Core penetration testing vocabulary tested on the CompTIA PenTest+ exam.
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- What is a penetration test?
- An authorized simulated attack on a system to identify security vulnerabilities before malicious actors can exploit them.
- How does black box testing differ from white box testing?
- Black box: attacker has no prior knowledge of the system. White box: attacker has full knowledge of the system design and code.
- What is gray box testing?
- Testing with partial knowledge of the system, simulating an insider or someone with limited system access.
- Define rules of engagement in a penetration test.
- Written guidelines that specify what systems can be tested, what methods are allowed, testing windows, and escalation procedures.
- What is the purpose of a Statement of Work (SOW)?
- A formal document that outlines the scope, objectives, timeline, deliverables, and cost of a penetration test.
- What is reconnaissance in penetration testing?
- The initial phase of gathering information about a target system without exploiting it.
- Define passive reconnaissance.
- Gathering information about a target using only publicly available data without directly interacting with the target.
- Define active reconnaissance.
- Gathering information by directly interacting with the target system, such as port scanning or sending probes.
- What is footprinting?
- The process of gathering basic information about a target organization, such as IP ranges, employee names, and domains.
- What is social engineering?
- Manipulating people into divulging confidential information or performing actions that compromise security.
- Define phishing.
- A social engineering attack that uses deceptive emails or messages to trick users into revealing credentials or downloading malware.
- What is privilege escalation?
- The process of exploiting a vulnerability to gain higher levels of access than initially granted.
- Define lateral movement.
- The technique of moving from one compromised system to another on the same network to expand access.
- What is persistence?
- The ability of an attacker to maintain access to a system even after the initial exploit or across reboots.
- What is data exfiltration?
- The unauthorized extraction and transmission of sensitive data from a target system.