The What, Why And How Of Penetration Testing Tools

Doug Judy was a genius car thief, maestro musician and fantastic flaw-finder. Judy would be ten steps ahead whenever his nemesis (and best buddy!) Jake Peralta would try to arrest him. This was because Doug Judy could see the flaws and imperfections in every plan and take advantage to make his getaway.

Similarly, a Penetration Testing Tool (also called Pen Test Tool) helps businesses in identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities in their IT ecosystem so they can get ahead of the risks. This enables businesses to make their networks, applications, IoT devices, containers, cloud deployments, etc. much more resilient to unauthorized access and cyber threats. What’s more, Pen Test Tools also consider that cyber-attacks don’t just occur from outside the network but can also originate from within the network.

So, let’s look at Penetration Testing Tools that can help you to test your systems for vulnerabilities and risks – your “Best Bud” for cybersecurity!
 

The Basics Of Penetration Testing Tools

Penetration Testing Tools allow businesses to automate certain security tasks, increase testing effectiveness and find security issues that might be challenging to find using manual analysis. Businesses can use Penetration Testing Tools to simulate cyber-attacks and other threats against their ecosystems to find exploitable weaknesses and assess their impact.

Static analysis and dynamic analysis are the two most frequently used penetration testing methods. So, the majority of Penetration Testing Tools support both techniques for thorough penetration testing.

Pen Testing Tools essentially run a security check on the target system by launching an attack and observing its resistance to the attack. Fuzz testing, fault injection, or fuzzing is a technique used by most Penetration Testing Tools. In this method, software testers inject erroneous, abnormal or unexpected inputs into the target to expose flaws and vulnerabilities such as crashes and data leaks.

However, this approach was refined over the years – here are the major breakthroughs that led to the development of Pen Testing Tools!
 

Evolution And Origins Of Penetration Testing Tools

Since the mid-1960s, businesses have worked hard to ensure their systems remained secure from malicious hackers. After all, attacks to steal, leak or delete data (ransomware attacks, hello!) has grown with increasing sophistication. This necessitated the creation of Penetration Testing Tools. Here’s a brief look:

Penetration testing first became a concept in the 1960s when the tech industry realized that having multiple users on one system posed an inherent risk to the system’s security.

Then, in 1971, the US Air Force ordered security testing of its time-shared computer systems to understand the risks.

In 1984, the US Navy worked to evaluate how easily terrorists could access the computer systems of different naval bases. Around the same time, the US government had started to come down on illegal hackers, thanks to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which allowed particular ethical hacking techniques under a contract between hackers and client organizations.

Dan Farmer of Sun Microsystems and Wietse Venema of the Eindhoven University of Technology published a paper in 1995 titled "Improving the Security of Your Site by Breaking Into It." John Patrick of IBM termed this technique "ethical hacking" that same year.

When the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) published its Testing Guide in 2003, outlining the first set of industry best practices, penetration testing was finally established as a discipline.

The Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES) was created in 2009 to provide penetration testing services through industry-standard procedures.

Since then, businesses and cybersecurity experts have streamlined and enhanced the effectiveness of penetration testing by developing more robust and comprehensive tools. So, how do the modern Penetration Testing Tools actually work?
 

How Do Penetration Testing Tools Work?

Testers are expected to follow a fixed five-point plan for penetration testing. However, the plan can be modified depending on business requirements, system specifications, potential security threats, etc. The basic plan includes the following five steps:
 

• System Reconnaissance

  This step entails gathering as much information as possible from both public and private sources about the target system. The attack surface of the target and any potential vulnerabilities are mapped out by penetration testers using this information, which helps define and plan the attack strategy.

• Scanning The Target

  The target system is then checked for flaws using Penetration Testing Tools, including open ports, application security issues, open-source vulnerabilities, etc.

• Identifying Means Of Access

  Potential attackers might want to steal, alter or delete business data, or simply harm your business's reputation. Testers can choose the most effective way to access the system, such as ransomware or cyber-attacks, based on the security test case.

• Maintaining Access

  Penetration testers simulate various attacks once they access the target to understand the potential effects. This helps the development and security teams understand the system's shortcomings.

• Target Test Analysis

  The findings of the Penetration Testing Tools are then compiled into a report that lists specific vulnerabilities and how long the attack went undetected. This data is analyzed to assist security teams in the configuration of solutions that can patch vulnerabilities and protect against future attacks.

While these steps remain constant, businesses can opt for various types of Penetration Testing Tools based on their security needs. Read on!
 

Types Of Penetration Testing Tools

Penetration Testing Tools can be selected depending on business strategies and the type of testing to be performed. The different available categories are as follows:
 

• Host-Based Tools

  These testing tools run a set of penetration tests on the local system to discover its weaknesses and strengths, while also verifying other configuration errors.

• Network-Based Tools

  These penetration testing tools are designed to check the security configuration of a system from distant locations across a network. These types of tools can assess the status of a network, identify any unwanted network connections and so on.

• Application Testing Proxies

  This type of Penetration Testing Tool allows testers to focus on the graphical user interface (UI) of a web service or web application. The identified issues, if not resolved, can lead to broken functionality and poor user experiences.

• Application Scanning Tools

  This Penetration Testing tool helps in performing penetration tests and scans to identify security weaknesses in business applications.

Wow, we tip our hat to the comprehensive Penetration Testing Tools!


Whether your target system is a network, IoT device or a business application, Penetration Testing Tools offer some awesome advantages. Scroll on!
 

Benefits Of Penetration Testing Tools

Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of Penetration Testing Tools:
 

• Identifies Vulnerabilities

  Penetration Testing Tools look for existing flaws in your infrastructure, networks, applications and other systems that could result in data breaches and malicious intrusion. With knowledge of such security weaknesses, businesses can upgrade their hardware and software to increase overall security.

• Reveals Undetected Risks

  To understand what an attacker could accomplish through a real attack, testers use known vulnerabilities. Yet, with Penetration Testing Tools, testers can identify previously hidden high-risk vulnerabilities.

• Ensures Business Continuity

  Businesses must be able to deal with every potential disruption to keep operations running continuously and smoothly. By identifying potential threats, Penetration Testing Tools protect operations from unexpected security issues and data loss.

• Aligns Testing With Security Regulations

  Businesses can assess compliance with regulatory and industry standards such as the PCI requirements or the ISO 27001 standard. Penetration Testing Tools also enable businesses to comply with regular security audits and security tests.

• Maintains Business Credibility

  A cyber-attack or data breach can hurt customer trust and loyalty. However, businesses can reassure stakeholders and consumers of a high-security standard by using Penetration Testing Tools.

So, instead of hackers and bad actors pulling a heist on your sensitive business data, you can follow Doug Judy’s advice:


Let’s switch gears and look at the future of Penetration Testing Tools, shall we?
 

What’s The Future Of Penetration Testing Tools?

According to ZippyOps, the global Penetration Testing Tool market is expected to display a CAGR of approximately 14.2% from 2018 to 2027. That is, by 2027, penetration testing solutions will create an industry valued at USD 2.6 billion!

With the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning, security testing will experience a boom. A similar trend is anticipated for Penetration Testing Tools.

Machine learning will soon be a standard feature of Penetration Testing Tools to enhance security performance for businesses of all sizes. It will learn new patterns over time, leading to more accurate vulnerability detection. Penetration Testing Tools with machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities will also improve test planning, high-volume vulnerability discovery and faster problem resolution.

This will not only streamline the penetration testing procedure but also free up security resources to focus on other tasks – such as keeping an eye on Doug Judy!
 

Conclusion

Organizations should conduct routine penetration testing to determine their exposure to threats as the sophistication and volume of cyber-attacks increase. Penetration Testing Tools assist the organization in adopting a proactive rather than a reactive approach when looking for vulnerabilities in its infrastructure (hardware) and applications (software).

Although the primary goal of Penetration Testing Tools is identifying security flaws, these tools can also evaluate an organization's security policies, robustness to threats, regulatory compliance and capability to address security incidents.

Think of your business as a Pontiac and Penetration Testing Tools as Doug Judy – except instead of stealing it, the “Pontiac Bandit” will help you secure your precious assets!