing to find out the vulnerabilities in an application.

The main purpose of penetration testing is to identify all security vulnerabilities of a system such as applications, networks, servers, computers, and firewalls.

To accomplish the penetration testing of a system, there are some sequential steps, which are as follows:

1. Planning
2. Reconnaissance
3. Scanning 
4. Gaining Access 
5. Maintaining Access
6. Exploitation
7. Evidence collection and report generation

Now, we will discuss each type of penetration testing step. So, every organization can arrange this type of security testing.

Step 1: Planning

Planning is the first steps for penetration testing. In this step, the client (organization) and the penetration testers clearly define the logistics, expectations, and objectives of the test. During this planning phase, the penetration testers work with your organization to understand your business, technical details, and security risks.

The penetration testers also address the testing tools and techniques that will be used in the penetration testing period.

In this article, we have mentioned some best penetration testing tools that will be used by penetration testers.

Step 2: Reconnaissance

In this penetration testing step, the penetration tester’s main focus is to collect much information about the target system such as application architecture, development platform, DNS, operation system, open ports, IP address, network topology, server, and security devices.

If a pentester knows the details information about the target, then he can easily find out the vulnerabilities of a system.

It is noted that an expert hacker will spend maximum time in this phase because this sensitive information is very helpful in hacking the system.

Step 3: Scanning 

This is a very important steps of penetration testing, where a penetration tester scans the target system to discover vulnerabilities using automated tools and techniques. This phase scans the various target systems such as a network and web application.

For example, Nmap, short for Network Mapper is a penetration testing scanning tool that is used to discover the vulnerabilities or security holes in a network environment. A penetration tester or network administrator does the following job using Nmap tools.

• To detect which operating system running on a network.
• To identify which devices are running such as servers, routers, and switches.
• To find out the open ports of your system.
• And detect any specific vulnerabilities or risks.

Now, for web applications, the scanning can be either static or dynamic.

A. Static Analysis

Static analysis is the process of finding out the vulnerable functions within the code and detecting errors, libraries, and logic that have been implemented in the application.

The main aim of static analysis is to identify the weaknesses within the source code before running an application. This can be done by manual process but using automated tools is much more effective.

There are various automated tools for static code analysis. Here are the top 10 Static Code Analysis Tools for Java, C++, C# and Python:

1. RIPS Technologies
2. PVS-Studio
3. Kiuwan
4. Gramma
5. DeepScan
6. Reshift
7. CodeScene 
8. Visual Expert
9. Veracode

B. Dynamic Analysis

Dynamic analysis is the process of testing and evaluating an application during its execution. The main aim of dynamic analysis is to find out errors in an application while it is running.

In dynamic analysis, the tester enters the input data into the application and analyzes the output data. This scanning is extremely useful because it provides the application performance.

Step 4: Gaining Access 

Gaining access is another steps for penetration testing which uses the various types of web application attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS) and backdoors to discover a target’s vulnerabilities.

The testers try to exploit these vulnerabilities and gain access to the target for stealing data and flooding the target with traffic. Typically, the target can be an application, firewall, or server.

Step 5: Maintaining Access

The next phase of penetration testing is ensuring that the access is maintained such as persistent presence. The penetration tester gains access to your system in order to find out the vulnerabilities.

It is very important that the penetration testers maintain continued access to your system even if the system is rebooted, reset or modified.

The persistent threats are used by attackers who live in your system for long periods of time to steal your sensitive information.

Step 6: Exploitation

Exploitation is a very significant step for penetration testing where the actual damage is done by the attacker. Once the vulnerabilities have been identified, the pentester proceeds to exploit the system and try to access data and damage the system.

The penetration tester will use different types of techniques to exploit those vulnerabilities in order to gain access to the target systems.

It is noted that, in penetration testing, the majority pentesters use the dummy flag technique when functioning with important data.

Step 7: Evidence Collection and Report Generation

After completion of all the above penetration testing steps, the final step is to collect evidence of the exploited vulnerabilities and report submission to the organization head for review and necessary action.

Now, it is time for management’s decision on how these vulnerabilities or risks have to be addressed.

If the management doesn’t take any action or ignore these risks, then the system will be vulnerable, which means the system is not secure and will be targeted by attackers.

The report will include the following information:

• Overall summary of penetration testing and details of each step.
• Information gathering during the pen testing.
• All the vulnerabilities were exploited during the test.
• Accessed of sensitive data during the test.
• Important suggestions for ensuring security.

Software for Penetration Testing

During the penetration testing steps, a pentester will use several types of tools to exploit the target. Here is a list of a few top tools that a tester can use to conduct this test.

1. Metasploit

Metasploit is an open-source software framework and most powerful tools which are used for penetration testing. The framework contains a set of a tool that use to test security vulnerabilities and hacking into systems.

2. Nmap

Network Mapper or Nmap is a popular free and open-source penetration testing tool that is used to discover vulnerabilities or security holes in the network environment. Nmap is a pen testing tool used by systems and network administrators of an organization.

3. Kali Linux

Kali Linux is a Debian-based Linux distribution which used for penetration testing, ethical hacking, and network security assessments.

4. Sqlmap

Sqlmap is a free and open-source penetration testing tool that can detect and exploit SQL injection attacks in databases.

SQL injection is one of the most common web attacks that can take control an your database to alter or destroy the data. Attackers can take place their malicious script in SQL statements, via web page input.

5. Netsparker

Netsparker is one of the most popular web application security scanners that scans websites, web applications, and web services, and identifies security holes. It scans for security vulnerabilities in websites, web applications, and web services.

There may be different types of security vulnerabilities in your websites and web applications such as SQL injections, cross-site scripting, Remote File Inclusion, and Server-side injection are identified by Netsparker.

6. Nessus

Nessus is another open-source penetration scanning tool that scans a system in order to find vulnerabilities that malicious attacker can get access your system. This tool can protect you from unauthorized access to your system and scan the different types of vulnerabilities such as DoS attacks, malware, and misconfiguration.

Learn more about Nessus and Download.

7. Burp Suite

Burp Suite is an integrated security testing web applications platform which used detect vulnerabilities for web applications. This particular tool is used for identifying security vulnerabilities of a web application.

Learn more about Burp Suite.

Importance of Penetration Testing

The main aim of penetration testing is to identify vulnerabilities and security risks in your system. So, you can protect your system from cyber attackers. However, here is the top reason why penetration testing is required:

• To find out security vulnerabilities in an application.
• To discover security holes in the system.
• To discover new bugs in existing systems (i.e., application or network).
• To secure user-sensitive information.
• To secure the financial and business data of an organization.
• To protect from cyber attacks.
• To ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the data.
• To implement an information security strategy in the organization.

Conclusion

Finally, we have clearly explained all 7 steps for penetration testing of an application and also mentioned the best software for penetration testing in order to secure a system. Hope this article will be helpful for you.