Penetration Testing mailing list archives
Re: [PEN-TEST] Disclosure policy when performing pentest
From: Complx1 * <complx1 () HUSHMAIL COM>
Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2000 14:44:42 -0800
Last weekend myself and an partner were performing our first pentest for the consulting company we work for. it began on a friday, and was to go through till wednesday, minus the weekend time, and all internal. on friday we discovered their web server had unicode vulnerability. In coming in saturday, the person who ordered the pen test asked for a "briefing on our progress" , in not wanting to give away all our work info in an hour and blow the whole process i told him his w3 server had server vulnerability and that we would include it , and the rest in the report. he mumbled, "the web server? heh , the one that was hacked?" I say, "what? when did this happen" Yesterday. In my opinion, anonymously , remote vulnerabilities might take priority in early disclosure. However, it was the incident itself that proved how much they needed the test we were performing. they took a hit, mid way.. and felt the sting. which will be a unique dilemma in itself, and a lesson for us in our first pen test ( ps: thanks for all the advice and quality informatiaon that comes from this list.) cost of new firewall $1000 cost for new sysadmin $50,000 feeling of not getting hacked, priceless -the jedi boogie knights At Fri, 24 Nov 2000 09:01:43 +0200, Rudi Opperman <ropperman () DELOITTE CO ZA> wrote:
HiFrom my perspective it depends on the severity of the exploit. Ifa remotely & anonymously exploitable vulnerability is found active in a revenue generating system we inform the client immediately. If they were compromised and we knew the hole but just kept quite ... probably bad for business, yours and theirs. Just my 2c worth (at least 15 ZA cents!) Bye Rudi -----Original Message----- From: Masse, Robert [mailto:rmasse () RICHTERSECURITY COM] Sent: 23 November 2000 06:00 To: PEN-TEST () SECURITYFOCUS COM Subject: [PEN-TEST] Disclosure policy when performing pentest What is the general consensus concerning the disclosure of vulnerabilities DURING a pen-test? If you find their web site vulnerable to attack mid-way or at the beginning of your pentest do you tell the client immediately? Or do you wait until the end of the pentest when you publish and submit your report? Before I do a pentest, I usually explain to the client the pros/cons of each way. I let the client decide what is best for his company. I personally prefer to wait until the end since when I am usually performing a pentest, the company is so full of vulnerabilities we will never finish if I would disclose on every major vulnerability. I would rather wait until the end and present the report with a seperate 'immediate to-do list'. Waiting usually involves about 1 weeks time. Anyone want to comment on this? Thanks Rob Robert Masse, CISSP Chief Technical Officer Richter Security Inc. 2 Place Alexis Nihon, suite 905 Montreal, Quebec, Canada +514 934 3566 Direct +514 934 3406 Fax
Current thread:
- [PEN-TEST] Disclosure policy when performing pentest Masse, Robert (Nov 24)
- Re: [PEN-TEST] Disclosure policy when performing pentest andy lowton (Nov 25)
- Re: [PEN-TEST] Disclosure policy when performing pentest Anders Thulin (Nov 25)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: [PEN-TEST] Disclosure policy when performing pentest Yonatan Bokovza (Nov 24)
- Re: [PEN-TEST] Disclosure policy when performing pentest Gallicchio, Florindo (2007) (Nov 25)
- Re: [PEN-TEST] Disclosure policy when performing pentest Masse, Robert (Nov 25)
- Re: [PEN-TEST] Disclosure policy when performing pentest Etaoin Shrdlu (Nov 25)
- Re: [PEN-TEST] Disclosure policy when performing pentest Complx1 * (Nov 25)
- Re: [PEN-TEST] Disclosure policy when performing pentest Rudi Opperman (Nov 25)
- [PEN-TEST] Disclosure policy when performing pentest John Millican (Nov 26)
- Re: [PEN-TEST] Disclosure policy when performing pentest Rob Shein (Nov 28)