External Penetration Testing Services
Identify security vulnerabilities in your Internet-facing infrastructure, emerging threats and assess the risks affecting external networks through our external penetration testing service. This exercise follows a risk mitigation plan to maintain a minimal attack surface over the internet.
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What is an external penetration test?
An external penetration test simulates an internet attacker on organisational devices, applications, and data. This threat actor mimics an internet user with zero prior knowledge and relies on internet-based information about your organisation (Open Source Intelligence).
An external pen test exercise establishes an organisations’ internet footprint. It helps in vulnerability identification in the remote workforce infrastructure, devices such as firewalls, email servers, applications and web servers.
Compared to internal penetration testing, it is a quick and short exercise. For instance, a medium to the large organisation may expect results within a week to two weeks maximum.
As a customer, it is important for you to know where you require external network pen testing or external vulnerability scan and if you are making an informed choice. This is more than running automated scans that you can do within your team without our expertise.
Penetration tests include identifying vulnerabilities, detecting new and emerging threats and justifying the investment by following a manual approach to safely exploiting the security vulnerabilities to mimic real world threats. An external penetration tester also elaborates risk impact, likelihood and technical supporting information to ensure the customer security team is aware of the risk.
An external vulnerability scan is a sub-set of penetration tests that includes analysis of network vulnerabilities that may or may not affect the environment. It is a helpful exercise for assets at scale and continuous checks to know the threat surface (less deep, more wide analysis).
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External network penetration testing methodology
- Gather publicly available information about the target network, such as IP addresses, domain names, and network infrastructure details.
- Utilize open-source intelligence (OSINT) techniques to identify potential entry points and vulnerabilities.
- Conduct port scanning to discover open ports and services running on the external network.
- Use tools like Nmap or Masscan to identify potential targets for further analysis.
- Enumerate identified services to gather additional information, such as software versions, server banners, and configuration details.
- Identify potential vulnerabilities based on the information collected during enumeration.
- Perform automated and manual vulnerability scanning to identify weaknesses in the target network.
- Prioritize vulnerabilities based on severity and potential impact on the organization.
- Attempt to exploit identified vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access to the target network.
- Use penetration testing tools and techniques to exploit known vulnerabilities and assess the effectiveness of existing security controls.
- Establish persistence on compromised systems to maintain access for further exploration.
- Gather additional information, such as user credentials and sensitive data, to assess the overall security posture of the target network.
- Document findings, including discovered vulnerabilities, exploited systems, and potential impact on the organization.
- Provide recommendations for remediation actions to address identified security risks and improve the overall security posture of the external network.
Vulnerabilities discovered by our External Penetration Testing service
- Network footprint for Internet facing assets
- Validate your security controls and determine weaknesses
- Cleartext transmission of data
- Insecure patch management
- Redundant and ignored endpoints
- Meta data exposure, data leakages, lack of secure hardening
Frequently Asked Questions about External Security Testing
External network pen testing provides insights into vulnerabilities and weaknesses in an organization’s external network infrastructure.
No, external network pen testing focuses solely on assessing the security of external-facing systems and assets.
External network penetration tests are typically performed by simulating attacks from outside the organization’s network, using various tools and techniques to identify and exploit vulnerabilities in externally accessible systems and services.
Yes, external network penetration tests are typically performed remotely, simulating attacks from outside the organization’s network.
Yes, At Cypher, we carry out the assessment and provide a detailed remediation plan to our customers.
Why choose Cyphere as your external penetration testing company?
Why do you need External Penetration Test?
An external security test is an important part of your cyber security program. It helps you identify vulnerabilities in your organisation that could be exploited by Internet-based attackers. External pentests allow you to assess the risk that identified vulnerabilities pose to your business. You can protect your company from cyber-attacks by identifying and mitigating these risks.
Based on the Ponemon Institute’s report, average cost of a data breach around the world has been calculated at $4.35m. However, these numbers are changing every year given the risk of data breaches due to increased attach surfaces.
What can you gain from External Penetration Testing?
External Penetration Testing can help you with a better understanding of your organisation’s security posture. By identifying security issues during security assessment, the customer is aware of their attack surface on the Internet.
External infrastructure penetration testing can help you make informed decisions about how to improve your security (e.g., hardening, information leakage, patching, etc). Network pen tests can also help you prioritize the mitigation of risks, which can help protect your business from cyber-attacks.
Benefits of External Penetration Testing
- Measure your attack surface over the internet
- Validate your security controls and determine weaknesses
- GDPR, ISO 27001, PCI DSS & Compliance support
- Identify misconfigured services and blind spots
- Demonstrate cyber security commitment to your customers & supply chain
- Protect brand loyalty and corporate image by reducing the likelihood of a security breach.
Our Pentest Engagement Approach
