Penetration Testing Overview
What is Penetration Testing?
Methodical process of identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities in systems to uncover risks before malicious actors can.
When to Test
- Before production deployments
- After major system changes
- Quarterly security audits
Testing Phases
Reconnaissance
- Passive information gathering (OSINT)
- Active scanning with Nmap/OpenVAS
Vulnerability Analysis
- Automated scans with Nessus/OWASP ZAP
- Manual review of misconfigurations
Exploitation
- Attempting privilege escalation
- Testing for SQL injection risks
Reporting
- Detailed vulnerability documentation
- Risk scoring using CVSS metrics