Internal Network Penetration Testing

Internal Network Penetration Testing

Jumbo system’s internal network penetration testing and security assessment utilizes a risk-based approach to manually identify critical infrastructure vulnerabilities that exist on targeted, internal systems within scope. The primary goals of this assessment are to:

1. Provide management with an understanding of the level of risk from malicious users connected to the internal network.
2. Provide recommendations and details to facilitate a cost-effective and targeted mitigation approach.
3. Create a basis for future decisions regarding your information security strategy and resource allocation.

Why Perform Penetration Testing?

• To execute a real-world attack on critical infrastructure and understand the level of risk that exists at a single moment in time.
• To complement your automated scanning appliance to better identify and validate all security vulnerabilities associated with most critical internal systems.
• To understand the level of risk for your organization compared to similar companies.

Penetration Testing Process

Penetration Testing Scope

The role of internal penetration testing within most organizations is to validate that access is restricted to internal security domains. Jumbo Systems will customize the scope of the assessment based on specific client requirements.

Vulnerabilities validated are often associated with the following three categories:

1. Software flaws
2. System configuration settings
3. Network-layer password weaknesses.

The devices tested include those associated with the target environment, such as:

1. Firewalls
2. Routers and Switches
3. Email and DNS services
4. Other servers.

Disruption to operations will be minimized.

Performing this scope on a regular basis will also help address specific regulatory requirements, such as FFIEC/GLBA, HIPAA/HITECH, NERC, and PCI DSS requirement 11.3.1.

Penetration Testing Methodology: Internal Networks

This assessment is initiated with a process of data collection and network reconnaissance to learn as much as possible about the network topology and its hosts, including data capture (see Jumbo Systems Penetration Testing process). Next is the enumeration phase, in which each component of the network is analyzed to extract details about its operating system, service types, protocols supported, and configuration parameters. From this point, several paths exist to system or data compromise. Exploiting known or suspected software vulnerabilities, manually discovering a configuration flaw in the service or identifying a weak password will result in a successful penetration. As the assessment process climbs the Jumbo Systems Penetration Testing process pyramid, the risk level for issues identified also escalates.