Penetration Test Plan Outline Using the Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES)

Penetration Test Plan Outline Using the Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES)

What is a Penetration Test?

A penetration test is a process that simulates potential cyber-attacks in a system within a controlled setting. It involves exposing the system to specific threats in order to identify any vulnerabilities and unauthorized changes in normal operations. The main goal of a penetration test is to breach the system, revealing any vulnerabilities or gaps that could be exploited by hackers. This outline presents seven phases of the Penetration Testing Execution Standard that are important to the success and execution of the test.

Pre-Engagement Interactions

Pre-engagement is the first step. It primarily involves collecting important information about the system. These details involve the system’s scope, network setup, system configuration, user base, and hardware resources. Legal agreements and documentation are put in place to protect both parties (Astrida et al., 2022). The rules and guidelines for the test are established at this phase. One of the issues that may arise at this phase is the overlapping of test scenarios that may be expensive to the client.

1. Anticipated Questions

   1. How much would the penetration testing cost?
   2. What would be the impact of the testing on the system operations?

• What level of access would the penetration testers require?

1. How long would the penetration testing take place?

2. Intelligence Gathering

During this stage, data is collected to inform assessment actions. The penetration tester is required to have or find various kinds of information concerning the organization on their own in order to identify vulnerabilities in the system, depending on the scope agreed on. Generally, intelligence gathering includes information regarding facilities, plans, products, and employees. Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is utilized to gather information about the client’s organization from publicly available sources (Nickerson et al., 2019). The issue that may arise concerns how sensitive information of the organization would be handled by the penetration testers.

1. Anticipated Questions

   1. What kind of information will be collected about the company?
   2. Will the penetration testers try to access sensitive information about the organization?

• How will the sensitive information gathered be protected?

1. Will the employees be informed about the tests?

3. Threat Modeling

This stage is critical for both the testers and the organization. It involves identifying and prioritizing potential threats based on the information gathered. The systems and data are analyzed to understand what can be targeted by an attacker.

1. Anticipated Questions

   1. How do you determine the threats that are relevant to the organization?
   2. How will the threats be prioritized and ranked?

• Can the organization provide input in the threat modelling process?

1. What specific threats would be considered during the tests?

4. Vulnerability Analysis

In vulnerability analysis, the penetration tester scans the system using automated or manual tools for known vulnerabilities in the target systems and processes (Abu-Dabaseh & Alshammari, 2018). In this phase, the tester verifies whether all the discovered weaknesses are accurate and there are no potential false positives. The vulnerabilities are then categorized on whether they should be exploited or not. One of the issues facing this step is the presence of many methods to detect vulnerabilities.

1. Anticipated questions

   1. How will the vulnerabilities be detected?
   2. What are the most common known vulnerabilities in organizations?

2. Exploitation

From the list of confirmed vulnerabilities, the tester exploits them to gain unauthorized access to the client’s systems and data. Various techniques, such as brute force and social engineering, are employed to bypass security controls.

1. Anticipated Questions

   1. What would be the impact of the exploitation on the organization?
   2. How far will the penetration testers go in an attempt to exploit the vulnerabilities?

2. Post Exploitation

The purpose of this step is to maintain access to the compromised systems so as to simulate the persistence of the attacker. Further exploration is done to identify additional vulnerabilities.

1. Anticipated Questions

   1. How long will the penetration testers maintain access to the company’s configurations?
   2. Will remedies for the vulnerabilities be provided?

2. Reporting

This is the last phase; it contains a comprehensive report with findings, vulnerabilities, and remedy actions to mitigate the threats.

1. Anticipated Question

   1. What would be the format of the report, and how detailed would it be?

References

Abu-Dabaseh, F., & Alshammari, E. (2018). Automated penetration testing: An overview. 121–129. https://doi.org/10.5121/csit.2018.80610

Astrida, D. N., Saputra, A. R., & Assaufi, A. I. (2022). Analysis and evaluation of wireless network security with the penetration testing execution standard (PTES). Sinkron, 7(1), 147–154. https://doi.org/10.33395/sinkron.v7i1.11249

Nickerson, C., Kennedy, D., John Riley, C., Smith, E., Ian Amit, I., Rabie, A., Friedli, S., Searle, J., Knight, B., Gates, C., McCray, J., Perez, C., Strand, J., Tornio, S., Percoco, N., Shackelford, D., Smith, V., Wood, R., Remes, W., & Hayes, R. (2019). The penetration testing execution standard documentation. PTES Technical Guideline, 229. http://www.pentest-standard.org/index.php/PTES_Technical_Guidelines#Intelligence_Gathering

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To improve your cybersecurity company’s sales process, you must provide potential clients with a clear understanding of what takes place during penetration testing. The sales team has asked you to construct an outline of a penetration test plan, detailing what each step will entail so potential clients can better understand the process, the techniques, and the tools involved. They also want to provide clients with the kind of information they will receive from the test.

Write a 2- to 3-page outline of the penetration test plan using the following Penetration Testing Execution Standard steps/categories for your outline:

Pre-engagement Interactions
Intelligence Gathering
Threat Modeling
Vulnerability Analysis
Exploitation
Post Exploitation
Reporting

Explain what each step includes. Include issues and questions you should anticipate from a potential client.