RE: Penetration testing via shrinkware

["Stout, Bill" <StoutB () pios com>]

Thanks all for the copious feedback.  I posted the question because I
had difficulty expressing to someone the inadaquacy of using shrinkware
alone.  I believe I can express that point now.

The point I was missing was this: 
Shrinkware only highlights possible entry points, and doesn't exploit
them or artfully combine vulnerabilities into an 'exploit mosaic', a
clear compelling picture of the penetration.  It takes a skilled
artistic human to create art, a technical human would merely glue the
vulnerabilities together into a mess.

An '3l33t3 hacker' dynamically adapts to the set of vulnerabilities
presented before him,  he uses his experience, knowledge and input from
others to exploit what he discovers, piecing together a puzzle through
intellect, not from an instruction sheet.  A real hacking experience is
an R&D work in progress, not an autonomon scripting (or manually keying
in a script of) known techniques that worked for one given situation.

Thanks for the feedback.

Bill Stout