Proactive security testing

Penetration testing or ethical hacking is a proactive way of testing your web applications by simulating an attack that's similar to a real attack that could occur on any given day. We will use the tools provided in Kali Linux to accomplish it. Kali Linux is a re-branded version of Backtrack and is now based on Debian-derived Linux distribution. It is used by security professionals to perform offensive security tasks and is maintained by a company known as Offensive Security Ltd. The predecessor of Kali Linux was Backtrack, which was one of the primary tools used by hackers for more than 6 years until 2013 when it was replaced by Kali Linux. In August 2015 the second version of Kali Linux was released with code name Kali Sana. This version includes new tools and comes with a rebranded GUI based on GNOME3. Kali Linux comes with a large set of popular hacking tools that are ready to use with all the prerequisites installed. We will dive deep into the tools and use them to test web applications which are vulnerable to major flaws found in real-world web applications.

Who is a hacker?

A hacker is a person who loves to dig deep into a system out of curiosity in order to understand the internal working of that particular system and to find vulnerabilities in it. A hacker is often misunderstood as a person who uses the information acquired with malicious intent. A cracker is the one who intends to break into a system with malicious intent.

Hacking into a system that is owned by someone else should always be done after the consent of the owner. Many organizations have started to hire professional hackers who point out flaws in in their systems. Getting a written consent from the client before you start the engagement should always be at the top of your to-do list. Hacking is also a hotly debated topic in the media; a research paper detailing a vulnerability that you discovered and released without the consent of the owner of the product could drag you into a lot of legal trouble even if you had no malicious intent of using that information.

Crackers are often known as Black Hat hackers.

Hacking has played a major role in improving the security of the computers. Hackers have been involved in almost all the technologies, be it mobile phones, SCADA systems, robotics, or airplanes. For example, Windows XP (released in the year 2001) had far too many vulnerabilities and exploits were released on a daily basis; in contrast, Windows 8, that was released in the year 2012, was much more secure and had many mitigation features that could thwart any malicious attempt. This would have not been possible without the large community of hackers who regularly exposed security holes in the operating system and helped make it more secure. IT security is a journey. Although security of computer systems has improved drastically over the past few years, it needs constant attention as new features are added and new technologies are developed, and hackers play a major in it.

The Heartbleed, Shellshock, Poodle, GHOST, and Drupal vulnerabilities discovered over the past 12 months have again emphasized the importance of constantly testing your systems for vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities also punch a hole in the argument that open source software are more secure since the source code is open; a proper investment of time, money, and qualified resources are the need of the hour.

Different testing methodologies

Often people get confused with the following terms and use them interchangeably without understanding that although there are some aspects that overlap within these, there are also subtle differences that needs attention:

• Ethical hacking
• Penetration testing
• Vulnerability assessment
• Security audits

Ethical hacking

Very few people know that hacking is a misunderstood term; it means different things to different people and more often a hacker is thought of as a person sitting in a closed enclosure with no social life and with a malicious intent. Thus, the word ethical was prefixed to the term hacking. The term ethical hacking is used to refer to professionals who work to identify loopholes and vulnerabilities on systems, report it to the vendor or owner of the system, and also, at times, help them fix it. The tools and techniques used by an ethical hacker are similar to the ones used by a cracker or a Black Hat hacker, but the aim is different as it is used in a more professional way. Ethical hackers are also known as security researchers.

Penetration testing

This is a term that we will use very often in this book and it is a subset of ethical hacking. Penetration testing is a more professional term used to describe what an ethical hacker does. If you are planning for a career in hacking, then you would often see job posting with the title penetration tester. Although penetration testing is a subset of ethical hacking, it differs in multiple ways. It's a more streamlined way of identifying vulnerabilities in the systems and finding if the vulnerability is exploitable or not. Penetration testing is bound by a contract between the tester and owner of the systems to be tested. You need to define the scope of the test to identify the systems to be tested. The rules of engagement need to be defined, which decide the way in which the testing is to be done.

Vulnerability assessment

At times organizations might want to only identify the vulnerabilities that exist in their systems without actually exploiting it and gaining access. Vulnerability assessments are broader than penetration tests. The end result of vulnerability assessment is a report prioritizing the vulnerabilities found, with the most severe ones on the top and the ones posing lesser risk lower in the report. This report is really helpful for clients who know that they have security issues but need to identify and prioritize the most critical ones.

Security audits

Auditing is systematic procedure that is used to measure the state of a system against a predetermined set of standards. These standards could be industry best practices or an in-house checklist. The primary objective of an audit is to measure and report on conformance. If you are auditing a web server, some of the initial things to look out for are the ports open on the server, harmful HTTP methods such as TRACE enabled on the server, the encryption standard used, and the key length.