One of the most important things we can do, as penetration testers, is to leave the environment in the same shape it was prior to the engagement. This means we need to make sure anything we had on the systems has been removed. This list is just some of the things that we need to do as responsible penetration testers:
- Remove any user or system accounts that were created for any tests or procedures. We don't want to leave any unmonitored accounts.
- Remove any exploits, backdoors, rootkits, or malware that we may have left behind as part of our testing.
- Remove any test evidence that was left on the servers during our tests. We should have transferred these to our C&C server for safekeeping, but there may have been times when this wasn't possible. So, we want to make sure none of this is left behind.
- Remove any tools or scripts...
