Cybersecurity has become increasingly important for companies, and they must identify the vulnerabilities in their systems and applications. Vulnerability can be defined as a loophole in an application which allows attackers to exploit the data. Now, there are various applications available, but they can also increase the vulnerabilities in systems.
It is not possible to have a completely vulnerability-free system, but you can increase the security of your system and reduce the amount of data lost. For this, companies have to undergo security tests. VAPT (Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing) is a critical security test which helps to identify and fix the security issues in a company’s system or network.
VAPT can identify vulnerabilities and provide solutions before they can be exploited by attackers. VAPT helps to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of sensitive data and systems. It can help companies to meet regulatory security compliance requirements. It helps them identify common vulnerabilities and avoid data breaches and thefts.
Vulnerability Assessment
In this test, a company’s key systems, networks and applications are tested and reviewed. It can discover the loopholes in the system. Vulnerabilities can give a path to attack the system. Different types of vulnerabilities are vulnerabilities of configuration, vulnerabilities of the boundary condition, vulnerabilities of authentication, and vulnerabilities of exception handling. It focuses on the internal security of a company.
Penetration Testing
It focuses on identifying all the possible routes through which an attacker can gain an unauthorized entry. It focuses on external real-world risks. It can identify the amount of damage and the internal compromise that an attacker could cause in a system. A proof-of-concept strategy is used to investigate and validate the identified vulnerability.
The rise in vulnerabilities in a system can be due to poorly designed hardware and software, a system connected to an unsafe network, misconfiguration of the system and a poor combination of passwords. It is important to identify and address the security risks to safeguard the IT assets of a company.
Types of testing in a VAPT process
It involves three types of testing: Black box, Grey box, and White box.
- Black box testing simulates the action of an attacker.
- In Grey box testing, the company’s network/system is tested from either external or internal networks, with partial knowledge of the company’s internal network/system.
- In the White box testing, software applications or systems are tested with complete knowledge of the company’s internal network/system.
Key steps of a VAPT process
Scope
To start a vulnerability assessment, the scope and parameters, network range, number of devices, databases and applications are defined. A law agreement is made between the VAPT services team and the company whose online security has to be tested.
Information gathering
In this step, information about the target system is collected, such as network topology, IP addresses, operating systems, applications and services. Passive and active techniques are used to gather data from publicly accessible sources.
Vulnerability detection
More detailed information about the system is sought. Different techniques are used to get a complete understanding of the configuration and identify the potential vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilities that need to be addressed are found.
Information analysis and planning
The VAPT team identifies the services, applications and open ports of the target system. This helps them to get an understanding of the services in operation and their locations. This helps to identify the potential vulnerabilities.
Vulnerability scanning
Automated tools are used to scan the target system for known vulnerabilities such as default passwords, misconfiguration and missing patches. Proper attacking methods are planned and made ready to be executed.
Exploiting
The VAPT team tries to access the target system by exploiting the identified vulnerabilities. A combination of manual and automated techniques and simulated real-world attack scenarios is used. It focuses on identifying the various routes an attacker could use to break into the system.
Privilege escalation
It involves password cracking and buffer overflow exploits to escalate to a higher privilege level. The team aims to elevate the user privilege using techniques such as brute force. Higher privilege can be like root access and administrative access to the system.
Result analysis
In this step, the root cause is determined, the path to exploit is detected, and recommendations are planned to fix the risk. The methods required to make the target system secure are decided upon.
Reporting
Reports are generated giving the details of the accessed scope and the methods and tools used in vulnerability assessment. It also contains the details of the data found and lost, changes made to the system, and more.