What Are Penetration Test Automation Tools And What Are They Used For?
Penetration testing automation tools are software tools used to identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses in an organization or its systems. Penetration testing is a security assessment performed to identify vulnerabilities in a system or network, discover vulnerabilities that a malicious attacker could exploit, and remediate these vulnerabilities. Penetration test automation tools are used to carry out these processes faster, more effectively and more systematically.
Penetration testing automation tools are typically used to perform the following tasks:
Vulnerability Scanning: Automated tools detect threats that may come from outside your network, such as unsecured websites or user-accessible applications, i.e. vulnerabilities in system infrastructure exposed to the internet.
Penetration Testing Automation: Some automation tools are used to perform penetration test simulations. This is used to test what path attackers might take and what security checks systems can bypass.
Password Cracking: It compares whether the passwords are secure or not according to the defined security levels and gives the cracked password to the application.
Network Mapping: It creates the network map, which is the road map of the penetration test, so it is determined where to start and the progress is shaped by looking at this map.
Social Engineering Tests: Thanks to these tools, it is possible to ensure and test the application of social engineering attacks to authorities.
Security Control Tests: Tests security-related structures (firewall, etc.) in the systems. It provides information about its vulnerabilities, structure and functioning.
Reporting and Analysis: It creates a report by separating penetration test results according to criticality level and putting them under certain headings.
Penetration test automation tools help us greatly, as we mentioned above. When we use these automation tools, they present us the vulnerabilities in the systems in detail and most importantly, quickly.
Penetration Testing Tools
Burp
Burp by Portswigger Web Security is a web vulnerability scanner. Its use and interface are quite simple. It is definitely included in penetration testing toolkits. With Burp, we can see the requests and manipulate them and direct them as we wish. It also enables brute force attacks.
Metasploit
Metasploit allows scanning and testing of vulnerabilities. It is supported by a large open source database that exploits known vulnerabilities, and Metasploit has a practical interface and the current version contains more than 1500 exploits, more than 900 auxiliaries, more than 450 payloads, 39 encoders and 8 nops.
Nessus
Nessus is a widely used paid vulnerability assessment tool. If we use it for free, it provides 16 IP scanning opportunities. The filters area is quite wide and offers the opportunity to choose the areas we want to scan. As a result of the test, criticality levels are adjusted and presented to us.
Fiddler
Fiddler includes a handy set of manual tools for dealing with web debugging, web session manipulation, and security/performance testing. It is a debugging proxy server tool used to log, inspect, and manipulate HTTP and HTTPS traffic between the web server or servers.
Nmap
Nmap is more of a port scanner than a penetration testing tool. It can map the scanned network and observe the status of services, operating systems, and ports running on network machines.
Wireshark
Wireshark is often included in the security toolkit. It captures network traffic to understand the activity being processed on the network and collect useful information. A number of different image filters are available to convert each captured packet into a readable format. This also allows users to identify the source of network security issues and detect potential cybercriminal activity.
Aircrack-Ng
Aircrack-ng is a tool that comes pre-installed in Kali Linux and is used for wifi network security and hacking. Aircrack is an all-in-one packet sniffer, WEP and WPA/WPA2 cracker, analysis tool, and hash capture tool. This tool, which is used for many purposes, is generally used to hack wifi.
John the Ripper
John the Ripper is a simple tool used to check password vulnerability. It has a fast and useful structure. Combining password crackers in one package, it is one of the most popular tools for testing and solving passwords.
Benefits of Automation Tools in Penetration Tests
Speed and Efficiency:
Thanks to these tools, we can quickly handle everything in order without having to deal with manual tests one by one.
It does not bother to understand the order in large and complex systems and performs tests quickly.
It reduces the need to perform the same tests over and over again, thus saving time and resources.
Comprehensive Tests:
Automation tools will provide us with whatever scope we want in the filtering section, which means that it will do this scope no matter how large the scope we give.
More errors can be detected as tests can be performed automatically to cover different scenarios and use cases.
Better Error Detection:
Automation can isolate, classify and list errors more consistently. In this way, an easier intervention process can be achieved.
Since automations scan penetration tests faster, we have the opportunity to scan whenever we want, so we are always in control. In case of any negativity, we will have the opportunity to intervene quickly.
Reducing Human Error:
It allows to minimize errors caused by human factors. This increases efficiency.
It eliminates the deficiencies and negativities that occur during manual tests.
Scheduled Time Tests:
Automation records the date and time information entered into the system and performs the requested tests on the system at this time. In this way, the desired test is applied to the system in a planned manner, even at an inconvenient time. Thus, the system can be tested at night and on weekends.
This enables constant security monitoring and rapid response.
Reporting and Monitoring:
Thanks to these tools, it provides the opportunity to present test results to the user in a detailed and understandable manner.
Continuous monitoring and reporting helps you gain better knowledge of vulnerabilities.
Cost Savings:
Since automation works as artificial intelligence, it does not require as many employees as in manual tests. This will also provide savings in terms of costs.
In the long run, detecting errors quickly and taking action quickly will save us from possible damages and will save costs.
Repeatability:
Automating test scenarios and processes increases the repeatability of tests.
Running the same tests repeatedly will allow detection of a current threat when it emerges.
Script and Code Sharing:
It makes it easy to share test scripts and codes, which increases team collaboration and encourages knowledge sharing.
