Penetration testing on the sharper side of things

The attack vector that goes everywhere.

Mobile applications have moved from the periphery to business critical and present an enticing target for attackers. When thinking about external risks it is not uncommon for organisations to believe that their mobile applications are inherently more secure. Our extensive experience has identified that this is not always the case and the only way to truly understand the risk is to conduct in depth security testing.

When conducting penetration testing against mobile apps our experienced team is focusing on three areas. The infrastructure supporting the application, the communication between the app and the backend server and app specific security issues. Common risks we identify are insecure communications, weak cryptography and insufficient cryptography.

Discover what an adversary can do inside of your network.

Designed to emulate an attacker who is either outside or inside your network. A network penetration test is performed to identify vulnerabilities in your systems by utilising automated tooling combined with manual analysis. Whether it is driven by PCI-DSS or part of your annual testing program our team can help.

An External network penetration test looks at all systems that are exposed to the internet and provides an overview of the security posture of your perimeter.

An internal penetration test assumes that an attacker has already compromised a system on your network. From this internal perspective our consultants will review how resilient your network is, finding vulnerabilities that allow attackers to move throughout the network and compromise sensitive systems.

Wireless penetration testing is focused on what someone with access to your Wi-Fi network could do. This tests segmentation of the Wi-Fi networks and ensures your networks are configured securely.

Your desktop apps can also be vulnerable.

Web Apps might be more popular, but thick clients often represent an ideal target for any potential attacker. Thick clients offer a larger attack surface than web applications and involves testing both local and server side controls. Our consultants will review thick client applications looking for both opportunities to abuse local functionality to gain elevated privileges or compromise the local system further. As well as looking at any server side components that the thick client may communicate with.

Security isn't just about digital assets.

Physical assets can become a target for attackers who are able to gain access to a piece of hardware. When we test a device we look for vulnerabilities in both the software and the hardware. We have identified issues within the firmware, key management and also used a device as an entry point to other parts of the network.

Our team has tested a large variation of hardware devices across both proprietary and open source based systems. Whether it is an in depth all encompassing test, or focused on particular component we have the tools and know how to ensure that the hardware sitting on the edge of your network isn't exposing more than it should.

If you are running a critical app a pen test might not be enough.

The testers will have full access to the relevant code base to help diagnose any unexpected system behaviour during testing and to identify potential targets. The ability to review code in parallel to the penetration testing results in a more efficient use of the consultants time and the end result is once the issues are remediated significantly less risk faced by the organisation.

Not all security risks can be identified through penetration testing.

By looking at the source code we can go deeper and identify vulnerabilities that aren't as obvious. Our team is experienced across all major languages and frameworks used across the most major platforms. We use a combination of automated tools and manual analysis to provide effective coverage that identifies more vulnerabilities in the time we have to test.

We can review all source code of an app or focus on the security relevant areas such as handling of sensitive information, authentication & authorisation and exposed interfaces. By reviewing your source code you can find out if your code follows security best practice.