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What is Penetration Testing?

An authorized simulated cyberattack on a system to evaluate its security defenses and identify vulnerabilities.

Penetration testing (pen testing) mimics real-world attacks to find security weaknesses before malicious actors do. Phases include reconnaissance, scanning, exploitation, post-exploitation, and reporting.

Types include black box (no knowledge), white box (full access), and gray box (partial knowledge). Tools include Metasploit, Burp Suite, Nmap, and OWASP ZAP. Regular pen testing is essential for security compliance and risk management.

Related Terms

CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery)
An attack that tricks authenticated users into submitting unwanted requests to a web application they are logged into.
Security Hardening
The process of reducing a system's attack surface by disabling unnecessary services, applying patches, and configuring security controls.
Secret Management
The practice of securely storing, accessing, and rotating sensitive credentials like API keys, passwords, and certificates.
API Security
Practices and mechanisms for protecting APIs from unauthorized access, data breaches, and abuse.
Cryptographic Key Management
The practices and procedures for generating, storing, distributing, rotating, and revoking encryption keys securely.
Encryption
The process of converting readable data into an unreadable format using algorithms, reversible only with the correct key.
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