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Penetration Testing Methodology

Our structured approach to identifying vulnerabilities in web applications, APIs, and cloud infrastructure before attackers do.

Testing Phases

Recon

Enumerate subdomains, open ports, technology stack, and public-facing assets. Map the attack surface using both automated tools and manual review.

Scan

Automated vulnerability scanning with Burp Suite, Nuclei, and Nmap. Identify known CVEs, misconfigurations, and exposed services.

Exploit

Manual exploitation of identified vulnerabilities. Test authentication bypasses, injection flaws, authorization issues, and business logic errors.

Report

Detailed findings report with severity ratings (CVSS), proof-of-concept evidence, and prioritized remediation guidance.

Retest

Verify all critical and high findings are fixed. Provide a clean report confirming remediation for stakeholders.

Common Vulnerability Areas

Authentication

Weak passwords, missing MFA, session fixation, JWT vulnerabilities, and insecure password reset flows.

Authorization

IDOR (Insecure Direct Object References), privilege escalation, missing function-level access controls.

Injection

SQL injection, XSS (reflected, stored, DOM-based), command injection, and server-side template injection.

Configuration

Default credentials, verbose error messages, open S3 buckets, missing security headers, and exposed admin panels.

Tooling

Web Apps

Burp Suite Professional for intercepting proxy, Semgrep for SAST, OWASP ZAP for automated scanning

APIs

Postman for API exploration, Nuclei for template-based scanning, custom Python scripts for fuzzing

Infrastructure

Nmap for port scanning, ScoutSuite for cloud config audit, Prowler for AWS security assessment

Reporting

Custom report templates with CVSS scoring, screenshot evidence, and step-by-step reproduction guides

Want a penetration test for your application? Get in touch to scope an engagement.