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Penetration Testing Methodologies

Each penetration testing methodology has its specific use cases and benefits. Organizations should select among penetration testing methodologies based on their security goals, technical environment, and compliance requirements.

Different methodologies exist for penetration testing different digital assets. In the brief overview below, we will discuss their focus, strengths, and weaknesses.

 

OWASP Penetration Testing Methodology

The OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) Penetration Testing Methodology is one of the most well-known methodologies for pen testing. It provides a structured framework for assessing the security of web applications (there are other methodologies for, say, mobile application pentests). OWASP is widely used for identifying vulnerabilities and ensuring the reliability of web software. The OWASP Web Security Testing Guide (WSTG) is central to this methodology, outlining specific tests and tools for detecting security issues in web applications.

This methodology mostly focuses on a black-box approach, simulating an external attack without prior knowledge of the internal structure of the application. It emphasizes the use of practical tools and techniques, covering areas like input validation, authentication, session management, and business logic testing. It is instrumental in strengthening the application’s security posture against modern cyber threats.

OWASP does provide comprehensive coverage, as it Includes all major aspects of web application security, from technical vulnerabilities to business logic issues. It is freely available, making it accessible to organizations of all sizes and there are regular updates to it that ensure it reflects the latest in web application security.

However, OWASP utilization depends heavily on the tester's expertise and experience in applying the framework effectively. Also, it is less suited for testing other domains.

 

NIST SP 800-115 Penetration Testing Methodology

NIST SP 800-115, titled "Technical Guide to Information Security Testing and Assessment," provides a structured framework for conducting penetration testing and other security assessments. It is aimed at helping organizations evaluate the effectiveness of their security controls by simulating real-world attacks. The methodology covers three phases, such as 1) Planning, which accounts for defining objectives and scope; establishing roles, responsibilities, and rules of engagement; and identifying targets and constraints. 2) Execution, which accounts for performing information gathering and vulnerability identification; exploiting vulnerabilities to demonstrate their potential impact; and documenting findings in real-time for accuracy. 3) Post-Execution, which accounts for analyzing results to prioritize remediation efforts and delivering a comprehensive report with detailed findings, risks, and mitigation strategies.

NIST SP 800-115 is characterized by a comprehensive scope as it addresses various testing techniques, including network, application, and physical security assessment guidelines. It promotes consistency across testing teams and environments as well as clear remediation steps and prioritization of risks.

However, while detailed, it may lack specific technical steps for unique environments. Also, it’s quite resource-intensive: requires skilled personnel and significant time investment for effective execution.

 

SANS Penetration Testing Framework

SANS Penetration Testing Methodology is derived from best practices taught by the SANS Institute, a leader in cybersecurity training and certifications. This methodology provides a structured approach to ethical hacking and is widely used for identifying vulnerabilities and simulating real-world attacks. It is often paired with SANS courses like SEC560 (Network Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking) and SEC542 (Web App Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking).

The methodology includes such steps as: 1) Reconnaissance: gathering open-source intelligence (OSINT) to understand the target environment; 2) Scanning: identifying live hosts, open ports, and services through tools like Nmap; 3) Exploitation: using vulnerabilities found during scanning to gain unauthorized access; 4) Post-Exploitation: maintaining access, escalating privileges, and pivoting to other systems. 5) Reporting: documenting findings, risks, and mitigation strategies.

This penetration testing framework is distinguished by its practicality. It focuses on real-world scenarios and hands-on techniques. Also, it covers all major aspects of penetration testing, from reconnaissance to reporting, and is supported by extensive SANS training programs and certifications. On the other hand, it requires skilled testers and extensive time investment. Also, it relies heavily on tools like Metasploit and Burp Suite, which may limit creativity in certain scenarios.

 

CREST Penetration Testing Methodology

CREST (Council of Registered Ethical Security Testers) penetration testing is a standardized and globally recognized methodology for conducting penetration tests. It ensures that tests are performed by certified professionals who follow consistent, detailed, and ethical procedures to evaluate an organization's cybersecurity posture. CREST accreditation guarantees high-quality, precise, and trustworthy testing.

CREST-certified penetration testing involves simulated cyberattacks authorized by the client to assess vulnerabilities in IT systems, networks, and applications. The methodology emphasizes robust documentation, pre-engagement planning, and adherence to ethical and professional standards.

It is a credible methodology: CREST-certified testers and organizations ensure globally recognized standards of professionalism and expertise. It covers various areas including network, application, and infrastructure testing; ensures detailed and actionable reporting, aiding stakeholders in implementing corrective measures.

It should be noted that CREST-certified services can be expensive due to rigorous certification and resource requirements. The certification process and execution can take longer compared to non-standardized methodologies.

The above methodologies can be used for different types of penetration testing, such as web or mobile. A professional penetration testing company can follow these standards when working with end clients or its white-label partners, leveraging its expertise for the benefit of general cybersecurity.

 

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Trilight Security Recognized Among Top 5 Penetration Testing Service Providers in 2025

Trilight Security has been recognized among the top 5 penetration testing service providers to watch for in 2025 by a popular digital high-tech edition TechTimes.com. Our company has been marked in the rating for the expert penetration testing services provided by a highly trained team; white label penetration testing services offered for MSSPs and MSPs; and holistic, cost-efficient solutions tailored to the needs of global clients. We thank our customers, partners, and team, who let us achieve this international recognition!

Read the full article with the rating here.

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Trilight Security Named Among Top Cybersecurity Consulting Companies 2025 by Superbcompanies.com

Trilight Security is proud to announce that we were ranked in the list of top Cybersecurity Consulting Companies.

Superbcompanies.com is a global portal that helps companies looking for IT, Cybersecurity, Software Development service providers find reliable partner. To achieve this goal companies featured on Superbcompanies.com undergo thorough assessment based on such criteria as industry presence, expertise level, quality and reliability of services, and more.

Superbcompanies.com has more than 15 years of experience analyzing businesses and their qualification worldwide. Trilight Security was featured among Cybersecurity Consulting Companies due to recognition by existing customers and demonstrated ability to provide high-quality cybersecurity services such as Managed Security and more:

  • Penetration Testing
  • Vulnerability Analysis
  • Compromise Assessments
  • Digital Forensics
  • SOC-as-a-Service
  • Dark Web Monitoring
  • Incident Response
  • ISO 27001 Compliance consulting
  • SOC 2 Compliance consulting
  • Cybersecurity Outsourcing & Outstaffing

Trilight Security is a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) with focus on customers from small and medium businesses. We also have a strong focus on white-labeling our services to other MSSPs and MSPs in the North America, the EU, and beyond.

Thank you to the Superbcompanies team.

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About Mobile Application Penetration Testing

Why to do Mobile Application Penetration Testing

A mobile application penetration test is a step-by-step evaluation of a mobile application’s security. It is achieved through rigorous simulation of the conditions of an attack according to one or several established methodologies.

Mobile applications have become a primary target for cybercriminals, as mobile phones are increasingly important in the financial, educational, and public services industries worldwide. So, developers are literarily compelled to be very attentive to the level of security of their mobile applications.

To check it, the offensive way of assessing the security of all the components of mobile applications or penetration testing is usually chosen, as it is the most efficient method, as it tests resilience to real-world attacks.

To conduct efficient mobile penetration testing you need to choose a reliable provider of the respective service, possessing proven experience in mobile pentests, and having ethical hackers with respective certifications, as well as positive reviews from the clients. The provider should be covering both Android and iOS mobile application pentesting as these two operating systems account for like 99% of the total market of mobile OS, and most likely your mobile application will be targeting both Google Play and Apple Store.

Benefits of Mobile Application Penetration Testing

Mobile application penetration testing requires a certain investment of efforts and resources, however, it provides multiple benefits and prevents a lot of potential issues for the application owner and the end users.

  • Improved application security: mobile application penetration test will help discover vulnerabilities and let the developers eliminate them before they are exploited in security breaches.
  • Compliance requirements: more and more industries are creating or hardening further the security requirements for mobile (and other) applications which should be met. Penetration testing reports would usually be an essential component of those requirements.
  • Improved confidence: Having a mobile application penetration test report, and respective certificate, you prove to the partners, customers, authorities, etc, that you have taken required security precautions and your product is secure enough to be used.
  • Cost savings: the identification and elimination of vulnerabilities to avoid security breaches will save you a lot of money on damage recovery efforts, fines, etc.
  • Advanced security awareness for developers: penetration test, especially its remediation stage in coordination with the application security engineers will educate the software developers in the area of secure by-design software development.

Security and Compliance Standards

There exist dozens of industry frameworks, security standards, and compliance standards. They include OWASP MASVS, NIST 800-53, Google Play Data Safety independent security review, and many others. Experienced penetration testing companies usually develop their proprietary mobile penetration testing methodologies, uniting approaches and requirements of the numerous standards, MASVS in the first place. OWASP MASVS is an industry standard for mobile application security and provides for 7 areas in which the mobile application is to be checked:

  • Security of storage of sensitive data
  • Usage of cryptography for sensitive data
  • Authentication and authorization mechanisms
  • Data security during communication transits
  • Security of interaction with other applications
  • Best practices in coding and security updates
  • Protection against reverse engineering.

These are the most common groups of mobile application vulnerabilities, and each mobile application pentest usually covers all of them unless, of course, otherwise determined by the application functionality or architecture.

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About Web Application Penetration Testing

What is web application penetration testing?

Web application penetration testing is one of the two most common types of penetration tests. The company providing reliable penetration testing services must possess expertise in web application pentesting unless it is a niche cybersecurity service provider. Read below on how to choose the appropriate provider of web application pen testing services.

Penetration testing for web applications involves well-planned, controlled attacks designed to access sensitive information within a web platform (informational website, SaaS application, e-commerce site, etc), aiming to evaluate the web application security posture. Conducted from within or outside the system, these attacks generate insights into the system’s resilience, pinpointing any security gaps and potential threats that could lead to a breach.

Scope of web application penetration testing

As a result of web application penetration testing, the testers identify the vulnerabilities on the server side and in the functionalities and components of the web application, such as front and back end, etc. The testers will measure their impact and propose remediation measures to improve the overall security posture of the web application.

  • One has to understand, that every web application penetration test is unique, and the outcomes will depend on several conditions, with the goals of the web application’s owner being nearly most important. The majority of the pen tests are carried out to find the most critical vulnerabilities as defined by OWASP and other security standards.
  • When testing the server side of the web application, ethical hackers will focus on poorly secured services, outdated software, and firmware, configuration errors.
  • With the web application itself, the focus will be such common application vulnerabilities as SQL, XSS, SSTI, etc. injections, access control flaws, possible privilege escalation, authentication, and session management issues, vulnerable third-party components, etc.
  • Special attention will be given to the vulnerabilities in the APIs, as well as to the search for logical flaws in the workflows of the applications.

The benefits of web penetration testing

By conducting web application penetration testing you will be able to achieve multiple important benefits, such as:

  • Identify vulnerabilities.Most importantly, web application pen testing will help you identify flaws in your applications or IT infrastructure. This way you will be able to eliminate these flaws before they are exploited by the attacker.
  • Meet compliance requirements.It is an explicit requirement in many countries and industries to perform the penetration testing of web applications.
  • Assess your cybersecurity systems. If you operate some cybersecurity infrastructure, such as firewalls, etc. then you need to test their efficiency and correctness of settings. Web application pen testing includes real-world attacks that will help make these assessments.
  • Assess your cybersecurity policies. Penetration testing is an excellent way to assess your cybersecurity policies.

How to choose a web application penetration testing company?

There are several things to look at when choosing a cybersecurity partner to conduct a web application penetration test:

  • Make sure the cybersecurity company provides web application penetration testing services. Checking the relevant web page on the website will be sufficient in most cases
  • Check the experience of the company, number of projects, and customer reviews. The latter can be done at clutch.co.
  • Ask the potential service provider for a quote accompanied by references, a sample of a penetration test report, and any other relevant information
  • Ask specifically what would be the qualifications of the pentesters to work on your project, such as professional certification of OSCP, OSCE, eWPTX type.
  • Ask if there will be at least two ethical hackers to work on your project, which is a recommended practice.
  • Ask for a call with a potential service provider to get a first-hand impression of the company and its employees. Though subjective, this is often an important step to making a decision.
  • Check for the price. There is no need to overpay to get quality penetration testing services. You can have a small web penetration testing for a simple application starting from 1800 USD.

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Types of Penetration Testing

Different approaches and types of penetration testing exist. One can find around different typologies and nearly any of them will include the following:

It is worth noting that all the above types of pentest require special skills and knowledge, so when choosing a supplier of pentesting services, you have to ask questions about a specific experience. Typically, a well-established penetration testing services company will provide at least a golden trio of penetesting types: network, web, and mobile.

Network Pentesting is one of the most common types of such security assessments, and it serves to identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses in the networked IT infrastructure, which includes not only firewalls, switches, and routers, but also servers, storages, workstations, printers, and so on. Such type of pentesting helps assess the level of preparedness for such attacks, as firewall bypass, router attacks, proxy server attacks, database attacks, and so on.

Wireless Network Pentesting is a specific type of network penetration testing, and focuses on connections between wireless devices and home or office wi-fi networks. One of the peculiarities of wireless pentests is that they are performed onsite because they need to be in the signal range. However, certain devices can be connected to a wireless network and allow a remote pentester to run the checks. Wireless networks should be pentested, as they are among the most common sources of data leakage due to their users’ relatively more random nature.

Web Application Pentesting serves to identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses in web applications. This could be quite a sophisticated type of pentesting, because its scope can include font-end, database, back-end, and other varieties of web application pentesting. The scope should include every endpoint of every web application interacting with the user. Some of the tests, that might be a part of such security assessment include (for the front-end): Cross-Site scripting attacks, clickjacking attacks, form hijacking, HTML injection, Open Redirection, and others.

Mobile Application Pentesting is one more type of penetration testing, that is extremely popular today, as more and more businesses and public services start using mobile applications. Such pentests include searching for various vulnerabilities in mobile applications, such as insecure data storage, insufficient encryption, or data authentication mechanisms, input validation flaws, exposed APIs, and dozens more.

Social Engineering Pentesting stands a bit aside from other types of penttesting, as it relies more on social, communications, and, to some extent, design skills, in addition to the technical. When attempting a social engineering attack, a cybercriminal tries to lure the victim into disclosing very sensitive information, such as credentials, for instance. There exists a wide variety of social engineering techniques, such as phishing, vishing, smishing, imposter attacks, and dozens more.

Despite the seemingly less offensive nature of social engineering, it’s a dangerous illusion. A staggering 98% of all cyberattacks rely now on some elements of social engineering. Such attacks prove successful far too often, as the human remains the weakest link in the sophisticated system of cybersecurity.

So, social engineering pentesting, combined with cybersecurity awareness training, has become a cornerstone of today’s cybersecurity posture for any organization.

Physical Penetesting is another specific type of penetration testing, as it necessarily involves attempts to compromise some physical barriers, such as locks, cameras, fencing, different sensors, etc, safeguarding some infrastructure, systems, etc.

Such a type of security assessment might look somewhat too straightforward, but, upon consideration, it proves to be the easiest way to compromise in certain cases. If a criminal gets physical access to your networking equipment, that will be by far the easiest way into your network.

There are other types of penetration testing, as well, and we will talk about them in one of our coming articles.

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Trilight Security Recognized by GoodFirms as the Best Company to Work With

In an era when every business, whether big or small, is investing in digital technologies and tools, keeping the security in place is challenging for firms. Not only implementation, but the management of these technologies with efficiency and consistency is also critical to get desired results. Even the slightest ignorance could hugely cost businesses in terms of service downtime, customer dissatisfaction, poor user experience, reduced sales, etc. Top IT services Companies with relevant experience in cyber security, development, testing, deployment, and platform migration can give the estimated RoI, data privacy, proactive monitoring capabilities and improved uptime, while maintaining consistent flow of operations and functions.

GoodFirms has recognized Trilight Security for its experience and specialized skills that put the Company as one of the business leaders through the Leaders Matrix program, and was identified as the “Best Company to Work With.” Headquartered in Estonia, Trilight Security is a leading provider of cutting edge cyber security solutions such as SOC design, implementation, and operation; cloud security; pentesting; cloud migration, endpoint protection, identity and access management, vulnerability assessment, network security, IT consultation, and many more at affordable prices.

In recent days, Trilight Security has been focusing on managed IT security services and outsourcing to rapidly expand their client portfolio.

For the year 2024, GoodFirms named Trilight Security as the “Best Company to Work With.”

If you are looking for the Top IT Services Companies to work for, Trilight Security is the best one out there recognized by GoodFirms Leaders Matrix. Right from its inception in 2020, Trilight Security is driven by the vision of providing quality and affordable cybersecurity services to clients in the EU and North American region. With highly skilled employees, sophisticated technologies, best practices and agile methodologies, the company aims to bring the same value to customers in a fraction of in-house cybersecurity costs. GoodFirms recently recognized Trilight Security as the “Best Company to work with” in 2024. 

As a leading IT services company, Trilight Security needs a goal to be told; rest, the company will put forth all its expertise to transform the idea into a working solution.

The company has highly experienced, knowledgeable and skilled teams of security analysts, SOC architects, penetration testers, incident responders, digital forensic experts, etc., to cater to the needs of SMBs and large enterprises. Additionally, the company partnered with a vast partner network of the US and EU-based IT service providers. 

“We would like to stress our capabilities in provision of white label cybersecurity services, first of all penetration testing and SOCaaS,” added Trilight Security.

Why is Trilight Security the Best Company to Work With?

For any business, responding to the growing demands and opportunities of technological advancement starts by moving out of conventional thinking or outdated business models. Similarly, Trilight Security seems to be following the same direction. The company has been on a mission to serve value-added and cost-effective cybersecurity services to clients by being creative and experimenting with innovative models to deliver its total value.

“We believe Trilight Security’s positioning in GoodFirms’ Leaders Matrix report reflects the company’s ability to help its clients with cyber security services that can deliver total reinvention, including helping them that best meets their digital needs,” said GoodFirms. 

Trilight Security had to undergo an assessment under the GoodFirms Leaders Matrix program. The evaluation covered the service landscape, verified client reviews, experience in the domain, market, competitive positioning, and much more. Such analysis helped in bringing out strategic information about Trilight Security’s capabilities, competitive differentiation, and market position. 

A few reviews of Trilight Security:

Trilight Security is Trusted by the Companies Around the World

About the “Best Company to Work With” Badge

“Best Company To Work With” is an exclusive program run by GoodFirms where the Leaders Matrix companies are recognized with a Badge, an exclusive article about the Company, and a supporting PR. Such recognition stands as a support to developing trust and authenticity within the B2B community. It also allows the participating companies to improve their ranking – rank higher in the Leaders Matrix categories, receive inbound backlinks from GoodFirms LeadersRoundtable podcast campaign, and get a certified Badge saying, “Best Company to work with.”

About GoodFirms

GoodFirms is a B2B research, review, and listing platform helping businesses accelerate their digital journey and to maximize the value of modern technology. The company connects service providers with service seekers through a comprehensive and thoroughly researched fact-based list of the best services and solutions. Recognized as the most reliable source for the B2B market, GoodFirms has world-class experience with partners across the globe.

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