Penetration Testing
What is Penetration Testing?
Penetration test is an approved simulated cyberattack. Ethical hackers (sometimes referred to as penetration testers) apply ethical hacking methods where they simulate attacks in the real world on your target system.
- It detects security holes that automated scans do not detect.
- It reveals to your security team the specific threats that may be used by attackers.
- It offers great insights to reinforce defences before the occurrence of breaches.
This is the reason the world security teams have placed their trust in pen testing because it does not just study theories it is a test that shows how attackers can intrude into your computer systems.
Types of a Penetration Tests
All businesses have their own risks, and therefore we provide a variety of penetration testing. Every test is also environment-specific to expose security vulnerabilities:
- Network Penetration Testing Simulates real-world external or internal penetration tests, scanning your network infrastructure to discover misconfigurations, exposed ports, and insecure protocols of critical network services.
- Application Pen Testing Evaluates web applications, APIs, and client-side programs at the code, business logic, and OWASP Top 10 levels using methods such as white box testing and ethical hacking.
- Wireless Pen Testing Targets wireless networks and devices, identifying weak encryption, rogue access points, and unauthorized connections that can serve as entry points for attacks.
- Social Engineering Pen Testing Simulates malware, ransomware, and human-targeted attacks such as phishing, pretexting, and impersonation to test staff awareness and resilience against social engineering.
- Physical Security & Red Team Exercises Engages testers in real-world breach scenarios to evaluate physical controls, badge access systems, and employee responses, ideal for advanced adversary simulations.
- Cloud and SaaS Pen Testing Assesses misconfigured user permissions, identity access, and exposed data in cloud systems such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, often triggered after significant infrastructure changes.
- Mobile & Client-Side Testing Tests iOS, Android, and desktop applications for weaknesses in local storage, APIs, sessions, and commonly used in-house resources.
- Black Box, White Box, & Gray Box Testing We provide black box testing for external simulations, white box testing for high-level code audits with full source code access, and gray box testing for hybrid scenarios, tailored to your concerns and technical expertise.
Our Penetration Testing Methodology
We have a well-developed methodology based on the industry-leading standards that can lead to comprehensive and practical findings:
- Scoping & Planning: Define the scope, key assets, objectives, timeline, and rules of engagement with your team.
- Reconnaissance: Conduct external and internal intelligence collection to understand your digital footprint and likely access points.
- Vulnerability Identification: Use scanning, enumeration, and analysis to detect weaknesses in systems and infrastructure.
- Exploitation: Safely exploit identified vulnerabilities to determine their practical impact and potential access.
- Persistence & Privilege Escalation: Emulate attacker behavior to move laterally across the network and retain access to test security tiers.
- Post-Exploitation & Cleanup: Assess the effectiveness of exploitation and restore all systems to their original state without interference.
- Reporting & Debrief: Provide a full report including executive summary, technical findings, risk ratings, and recommended remediation steps.
Pen Testing Tools We Use
Our penetration testing methodology is a balanced mix of industry standard tools and proprietary methods to provide accurate, realistic results:
- Nmap: Network mapping and service detection.
- Burp Suite: Web application vulnerability scanning and testing.
- Metasploit: Deliberate exploitation and post-exploitation testing.
- Wireshark: Packet analysis and inspection of network traffic.
- Cobalt Strike: Advanced red teaming and adversary simulation.
- Custom Scripts: Tailored scripts for special testing scenarios.
While automation increases speed, our penetration testers perform in-depth manual analysis to uncover complex security issues that tools alone may miss.
Real-World Results: How we Helped our clients
- Financial Services : Found improperly configured cloud storage buckets that were disclosing sensitive client information.
- Healthcare Provider : Exposed weak employee passwords and outdated VPN services that could be vulnerable to brute force attacks.
- SaaS Company : Highlighted unsafe API tokens that could allow unauthorized access to backend data.
Pen Testing vs Vulnerability Assessments
| Feature | Pen Testing | Vulnerability Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Depth | Exploits real vulnerabilities | Detects known weaknesses only |
| Accuracy | Low false positives | May include many false positives |
| Context | Shows business impact | No context or simulation |
| Customization | Tailored to your environment | Generic, automated scans |
| Compliance Value | High | Moderate |
What Does a Penetration Tester Do?
A penetration tester is a highly skilled cybersecurity specialist that tests security vulnerability by emulating the real attacks and locating weaknesses without causing harm. This will help them identify vulnerabilities since, by working and thinking like threat actors, they are more likely to identify gaps that normal programmed bots or regular scan routines cannot see.
Penetration testers are specialists in one of the fields:
- Network infrastructure
- Web and mobile applications
- APIs
- Wireless networks
- Social engineering
They conduct external and internal attack simulations and allow organizations to determine the threats presented by people outside the organization and the possibility of other people forming inside threats.
Key Responsibilities:
Simulate Illegal Access:
Exploit weak passwords, misconfigurations and/or application weaknesses to explore how systems react to an attack.
Bypass Security Controls:
Check the functionality of firewalls, intrusion detection systems, endpoint protection, and MFA by analyzing gaps, obsolete settings or lack of tool integration.
Provide Tailored Reporting:
Present structured, risk-based reports to technical personnel and executives, indicating findings, business impact and recommended steps toward eliminating risk.
Why Choose Hoplon Infosec Pen Testers
- Certified professionals (OSCP, CEH, CISSP).
- Experience across finance, healthcare, SaaS, and public sector.
- Custom scoping based on your risks and regulatory needs.
- Concise reporting – executive summaries and technical findings.
- Support beyond testing – remediation assistance and retesting.
We do not simply offer a penetration test, but rather provide assurance, transparency, and an improved security posture.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about Penetration Testing
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