Re: Why Penetration Test?

[Gareth Davies <gareth.davies () mynetsec com>]

tarunthenut () gmail com wrote:

> hi,
> thanx to everyone for brain-stroming on this point.
>
> i asked this question cause i failed to understand why certain clients are bent on penetration testing cause the 
> results totally depend on the skill set of the person/company performing the penetration testing.
>
>  
Yeah that's pretty much how I see it too.

Most clients request a pen test because they don't know what it is, it 
sounds more exciting.

What they actually want is a VA, I've had this issue a few times.

When it comes down to it, they don't want you to actually exploit their 
servers, as the machines are live and they can't face the possibility of 
downtime.

They don't mind snapshots of passive intrusion (through non passworded 
services, or weak/default u/p combinations, open root shares, 
unprotected NFS mounts and so on).

IMHO a full pen-test consists of a VA but it goes one step further, into 
the realm of actually confirming the exploits will work (as an example, 
sendmail is often pegged as being vulnerable, but many OS's update the 
service without changing the banner, so according to the banner it's 
vulnerable, in reality it's not).

I generally like to strike a balance somewhere in between where possible.

Cheers

--
Gareth Davies

Manager - Security Practice

Network Security Solutions MSC Sdn. Bhd.
Suite E-07-21, Block E, Plaza Mont' Kiara, No. 2 Jalan Kiara,
Mont’ Kiara, 50480
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 
Phone: +603-6203 5303

www.mynetsec.com