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Penetration Testing: A Step-by-Step Methodology

Learn the five phases of professional penetration testing: reconnaissance, scanning, exploitation, post-exploitation, and reporting.

Why Penetration Testing?

Vulnerability scanners find known weaknesses, but only a skilled human tester can chain misconfigurations and logic flaws to demonstrate real business impact — the same way an attacker would.

The Five Phases

  1. Reconnaissance: OSINT gathering using Shodan, LinkedIn, and DNS enumeration.
  2. Scanning: Port scanning, service enumeration, and vulnerability identification with Nmap and Nessus.
  3. Exploitation: Attempting to gain unauthorized access using identified vulnerabilities.
  4. Post-Exploitation: Demonstrating lateral movement, privilege escalation, and data access.
  5. Reporting: Delivering a risk-ranked report with remediation guidance.