From: Hylton Conacher(ZR1HPC) (hylton@conacher.co.za)
Date: Sun Aug 06 2006 - 15:00:05 EDT
James Harless wrote:
> Where is the line between a Vulnerability Assessment and a PenTest? In
> other words, which tests do you run which identifies your assessment as
> a pentest rather than a VA?
The following comment is my opinion although James' opinion and what has
been said before seems to follow the same line:
1. The VA indicates where problems could/might be found/used.
2. A Pentest uses the holes that are found either by a VA or the ones
found on a pentest, to see if data/a system can be compromised.
A diference now needs to be drawn between a hacker, cracker and security
expert. All three categories need further subdividing into black or
white. A security expert would generally be equated with a whitehat
hacker, however, that does not mean that security experts are not
tempted to venture onto 'the dark side'.
A whitehat could run a VA or pentest(depending on scope allowed) and
advise the company concerned of the possible holes found.
A blackhat would perform both a VA and pentest but take personal
advantage of the flaws found.
The above is my understanding and I'd appreciate any corrections.
-- ======================================================================== Currently using SuSE 9.2 Professional with KDE and Mozilla 1.7.2 Linux user # 229959 at http://counter.li.org ======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This List Sponsored by: Cenzic Concerned about Web Application Security? Why not go with the #1 solution - Cenzic, the only one to win the Analyst's Choice Award from eWeek. As attacks through web applications continue to rise, you need to proactively protect your applications from hackers. Cenzic has the most comprehensive solutions to meet your application security penetration testing and vulnerability management needs. You have an option to go with a managed service (Cenzic ClickToSecure) or an enterprise software (Cenzic Hailstorm). Download FREE whitepaper on how a managed service can help you: http://www.cenzic.com/news_events/wpappsec.php And, now for a limited time we can do a FREE audit for you to confirm your results from other product. Contact us at request@cenzic.com for details. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Sat Apr 12 2008 - 10:56:35 EDT