Penetration assessments can be a stressful time for those involved. It’s a moment where the network admins find out if the network they manage, or maybe even helped to build, holds up against simulated attacks. Or, it’s a moment as a pen tester where you can help the client and strengthen their security posture, or screw things up by making a mistake - potentially losing a client and giving your company a black eye. However, this shouldn’t be a stressful time. As a client, it is important to understand why the test is taking place and how this helps. As a pentester it is important that you know what you are doing, need to ask for and aren’t just going in blind or throwing the kitchen sink at the network.
This talk is to highlight common issues that we’ve either encountered or have have been vented to about from both the penetration tester’s side of the assessment as well as the client’s side. We’d like to bring these issues to light to hopefully help ensure a more smooth assessment “experience” for all parties involved.