What is a Penetration Test?
A penetration test is a simulated cyber attack on a computer system, network or web application that is carried out to identify potential security vulnerabilities. The goal of a pentest is to find these vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by actual attackers.
What Methods are there?
- Black Box Testing
The pentester has no prior information about the target system. This method simulates an external attack in which the attacker has no internal knowledge of the IT infrastructure.
- White Box Testing
The tester has complete knowledge of the target system, including source code, network topology and login data. This method allows a thorough analysis and the detection of vulnerabilities that an external attacker would not be aware of.
- Grey-Box Testing
The tester has partial knowledge of the target system. This method combines elements of black-box and white-box testing and often reflects the scenario of an insider with limited privileges, such as simple logins in an application.
Which one Makes the Most Sense for Pentesting?
The goal of a penetration test is to uncover as many complicated and novel vulnerabilities as possible. A grey box approach offers a good and economical introduction here, as it avoids an analyst wasting valuable time on trivial tasks. Once a high level of system hardening has been achieved by this method, it may be useful to perform a white box audit to ensure maximum security.
Black Box Methods should only be Used for Red Teaming
Red Teaming is a comprehensive approach to security auditing that goes beyond traditional penetration testing to evaluate an organisation’s overall security and preparedness. The main objective of red teaming is to test an organisation’s security from a real attacker’s perspective. In contrast to standard pentesting, which often focuses on identifying technical vulnerabilities, red teaming encompasses a broader range of techniques and strategies. The black box method should only be used in this context, i.e. when an almost maximum level of hardening is already in place
(Jan Kahmen, Turingpoint)