What are the best practices for securing your devices during a penetration test?

Penetration testing reports have confidential information including potentially exploitable vulnerabilities in the clients infra, any leakage of such information may jeopardize the security of your customers, and will damage your reputation, It is very important to securely encrypt such information and also securely dispose it once the purpose is served. It is very important to isolate the systems used to perform PT and the systems used to prep and store the final reports, use a standard VM image that can be updated regularly to perform the tests to ensure sanity of the test system and also to ensure data from previous tests don't get mixed up with new tests. Respect client's privacy.

On an opposite take, securing your devices to the extreme - such as removing them from the network is counter-intuitive to what a penetration test is. The whole point of the assessment is to simulate what an attacker would see when they attempt or do breach, categorize the risks, mitigate or remediate them and ensure they're no longer a risk. Therefore, to an extent you want to leave the environment as close to "normal" as possible. Highly reducing the attack surface area during a Penetration Test can result in a report that looks good on paper, but ultimately fails to deliver the value of the assessment. And still leaves systems vulnerable to attack under "normal" conditions.

In penetration testing, data encryption is crucial for a number of reasons: The confidentiality of sensitive data is safeguarded. Encryption safeguards this information against unauthorized access, even in the event that the system of the penetration tester is compromised. It guarantees that data remains secure. This is important in penetration testing because it allows testers to verify that the data they are using is still accurate and reliable It maintains regulatory compliance. There are regulations in place across numerous industries mandating that businesses encrypt sensitive data. The implementation of data encryption by penetration testers can facilitate regulatory compliance for organizations.

Securing your devices during a penetration test is crucial to prevent unintended exposure of sensitive information and maintain a controlled testing environment. 1. Isolate your testing environment 2. Use dedicated hardware or virtual machines 3. Segment your test network 4. Use host-based firewalls on your testing devices to control inbound and outbound traffic. 5. Disable any unnecessary services and ports to reduce the attack surface. 6. Keep all software, including penetration testing tools, up to date with the latest patches and updates. 7. Use of IDS/IPS systems to monitor and potentially block malicious traffic during testing. Remember that penetration testing should always be performed responsibly and with proper authorization.

I do not agree those steps are a requirement prior to a pentest. Those should be the normal steps to protect an environment whatsoever, regardless of an imminent test or not. Now, if we are talking about how to ensure a tester will not affect our environment or the confidentiality of our data, considering having boundaries properly set on the contract with the tester (have in mind that a real attack will not take precautions, nor respect agreements) and what a tester can or cannot do (no DOS, no data exfiltration, etc). In the end, you are hiring a pentest to verify something that might not be properly configured/built. If you fix the exposure prior to the test and for the test only, that defeats the purpose of a pentest.

In the world of penetration testing, anonymity is paramount. Think of a VPN as your cloak of invisibility in the digital realm. By establishing a secure and encrypted connection, a VPN ensures that your real IP address and online activities remain concealed from the target and any potential eavesdroppers. It's not just about hiding; it's about safeguarding your identity, location, and the integrity of your test. Tools like OpenVPN, WireGuard, or Tor aren't just utilities; they're your allies in maintaining this veil of anonymity. In essence, using a VPN is akin to moving stealthily in the shadows, ensuring your moves are unseen and untraceable.

VPN is critical during a test, it has several benefits. On the one hand it allows you to always go out the same fixed IP so the attack can''be easily identified by the client, on the other hand, in a remote working perspective it can''allow more flexibility. In addition, office networks often have protection systems that would block potentially malicious traffic (such as that normally generated by a penetration test) and so you avoid nasty surprises.

Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a service that ensures encypted and secured communication over unreliable networks. First, VPN basically provides anonymity over public networks. It hides ones IP address, location, and any online activities. Secondly, VPN also ensures security of the data because it has an encrypted communication on networks. For instance, VPNs like ProtonVPN, OpenVPN, WireGuard are some examples.

VPN is going to secure the transmission of data from the endpoint to the destination. So when encryption is mentioned for compliance this would cover encryption in motion.

Network connections originating from a VPN gives you the ability to: 1. Differentiate test traffic from legitimate ones. 2. Monitor the pen-test for the executed security test cases. 3. Isolate network traffic to the scope of the pen-test. Some of the well-known tools are: 1. WireGuard. 2. Outline.

Imagine diving into a digital ocean teeming with potential threats. Isolation is your protective cage, ensuring you can observe and interact without becoming a target yourself. By segregating your devices from potentially compromised networks or devices, you're building a fortress that safeguards against external threats. Whether it's to prevent malware infections or thwart potential attackers, isolation ensures your tools and data remain pristine. Leveraging virtual machines, firewalls, or routers isn't just about separation; it's about creating a controlled environment where you dictate the rules of engagement.

This recommendation builds upon encryption and is more focused on preventative actions to protect your data. Firewalls are the typical endpoint protection solution but you can argue that a data loss prevention (DLP) policy is a data firewall solution for endpoints. The traditional Endpoint firewall closes unused ports and disallows certain cipher suites. So it lessens the attack surface against your endpoint. DLP on the other hand helps if a threat actor gains access of your device, then policies around your data are met and trigger around accessing or moving certain data classification types. Those outlined in your policy.

It's usually useful to use a dedicated PC or potentially isolated virtual machines to conduct a penetration test. This helps on the one hand to separate the various activities and make it easier to erase at the end of the test, and on the other hand it can avoid nasty surprises, two interesting examples: - During a CTF, if you weren''t careful your machine could be compromised at the challenge, so it''s always best to be isolated - During a PT, if there are Cyber Deception systems that can create problems for the attacker an isolated PC limits the damage on the attacker side

"The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear" a very old saying from the team developing Kali Linux distribution. The operating system was installed with a lot of features turned off. A good practice is to keep open only the ports, apps and communication lines that you need to use to perform a specific task. Once you are done with that task you close them. Your device should be undetected, so device isolation is a good practice during a penetration testing exercise.

As far I understand, isolating one's devices while performing penetration testing, is extremely important and for many reasons. One, by isolating devices during pentesting, we can make sure the other devices are not exposed to the network, ultimately ensuring security of the devices. Set up a separate and isolated environment specifically for your penetration testing activities. This could be a physical lab or a virtual environment, depending on the scope of your testing. Similarly, Implement firewalls to control traffic between the test environment and other networks. Lastly, Avoid using real or sensitive data during penetration testing.

In the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity, staying updated is your shield. Each software update is a response to potential vulnerabilities, ensuring you're always a step ahead of threats. Before diving into a penetration test, it's crucial to armor your devices with the latest patches and fixes. This proactive approach not only enhances your device's defenses but also ensures you're not inadvertently introducing vulnerabilities. Tools like Windows Update, Software Update, or apt-get are more than just update mechanisms; they're your first line of defense, ensuring your arsenal is always at its peak readiness.

Always ensure you have backups and / or snapshots of penetration testing systems and tools prior to updating. The stacks these tools are built on are often flaky and may be dependent on specific versions or libraries. When you're in the field and your toolchain no longer works, you'll be thankful for your most recent backup!

I would prefer to have my penetration testing machine updated prior to the pentest exercise for the following reasons: 1. It's time consuming and the update process will have an impact on the timeline of the engagement. 2. It's noisy! Software update often implies download of the updates from the source which creates detectable traffic.

With the passage of time, more and more updates are being brought in software such as operation systems or applications. It becomes essential to update these assets regularly and properly so that compatibility is ensured during penetration testing. Otherwise, compatibility issues may arise and ultimately hamper the process of pentesting. Moreover, Updates are also essential to avoid being exploited by other threat actors. In today's world, keeping assets updated is not a big issue as new updates pop up on the front to alert or inform. Therefore, we need to leverage different mechanisms such as Windows update, Software update, or apt-get to directly download and update software.

On updating systems there are differing opinions during penetration testing activities. It often happened to me, but even preparing the IoT attacks chapter of the book I wrote, that some tools worked fine on older versions of ubuntu. So this is something that has to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, but since it's a good practice to always keep systems up-to-date, it's good to have the host system up-to-date, and then use docker or virtual machine to maybe have your own compatible tools.

Ensure to have daily backups and ensure the backups are migrated to another location which is 500 miles apart. Test the back/recovery every twice per calendar year and document the observations. Maintain metrics on time to back and restoration.

Backup is critical. Anything can happen to our PC when we work. As I wrote in another example, they can steal your PC when you are away, or something can get broken. Several times when I was working on particularly machine-intensive tasks, it went into kernel panic several times, and during a reboot the disk crashed, and the backup saved my work. This is also useful because if we do account we lose work for a few days, there are situations where the same scenario is not recoverable, as well as having traceability issues.

Backups are an essential basic for anyone. The only way to restore or renew data that was either compromised or manipulated is to have clean backups of the data.

Backup plays a key role during the process of penetration testing. It actually refers to making a copy of the existing data and keeping it somewhere else, preferably offline. In case a person's data is stolen or damaged during pentesting, it will help then. There are several ways to do so. For instance, copying data into an external hard drive is a better way. Similarly, storing data on cloud is another option available these days.

Imagine your device as a fortified stronghold. Turning off unnecessary services is equivalent to securely sealing off non-essential entrances and windows, reducing potential weak points. Firewalls, acting as vigilant sentinels, carefully monitor and control incoming and outgoing data traffic. This proactive measure establishes a proactive defense, permitting only authorized communication and thwarting any attempts at unauthorized access.

When a penetration tester provides a report, this is a great opportunity for defensive personnel to audit their logs to determine if any of the attacks were actually caught. If attacks were caught in real time but nothing was done to stop in-progress attacks, it's time to implement new procedures to ensure an actual malicious attacker could not further their objectives. If the attacks were not caught, the technical findings of the report should be replicated so that the proper logging and alerting rules can be tuned to detect malicious activity in the future.

Event Viewer: Event Viewer is a built-in tool in Windows that allows you to view and manage system and application logs. syslog: syslog is a standard protocol for collecting and storing system logs. There are a variety of syslog servers and analyzers available. Splunk: Splunk is a popular log management tool that can be used to collect, store, and analyze logs from a variety of sources.

auditing is a crucial step after conducting a penetration test. It involves reviewing and analyzing logs, activities, and outcomes to ensure that the test was conducted according to the rules of engagement, and to address any potential issues or risks. Verify that the penetration test was conducted within the defined rules of engagement. Analyze logs generated during the penetration test. This includes logs from network devices, operating systems, firewalls, intrusion detection/prevention systems, and any other relevant systems. Review the penetration test report to ensure that all findings, vulnerabilities, and issues are accurately documented.

Self log auditing is crucial during and after the engagement for several reasons: 1. Make sure your pentesting tools work properly 2. Documenting findings of the engagement 3. For sanity check and to make sure to stay within the scope of the engagement. 4. Cleanup routines and hide your tracks.

Reviewing logs during a penetration test is vital for understanding valid threat alerts. It helps differentiate normal behavior from suspicious or malicious activity, providing insights into the organization's baseline. By analyzing logs, penetration testers can identify patterns and indicators of compromise, allowing them to simulate realistic attack scenarios. Understanding what valid threat alerts look like enables the adjustment of Intrusion Detection System (IDS) rules. During a pen test, security teams may fine-tune IDS rules based on observed behaviors and attack vectors. This ensures that the IDS is calibrated to detect actual threats while minimizing false positives.

When you do Pen Test, the steps you follow is important. First do Recon. This will help you determine the scope of Pen Test. Once you have the output of Recon, follow MITRE @ttack framework on the specific TTPs associated with the Recon output. For example, a webserver typically opened with TCP 443. Try TTPs associated with the TCP443 services. While the above is the method of performing the pentest, protection also follows the same steps. Put WAF for your Web applications. Nowadays WAF matures enough to ASPM. Keep up to date in your network.

The article is titled securing during a penetration test, but in my professional opinion, updating software should be scheduled prior to a penetration test. The value of a penetration test is that it is a snapshot in time, and performing updates during or immediately after a penetration test does not allow the tester the opportunity to verify if configurations are correct or if vulnerabilities still exist.

In cybersecurity, penetration testing identifies vulnerabilities. Yet, its legality can be questionable without a clear legal framework. Penetration testers must draft a document detailing their intervention's scope, requiring a legal representative's explicit approval, equipped with an information security delegation. The clarity in defining the test's parameters is vital, avoiding ambiguities. This representative must be informed of all associated risks. Proper documentation and consent shield both the tester and the organization from potential legal issues. Overall, for a penetration test's success, a robust legal framework, combined with informed stakeholders, is crucial.

Aqui est?o algumas práticas recomendadas para fazer teste de penetra??o numa institui??o: 1. Obtenha autoriza??o para fazer os testes de penetra??o. 2. Defina escopo claro: Estabele?a um escopo claro para o teste de penetra??o, identificando os activos. 3. Informe as partes interessadas sobre o teste de penetra??o que será realizado. 4. Utilize um ambiente de teste separado: é recomendável realizar os testes de penetra??o em um ambiente de teste separado que n?o esteja conectado à produ??o. 5. Mantenha um registro detalhado de todas as atividades realizadas durante o teste de penetra??o. 6. N?o cause danos intencionais aos sistemas ou ativos. 7. Respeite a privacidade dos dados. 8. Corrija as vulnerabilidades encontradas.