Double Blind Penetration Testing

Penetration Testing

Before we learn about double blind penetration testing, let’s dive into the definition of penetration testing. Various kinds of penetration testing, testing for vulnerabilities that could be exploited by an attacker is referred to as penetration testing. This type of testing evaluates the safety of a computer network or information system by simulating an attack. A penetration test, also known as “pen-testing,” identifies flaws in the security model of an organisation and assists those organisations in striking a better balance between their technical expertise and the functionality of their businesses from the point of view of the risk of security breaches. This may be helpful in the event of a disaster and in the planning of business continuity.

It involves using both proprietary and open-source tools in order to conduct the test and acts as a simulation of the methods that would-be hackers would use in order to gain unauthorised access to an organization’s networked systems and then compromise them. In addition to using automated methods, penetration testing also makes use of manual methods, which involve carrying out targeted testing on specific systems in order to verify that there are no security flaws that were previously unknown to the organisation. In the context of penetration testing, the tester is constrained by resources. These resources include time, skilled resources, and access to equipment, all of which are outlined in the agreement for penetration testing.

Types of Penetration Testing

The amount of information that the pen-testing team is given about the organisation prior to the test determines the type of testing that is performed during a penetration test. Any type of penetration test can be carried out either externally, against hosts that are exposed to the Internet, or internally, against hosts that are located within an organization’s internal network. Testing on the outside as well as on the inside is required if we want a thorough examination of the system. In spite of the fact that there are many other types of pentesting that can be carried out, the only one that will be covered in this article is the double-blind penetration testing.

What Are two types of penetration testing?

Blind testing

During a blind test, the penetration tester has limited information or knows nothing at all about the target. However, the target is made aware of an audit scope (what, how, and when the pen-tester will be testing) prior to the actual performance of the test. Blind testing imitates the activities and processes that would be carried out by a genuine hacker. The penetration testing team makes an effort to gather as much information as they can about the target organisation from the Internet and other publicly accessible sources (such as the company’s website, the domain name registry, online discussion boards, USENET, etc.). Based on the information that has been collected, penetration testers will begin conducting an audit of the target organization’s security. Tough, blind testing provides a lot of inside information about the organisation that may have otherwise not been known (such as Internet access points, directly accessible networks, publicly available confidential / proprietary information, etc.). However, it is more time consuming and expensive, as a lot of effort is involved to research the target, because a lot of work needs to be done to find out more about the organisation being tested. For instance, Certified Ethical Hacking, various forms of wargaming, etc.

Double-blind testing

Prior to the execution of the test, neither the penetration tester nor the target are aware of the audit scope (what, how, and when the penetration tester will test). This type of testing is also referred to as “zero-knowledge testing” (also abbreviated as “double-blind testing”). In other words, neither party has any idea what the test entails. The majority of modern security assessments are founded on the double-blind testing strategy because it validates the presence of vulnerabilities that can be exploited as well as the ability of the target’s individuals, processes, and tools to recognise and react appropriately to the penetration attempts that are being made. Black-box auditing, penetration testing, and so on are a few examples.

Other types of penetration testing

Other than blind and double-blind penetration testing, there are also other methods of pentesting that we need to know.

External testing

The assets of a company that are accessible via the internet are the primary focus of an external penetration test. These assets include the web application itself, the company website, as well as the email and domain name servers (DNS). The objective is to obtain access and retrieve information of value.

Internal testing

In an internal test, a tester with access to an application behind its firewall pretends to be a malicious insider in order to simulate an attack on the application. This is not necessarily meant to be a simulation of a disgruntled worker. One of the most common starting points is an employee whose credentials have been compromised as a result of a phishing attack.

Targeted testing

In this particular scenario, the tester and the security personnel collaborate in order to keep each other informed of their whereabouts and activities. A security team can benefit greatly from this training exercise because it offers real-time feedback based on the perspective of a hacker.

You might also want to check this article: DAST vs Penetration Testing: Explained! (technosuggest.com)

What Does Pen Testing Involve?

The process of performing a pen test is broken down into five stages.

Step 1. Planning

Before beginning a penetration testing project, it is always a good idea to conduct a baseline security assessment or a cybersecurity audit. This provides a basis for comparison once the test has taken place and new remediation has been applied, allowing you to understand where you are at the moment and giving you the ability to understand where you are headed. After that, you’ll need to decide the range of your penetration test and the goals you want to achieve with it. This includes the systems that are going to be tested, the penetration testing services that are going to be used, and the kind of test that is going to take place. In the event that you are not employing a blind test methodology, you will need to prepare any documentation in order to hand it over to your tester.

Step 2. Scanning

The following part is for your tester to look over. Before formulating an assault strategy, the tester ought to investigate your systems, just like a genuine hacker would do, in order to get an idea of how they are constructed and to identify the points of weakest defence. The tester will typically examine the code of your application to gain an understanding of how it operates. They will also examine the application itself to gain an understanding of how it operates in real-time and to locate any potential weak points. The tester might also use an open-source pen-testing tool like NMAP to search for vulnerabilities on your network, such as open ports. This would be another possibility.

Step 3. Attempt to Gain Access

Once your tester has a good understanding of where your company’s weakest defences are, the next step is to gain access to your systems or network by making use of tools such as a SQL injection, a back door, or cross-site scripting. This is done so that the tester can conduct further testing. This stage would likely be followed by either intercepting traffic, stealing data, or disrupting the system if it were to take place in a real-life scenario.

Step 4. Maintain Access

The length of time that a hacker is able to maintain access to a system is nearly the single most important factor that determines the level of damage that can be caused to it. It is possible for serious damage to occur if the attacker is able to maintain a presence without eventually being discovered and removed by the functionality of security tools. In a situation that actually took place, we would refer to something like this as an advanced persistent threat (APTs). APTs are characterised as a malicious presence that is maintained for months, where virtually unlimited access to a variety of Internet of Things devices on a single network can result in massive amounts of sensitive and private data being stolen, which can often have catastrophic consequences for the organisation. Naturally, the penetration tester won’t act in such a way. However, the tester will make every effort to keep access for as long as possible in order to test the efficacy of your security tools in determining and eliminating the simulated threat.

Step 5. Post-Mortem Analysis

Your tester(s) will present their findings to you in this very last step of the process. That is going to be a comprehensive report, and it is going to include the following:

The period of time the tester had access to your systems
The precise flaws that were identified and used to gain access

What sensitive data was compromised
How access was achieved

What’s the Difference Between a Hacker and a Pen Tester?

An organisation will hire a pen tester, also known as a “ethical hacker,” to make attempts to hack into the organisation so that the organisation can improve its security posture. On the other hand, a hacker is a criminal who gains unauthorised access to the private network or information systems of an organisation with the intention of stealing sensitive data, disrupting the system, or otherwise benefiting from the intrusion in some other way.

Penetration testing and web application firewalls

Both pen testing and WAFs are unique approaches to security, but they complement one another in beneficial ways. The tester will most likely use WAF data, such as logs, in many types of penetration testing (excluding blind and double blind tests), in order to locate and exploit an application’s weak spots. Blind and double blind tests are the exceptions to this rule. In return, WAF administrators can gain benefits from the data gleaned from pen testing. After a test has been finished, the WAF configurations can be updated to improve their protection against the vulnerabilities that were found during the test. Last but not least, penetration testing is capable of satisfying a number of the compliance requirements for security auditing procedures, such as PCI DSS and SOC 2. Only through the implementation of a certified WAF is it possible to achieve compliance with certain standards, such as PCI-DSS 6.6. However, doing so does not make pen testing any less useful due to the benefits it offers and its ability to improve WAF configurations, which were discussed previously.

References

Panhalkar, T. (2019, November 12). Types of Penetration Testing | Infosavvy Security and IT Management Training. Infosavvy Security and IT Management Training. Retrieved January 15, 2023, from https://info-savvy.com/types-of-penetration-testing/

What is penetration testing? pen tests defined — reciprocity. (n.d.). Retrieved January 15, 2023, from https://reciprocity.com/resources/what-is-penetration-testing-pen-tests-defined/

What is Penetration Testing | Step-By-Step Process & Methods | Imperva. (n.d.). Learning Center. Retrieved January 15, 2023, from https://www.imperva.com/learn/application-security/penetration-testing/