Types of Penetration Testing – Black, White, and Grey box testing
With types of penetration testing, there is often a bit of confusion. Some say penetration testing types are black, white, and grey-box penetration testing. While others say application, network, cloud, API, and IoT penetration testing. Nevertheless, all of these are correct to some extent. The black, white, and grey box testing are mainly the approaches to penetration testing. The application, network, and cloud are the assets on which penetration testing is done. Regardless of the actual types, it is important to know that all types of penetration testing are conducted for one purpose only – to identify vulnerabilities and their impact. Organizations can choose to perform one or multiple types of pen testing (depending on their business and priority asset) to prevent cyberattacks. In this blog, we are going to discuss different types of penetration testing, why they are conducted, and how they differ from each other. What Exactly is Penetration Testing? Penetration testing, a.k.a pentesting or ethical hacking is the process of purposefully breaching a system’s security to find vulnerabilities. In most cases, both human and automated tools research, plan, and attack the given environment using various methods and channels. Once inside the environment, penetration testers will check exactly how deep they can get into it with the ultimate goal of achieving full access. While this process may sound weird, it’s a growing and important trend. Some of the biggest organizations around the world use this method to stay one step ahead of cybercriminals. By purposefully attacking your own application or network, you can discover security weaknesses before a hacker does and attempts a potential breach. Penetration Testing is Performed To: Who are Penetration Testers? Penetration testers or pen testers (a.k.a ethical hackers) are trained and certified in many technical and non-technical skills that allow them to ethically and professionally test clients’ digital assets. Unlike bug bounty testers, pen testers usually work full-time rather than as freelancers. Additionally, you can often see a specialized penetration testing team in cybersecurity companies, made up of different testers with different skill sets. Pen testers have a deep understanding of multiple programming languages, along with coding and network protocols. They are also armed with certain soft skills to complete assignments, for example critical thinking and creative problem-solving. Common Certifications of Pen Testers Include: Different Types of Penetration Testing – Areas Before selecting a suitable provider, you need to be familiar with the various types of penetration testing available, so that you can decide which one to choose. Each type of penetration test requires specific knowledge, methodologies, and tools to perform. Moreover, the goals could range from identifying flaws in the code to meeting regulatory compliance. 1. Application Penetration Testing It has two types – web application penetration testing and mobile application penetration testing. Web application penetration testing is assessing websites and custom applications to uncover flaws in the coding, design, and development that hackers could exploit. The penetration testers look for vulnerabilities like SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and encryption errors. Mobile app penetration testing is testing Android, iOS, and other OS mobile apps for authentication, authorization, data leakage, and session handling issues. It is done to check how secure mobile apps are against data theft and unauthorized access. 2. Network Penetration Testing Network penetration testing uses various ethical hacking techniques to identify any vulnerabilities present in the organization’s network and its security measures. If hackers successfully penetrate an organization’s network, they can get access to particularly any digital assets. The pen testers try to simulate real attacks to get behind the firewall of the network. They check for vulnerabilities like denial of service (DDoS) attacks, domain name systems (DNS), and SQL injection. Organizations use pentest reports to check whether their network infrastructure is strong enough to avoid cyberattacks. Want to see a real penetration testing report? Just tap the link below and download it immediately! Latest Penetration Testing Report Download Now Latest Penetration Testing Report Download 3. Cloud Penetration Testing Cloud penetration testing examines the security of cloud-native services, configurations, cloud system passwords, cloud encryption, applications, APIs, databases, and storage access for potential vulnerabilities. After examining, the testers provide a report. It contains the vulnerabilities detected with actionable remediation steps. Companies then use this report to improve the security measures of their cloud infrastructure. Around 94% of companies use cloud services globally. As a result, it makes the cloud a prime target for cybercriminals. Cloud pentesting helps organizations: 4. API Penetration Testing API penetration testing means evaluating the security of an API of all types (REST, SOAP, and GraphQL) by simulating real attacks. It aims to identify all the vulnerabilities on the server side and in all the API’s components and functionalities. The API pentest report consists of all the vulnerabilities discovered, their impact level, and corrective measures. By conducting regular pen tests, organizations can then reduce security breaches and ensure the security of sensitive data present in the APIs. Additionally, it can ensure that the API is functioning the way it is intended to. Common API security threats include: 5. IoT Penetration Testing IoT penetration testing replicated real-world cyberattacks on Internet of Things (IoT) devices and networks to find security flaws. The techniques used in IoT pentesting include analyzing network traffic, exploiting vulnerabilities in IoT web interfaces, and reverse-engineering the device’s firmware. Since more organizations and individuals use IoT devices, penetration testing checks and help in strengthening the security of these devices from cyber criminals. IoT Penetration Testing can detect the following security threats: 6. AI/ML Penetration Testing AI/ML penetration testing involves evaluating the security of artificial intelligence and machine learning applications (such as ChatGPT). These systems, which often make critical decisions based on data, can be vulnerable to unique security threats. Penetration testing for AI/ML systems aims to identify and exploit weaknesses in the algorithms, data, and models used by these systems. Common tests include: By performing AI/ML penetration testing, organizations can understand the security flaws in their AI/ML systems and take steps to protect against potential threats.
