Penetration Testing Methodologies

Assessment Stages

1. Information Gathering: Collect public information (e.g., OSINT).
2. Enumeration/Scanning: Discover applications and services.
3. Exploitation: Leverage system and application vulnerabilities.
4. Privilege Escalation: Expand access vertically or horizontally.
5. Post-Exploitation:
   • Pivoting: Target additional hosts.
   • Data Gathering: Extract more information.
   • Covering Tracks: Remove traces.
   • Reporting: Document findings.