Manual Penetration Testing

Adversaries continue to show that they have moved beyond malware. CrowdStrike has observed that attackers increasingly attempt to accomplish their objectives without writing malware to the endpoint. Rather, they have been observed using legitimate credentials and built-in tools — a “living off the land” (LOTL) approach — in a deliberate effort to evade detection by legacy antivirus products. Of all detections indexed by the CrowdStrike Security Cloud in the fourth quarter of 2021, 62% were malware-free.” CrowdStrike

So, how do organizations protect their critical data and systems in today’s evolving threat landscape? Is manual penetration testing with the human element more reliable than automated vulnerability scanners? What is Manual Penetration Testing, and How Does it Work?

Definition: Manual Penetration Testing is a controlled assessment of networks and applications that can safely identify and validate real-world vulnerabilities that are potentially exploitable. Manual Penetration Testing removes false positives and provides proof of concept reporting and an exploit storyboard for more accessible remediation.

Manual penetration testing is quickly becoming the top choice over automated tests for organizations looking to simulate what a threat actor could do. With a deep dive into networks, devices, and applications, Manual Penetration Testing, if performed correctly, can identify exploitable vulnerabilities that are either easily missed out by automated tests or something a scanner cannot do.

MCPT or manual controlled penetration testing is performed by an ethical hacker or penetration tester with the same knowledge as a malicious actor. Fortunately, an ethical hacker is on the good side and will be able to simulate what the wrong side can do. The penetration tester highlights many business logic flaws that automated software typically fails to identify. However, remember that Manual Penetration Testing can be time-consuming and more expensive than running a scan.

Typically, a Manual Penetration Test or Pen-test is performed by Senior Level Experts who find vulnerabilities in a system, network, and application. Utilizing their experience with network systems, custom scripts, and tools, the Sr. Level Engineer manually takes the appropriate controlled steps to exploit those vulnerabilities. Additional knowledge and expertise within IT/OT environments are essential for performing a non-disruptive manual penetration test. Hiring inexperienced teams can often result in unintentional denial of service or, worse, denial of service or, worse case, cause sensitive services to crash.