Penetration testing is the process of identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities in a system or network to assess its security posture. Here are the general steps involved in a penetration testing process:
Planning and reconnaissance: This involves understanding the scope of the penetration test, defining objectives, and gathering information about the target system or network.
Scanning: In this step, the penetration tester uses automated tools to scan the target system or network for vulnerabilities.
Enumeration: In this step, the tester manually investigates the target system or network to identify potential attack vectors.
Vulnerability analysis: The tester analyzes the results of the scanning and enumeration steps to identify and prioritize vulnerabilities based on their potential impact and ease of exploitation.
Exploitation: The tester attempts to exploit the identified vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access to the target system or network.
Post-exploitation: If the tester is successful in gaining access, they may attempt to escalate their privileges, maintain access, and exfiltrate sensitive data.
Reporting: The tester documents their findings and provides a report to the organization outlining the vulnerabilities discovered, the potential impact of each vulnerability, and recommendations for remediation.
Remediation: The organization uses the penetration testing report to remediate the identified vulnerabilities and improve the security posture of the target system or network.
It's worth noting that these steps are not necessarily linear, and a penetration test may involve iterations of these steps to identify and exploit different vulnerabilities.
