Penetration Testing mailing list archives
Re: Penetration Testing Services
From: Robin Wood <robin () digininja org>
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2010 14:44:22 +0100
A good penetration tester will bring lots of extras to the table, the big one I think being manual testing, which can confirm whether scan results are indeed real or false positives and also pick up issues that scanners can't such as business logic flaws. External auditors are also able to help advise on remediation for issues detected, for example on a recent test I found the client was storing LM hash passwords, I demonstrated even though the admin had an 8 character complex password I could crack it in 5 seconds with rainbow tables. He then increased it to over 14 characters and I showed him the difference in the pwdump file to show LM wasn't there and explained what had happened. I also brought up on screen for him his own bank details I found in a database, having an outsider come in and within a half day have your password and bank details makes an audit more real than having a Nessus report saying you have X high, Y medium and Z lows. Its basically the experience that the tester has that makes them valuable, that also includes instinct. In some areas with all the background work that we do we can feel that something is wrong despite it not being obvious. The external testers who just run Nessus and hand it over are generally doing a disservice to the industry (a client may ask for just a scan, thats OK). To avoid this I'd suggest asking for a sample report from any company you are thinking of using. You should be able to see from that the level of extra detail they give over a basic scan. As you know what a Nessus scan looks like you should easily be able to pick up the frauds. I'd also ask for post test services, see what is offered. A company who just scans, hands over the report and just walks away with the cash should be avoided. You want to be able to ask questions about it and discuss the findings. This might cost you more as it is extra work for the auditors but if you get a first good audit and follow up on the advice given then hopefully the next one will be a lot less painful as you will have identified and cleaned out all the major flaws. Robin On 2 August 2010 12:18, cribbar <crib.bar () hotmail co uk> wrote:
Penetration Testing Community - I am interested in getting an expert response to a discussion that keeps raising up in our company. First off, I have some basic IT/Infrastructure knowledge, but I am most definitely not up to the level of a penetration tester (please bare this in mind with your responses). Basically, our company has an internal IT Security section, who has recently purchased some of the popular vulnerability assessment software such as Nessus. They are running quarterly scans using Nessus across an IP range and producing a report to senior management on the types of security holes in the Network and how they can be fixed (and more importantly to management how much it is going to cost to fix). I’ve spent a couple of hours on the Nessus website looking at the types of “vulnerability” it will catch, and it seems to cover a whole array of topics and security issues. This leads to the inevitable comment from senior management, if we have an IT Security section who are using the most common vulnerability scanning / penetration testing tools –what is the point in investing significant $$$ in buying in a 3rd party to do exactly the same? I fully appreciate that penetration testing is an area of high skill, as a 3rd party you provide an independent neutral security review, it takes years to master the topic, and once mastered you need to stay up to date with all the current vulnerabilities and exploits, and it is your guy’s area of expertise, whereas a security admin is not specific to penetration testing. And let’s be honest, anyone can essentially download a user friendly piece of software and click “scan” or whatever and produce a report listing problems. However, in order to be in defence of the pen testing community during such discussions, I have a few questions…. • How do you as penetration testers, portray the importance of this independent check to future potential clients? Is this independence really that important? • What broadly speaking do you as professional penetration testers bring additional to a nessus scan during the services you provide? If there are categories of security issues/vulnerabilities that you can flag up doing one of your penetration tests that Nessus wont - that would be incredibly useful to know, and I’d love to be able to identify the limitations of Nessus scans but I am a bit out of my depth to be able to do so. • I trawled through the archives of this forum and others, and it seems some pen testing companies use the exact same tools such as nmap and nessus, and in some cases simply pass across a Nessus report for a specific IP range and that’s the report they use. This to me sounds a complete rip off, and I can’t see the benefit. So where is the added benefit in having an internal security guy run nessus, and paying a 3rd party pen tester x amount of $$$ money to do exactly the same? Why not just stick with the internal guy? Or am I missing something? I really would appreciate real examples of whereby just running Nessus is simply not enough as it wont catch a, b and c! I look forward to your comments. -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/Penetration-Testing-Services-tp29324189p29324189.html Sent from the Penetration Testing mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This list is sponsored by: Information Assurance Certification Review Board Prove to peers and potential employers without a doubt that you can actually do a proper penetration test. IACRB CPT and CEPT certs require a full practical examination in order to become certified. http://www.iacertification.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------ This list is sponsored by: Information Assurance Certification Review Board Prove to peers and potential employers without a doubt that you can actually do a proper penetration test. IACRB CPT and CEPT certs require a full practical examination in order to become certified. http://www.iacertification.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current thread:
- Penetration Testing Services cribbar (Aug 02)
- RE: Penetration Testing Services Sherif Eldeeb (Aug 03)
- Re: Penetration Testing Services Justin Klein Keane (Aug 03)
- Re: Penetration Testing Services k.x86 (Aug 03)
- Re: Penetration Testing Services Robin Wood (Aug 03)
- RE: Penetration Testing Services Jason Hurst (Aug 03)
- Re: Penetration Testing Services Andre Gironda (Aug 03)
- Re: Penetration Testing Services Richard Miles (Aug 16)
- RE: Penetration Testing Services Mathew Sealy (Aug 03)
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- Re: Penetration Testing Services Jonathan Leigh (Aug 03)
- RE: Penetration Testing Services Sherif Eldeeb (Aug 03)
- Re: Penetration Testing Services BMF (Aug 03)
- Re: Penetration Testing Services Todd Hughes (Aug 03)
- RE: Penetration Testing Services Hugo V. Garcia R. (Aug 03)
- Re: Penetration Testing Services MAlMozaiyn (Aug 08)
- RE: Penetration Testing Services Khalid Lakdawala (Aug 12)