Posted by: Praveen Joshi
April 1, 2022
Penetration testing mistakes are the major as well as a few minor lapses during the VAPT process. These mistakes might sabotage your attempt to figure out and fix the vulnerabilities present in your network infrastructure.
of cybersecurity professionals run penetration tests once or twice a year.
of targets have at least one critical vulnerability.
is the maximum share of total pen tests ordered by the financial sector.
of companies have such feeble security that is penetrated even by unskilled hackers.
The simple pen-testing mistakes may leave gaps in your network security that hackers and data breachers can easily exploit. These common mistakes can put all the efforts of the pen testing process in vain.
1. Forgetting to Prioritize Risks
Before you start the penetration test, it is necessary to create a baseline. Setting goals prior to the tests will improve the results. When you fail to prioritize the risk factors, you choose the wrong tools.
2. Choosing the Wrong Tools
This one initiates from the first mistake. A tool for checking firewall strength would not measure the risks of the customer data. Hence, it is important to build your tools according to the test requirements.
3. Poor Reports
The reports after pen-testing must clearly state the vulnerabilities. It is necessary to plan and execute the remediation steps.
4. Not Accepting the Security of the Network
Sometimes, the penetration testers fail to intrude into the system. But they try repeatedly spending their time and resources. The purpose of pen testing is to check the security of the system. As a responsible pen tester, you should know that breaking through it every time is not necessary.
The pen testing mistakes might differ on distinct platforms. Let us have a close look at the cloud-based platforms:
It is one of the most trusted and widely used cloud service providers. The same is the reason it is prone to the highest number of attacks. Making pen-testing mistakes on AWS might cost you your data and critical information.
1. Excessive Permissions
Solution: Arrange the users in distinct groups with defined access. This will make permission management easy. Also, avoid using inline policies. Try using customer-managed policies instead.
2. Storing Unencrypted Data in S3 and EBS Volumes
Solution: Always use the server-side encryption available at the storage volumes on AWS platforms.
3. Making Your S3 Bucket Public
Solution: Try to restrict the unintended public access as much as possible. Instead, use the ‘block public access feature’ of Amazon S3.
Mistakes are also seen during the testing of Azure Clouds. Testing Tools which are mere several lines of code, leave a huge scope of errors in execution. Expert guidance along with automated tools will do a lot better in eliminating mistakes during pen-testing.
Following are some common mistakes committed during Azure Penetration Testing:
1. Unaware of the Azure Policies
Solution: Make yourself aware of all the up-to-date policies of the platform. Only then carry on with the Azure penetration testing. In fact, you need to educate yourself on the policies even before migrating.
2. Giving Everyone the Administrator Access
Solution: It is better to limit the access of users to the resources only they need. You can define roles and control the access management accordingly.
3. Choosing Incorrect Database
Solution: You can use the supported data stores like NoSQL and DocumentDB. Also, they allow you to perform basic and standard data operations.
Minor errors and mistakes are common in the process of API penetration testing. Although you need to rectify them to get the desired results.
1. Using Non-Standardized Practices
Solution: If adhering to standard practices is an issue, that’s acceptable. But you must produce proper documentation for all the derivations.
2. Errant Entries
Solution: Only cure for this problem is to keep testing codes frequently. You need to check all the endpoints with the utmost attention.
3. Lack of Effective Communication
Solution: Making a command line in the cycle will improve communication. Also, try blueprinting the whole development cycle before the process.
