Skip to content
uencoder

Penetration Testing

Penetration testing is simulating attacker behavior to run authorized attack tests against a system, discovering exploitable vulnerabilities and assessing real risk.

Purpose

To validate defense effectiveness from an attacker perspective, discovering logic and chained vulnerabilities that automated scans miss.

Mechanism

Phases: reconnaissance (information gathering) → scanning (ports, services, vulnerabilities) → enumeration → exploitation → post-exploitation → reporting. Types: black box (no internal info), white box (full info), gray box. Scope and authorization must be explicit. Tools: Metasploit, Burp Suite, nmap.

Use cases

  • Compliance requirements (PCI DSS)
  • Pre-launch security validation
  • Red team exercises
  • Vulnerability verification

Examples

  • Input 
    Authorized scope + target system
    Output 
    Vulnerability report + remediation advice

    Simulated attack

Common errors

Testing without written authorization
Explicit written authorization is mandatory; otherwise it is illegal

Related terms

CVE
CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) is a system that assigns unique identifiers (CVE-YYYY-NNNN) to publicly disclosed security vulnerabilities, maintained by MITRE.
GLOSSARY
CVSS
CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) is a standardized scoring system for vulnerability severity, outputting 0-10 scores and maintained by FIRST.
GLOSSARY
OWASP
OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) is a nonprofit organization that publishes the Top 10 Web vulnerability list and security practice guides; it is an authority on Web security.
GLOSSARY
Zero Trust
Zero trust is the "never trust, always verify" security model: no trust merely for being inside the network; every access verifies identity and authorization.
GLOSSARY

References