Phases of a pentest

Security testing methodology, also known as pentesting or ethical security testing, is a structured and planned approach to assessing the security of an information system, application, or network. The main objective of these tests is to identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses that could be exploited by malicious actors, and then provide recommendations for improving security.

Here, we can follow these steps:

1. Reconnaissance
2. Vulnerability analysis
3. Exploitation
4. Post-exploitation
5. Reporting and recommendations
6. Validation and retesting

Let’s understand each phase in depth.

Reconnaissance

Reconnaissance (also known as recon) is one of the fundamental phases of a pentest. In this stage, cybersecurity professionals gather crucial information about the pentesting target, whether it’s a network, web application, infrastructure, organization, or any other system being evaluated. The main objective of reconnaissance...