- Whether you're performing a penetration test
as a consultant or on a team as a red teamer,
having a structured methodology is essential
to your success.
There are several reasons for this.
First, you need to have structure
for your entire engagement to ensure
that you do not miss any tests and you stay on time.
Second, you want to make sure that you stay
within the rules of engagement.
You want to make sure that you do not scan
any IP addresses that are not in the scope.
You don't to want to hack in any machines
that you're not allowed to hack into.
And so, understanding your rules keeps you
within your bounds.
Also efficiency, you usually have
only a certain amount of time to complete your tasks,
so you want to make sure that your methodology
keeps you on pace and ensures that you stay
within the allotted time that you have.
And also teamwork, it's really important
to make sure that you're all in sync
during the entire engagement.
Some engagements, you'll be working on by yourself,
but more often than not, you'll have
at least two people on a team.
And ensuring that you have that right structure in place
makes sure that you do not duplicate any steps.
So, you basically have to list out all the tasks
that you're going to complete.
You need to split them between members of your group.
And that'll really ensure that you do not step
on each others' toes and you do not repeat work.
If all of you are repeating the same types of work,
then that engagement's gonna take a lot longer
than it really should.
We're gonna take a look at some example
penetration testing and ethical hacking methodologies.
First, let's look
at the Penetration Testing Execution Standard.
So basically, some leaders in the security industry
came together and created the standard.
And it's really neat because it goes over
everything from scoping out your engagement
to intelligence gathering to types of tools you'll use
and all the way up to reporting.
So, it covers all stages of the penetration tests.
It's really a great tool to use,
and it's completely free.
If you're doing any sort of web application testing,
then the OWASP Testing Guide is the tool for you.
This is through the Open Web Application Security Project.
They pretty much outlined the standards
for testing web applications and mobile applications,
and they have a testing guide for looking
at all these types of applications
to ensure that you review the top threats
to these applications and make sure
that you do not miss any steps along your way.
Then there is the National Institute
of Standards and Technology, or NIST.
They have several guides for testing,
risk analyses, and system harding.
This one in particular, 800-115,
is the technical guide to information security testing
and assessment.
And this one is critical for testing
any type of government facility
or any other organization that is using the NIST standards.
It's a pretty comprehensive document
that covers all states of the engagement.
And last but not least, the Open Source
Security Testing Methodology Manual.
This is a long-time favorite of many
in the security industry.
And basically, it is similar to the others
where it covers all stages
of the security testing engagement,
ensures that all areas are covered,
and the tester does not miss any steps.