Penetration Testing Overview

The initial stage of a cyberattack where attackers gather information about their target, including vulnerabilities and potential entry points.

The attacker creates malware or exploits vulnerabilities to create malicious payloads to be used against the target.

The attacker delivers the malware or exploit to the target's system. This usually involves social engineering, phishing emails or exploiting weaknesses in networking.

The malware is executed, exploiting the vulnerabilities identified in the previous stages. This allows deeper infiltration and identification of further vulnerabilities.

The attacker installs malware and gains control within the target's network. This often involves gaining access to sensitive data, accounts and escalate privileges.

The attacker uses the compromised system to launch further attacks against other systems, often within the same network.

The attacker attempts to cover their tracks and erase evidence of the attack. This could involve wiping logs, deleting files or using anti-forensic techniques.

The attacker maintains access to the target's system for future exploitation. This can involve establishing backdoors or using stealthy techniques to stay hidden.

A technique used by attackers to hide their malicious activity, making it appear as if no threat is present.

A method used to divert attention from the main attack by causing problems in other systems.

The final stage of a cyberattack where the attackers execute their intended goal.

A type of cyberattack that targets weaknesses in the supply chain of organizations.

The unauthorized copying of data from a target system.

The process of encrypting sensitive data to make it inaccessible to unauthorized individuals.

A process used to reduce the size of data to make it easier to store and transmit.

A type of security testing designed to find and address vulnerabilities in systems, applications, and infrastructure.

A way to evaluate an organization's security by mimicking the actions of real attackers. It involves using advanced techniques and intelligence to test the organization's ability to detect and respond to persistent threats.

Utilizes a combination of vulnerability assessment (VA) and penetration testing (PT) to identify and exploit security weaknesses. VA helps to find vulnerabilities, while PT tries to gain access by exploiting them. Used for compliance with security standards like PCI-DSS, GDPR, and ISO27001.

A security assessment where a tool scans for vulnerabilities in systems, networks, and applications. It identifies possible points of weakness, quantifies the risks, and recommends solutions to fix them.

A specialized tool that scans for security vulnerabilities in computer networks. It helps to discover hosts and services on a network by sending packets and analyzing the responses. Used for network mapping and security audits.

A technique used in penetration testing to understand how a target system reacts to different intrusion attempts. It involves analyzing the system's behavior and identifying potential vulnerabilities by using both static and dynamic methods.

A type of penetration testing where testers have limited knowledge about the target system. They are only given basic information and must rely on their own skills and tools to discover vulnerabilities.

A type of penetration testing where testers have no prior knowledge about the target system. They are given no information and must rely entirely on their own skills and tools to find vulnerabilities.

A network protocol analyzer used to capture and analyze data packets flowing through a network connection.

A framework that allows attackers to use a target's web browser as an attack point, gaining control and malicious access.

A security tool used to scan web applications for vulnerabilities and test their security measures.

A collection of tools designed to probe and assess the security of wireless networks. It can be used for monitoring, cracking passwords and other attacks.

A framework that provides a collection of ready-to-use exploit code, enabling attackers to leverage known vulnerabilities.

A tool designed to identify and exploit SQL injection vulnerabilities in web applications.

An online vulnerability scanner used to assess the security of web applications, servers, and content management systems.

A framework used to audit and attack web applications, identifying over 200 potential vulnerabilities.

Nmap command used to specify a range of ports for scanning, e.g., from port 1 to 65535.

Nmap command used to save scan results to a file, creating a text file with the output.

Nmap option for scanning a specific host using TCP protocol. Detects services and ports accessible via TCP.

Nmap command used to identify malware infections on a remote device by checking for suspicious network activity or known malicious patterns.

Nmap option for detecting the versions of running services on a host. Helps to identify security vulnerabilities in specific software versions.

A search operator to specify file type or extension in Google search.

A search operator used with Google to find websites containing a specific character string in their URL.

A search operator used with Google to find pages whose titles contain a specific string.

A search operator that instructs Google to return exact matches of a query string enclosed in double quotes.

A search operator used with Google to find websites containing a specific string in their content.

A command in Nmap, a network scanning tool, used to save the results of a scan to a file.

A command used with Nmap for scanning a list of IP addresses or hostnames from a text file.

A command used with Nmap to scan the most popular ports on a specific IP address or hostname.