You are planning a grey-box
#web or a
#mobile application penetration test for a new application, or a major new version introducing new features and changes across the application.
The application has:
- 200+ API endpoints,
- Potentially twice as many web forms, functions and user interactions,
- Mobile application available on both Android and iOS, requiring platform-specific testing of the application itself, not only the backend APIs,
- Multiple roles, workflows, authorization paths and business processes.
The proposed effort is 5-7 days.
If the agreed scope is a full end-to-end penetration test of the new application or the new version as a whole, that level of effort is simply not sufficient to provide meaningful coverage across an application of this size and complexity.
And that should raise an important
#question: What level of end-to-end coverage can realistically be achieved in 5-7 days?
Meaningful application penetration testing is not simply about running tools against 200 endpoints.
It means understanding
#authentication and
#authorization models, testing different
#roles, exercising
#business #workflows, validating
#API functionality, exploring
#abuse cases, testing input and file-handling mechanisms, and looking for ways individual weaknesses can be combined into realistic
#attack #paths.
This becomes even more important when assessing a new application or a major release, where new features, modified workflows and changes across different application components can introduce new security assumptions and attack paths.
There is always a balance between time, budget, depth and coverage. The important thing is to understand that balance before the assessment starts.
A penetration test should not only
#answer: "Were vulnerabilities found?"
It should also
#answer: "How much of the application was actually tested, and how deeply?"
So before choosing a
#provider, it is worth asking:
- Did you actually discuss the testing approach, methodology, scope and expected coverage?
- Or did the decision ultimately come down to who offered the lowest price?
Because completing a penetration test and achieving meaningful end-to-end
#security #assurance are not necessarily the same thing.
-
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#OffensiveSecurity #RedTeam #PenetrationTesting #Cybersecurity #Offsec #Logisek