The point of pen testing your system is to discover its security vulnerabilities. Testers require much information when testing a system to simulate a realistic cyber-attack. Most of this information they get on their own during one of the phases of pen testing, but the business can also provide some information for the testers.
Testing projects are grouped based on how much information the tester has access to about the system from the beginning. There are three types of testing based on this classification, and we’ll discuss them in this article.
- White Box Testing;
- Grey Box Testing;
- Black Box Testing.
White Box Penetration Testing
White box penetration tests are known as clear-box, open-box, or logic-driven testing. You may need a white box penetration test if you want to identify potential vulnerabilities through infrastructure assessment, mobile app testing, wireless security, network security, or physical security analysis in an assumed breach scenario. In this testing, the business gives the tester all information and access to the architecture documentation, full network access and comprehensive information on the system.
This information can be a lot for the testers as they must go through all the system’s information manually. As a result, white box penetration testing can take a longer time to get done compared to black and grey box testing. Having access to all this information about the system before the testing begins makes it possible for testers to run a static analysis of the security of the project.
Many companies use white box penetration testing to study the security at their systems’ core, which is why it’s a great choice.
- It is very comprehensive in analysing both internal and external vulnerabilities;
- Accesses areas in a system where the black box doesn’t.
For all the advantages of white box penetration, it isn’t the perfect solution to the problem. In some situations having access to all that information about the system before doing the test can make white box testers miss some vulnerabilities due to bias.
Black Box Penetration Testing
A black box pen test is a typical hacker experience where the pen tester is not provided with any information on the architecture or source code review of the system except for public ones. A black box testing searches for vulnerabilities in systems penetrable to outside exploitative attacks.
The lack of information in a black box pen test frees the tester and allows them to think outside the box. It also makes the testing process automated and fast. The main disadvantage of black box testing is that it focuses only on the external vulnerabilities, and if the outer layer isn’t breached, internal vulnerabilities might go unnoticed.
Grey Box Penetration Testing
Grey box testing is a fusion between white and black box testing. In a grey box pen test, the tester is given some information about the system, but not all. In this situation, the grey box tester isn’t your average hacker, nor do they have all the information.
A grey box test aims to find out the system’s vulnerabilities to threats originating from the sides. Access to some information in a grey box pen test saves time and resources that would have been spent studying the system.
Knowing all the information about the different boxes, there’s only one question left.
White Box, Black Box, Or Grey Box?
There’s no straight answer. It depends on what you want. If you want to mimic an accurate cyber attack simulation, the black box is the one for it. If you also want a pen test where a hacker accesses a highly protected account or data to remind you, the white box is the right step.
The choice will always be dependent on what you need. Despite that, you can’t go wrong with the grey box; it is the perfect mixture between the white and black box pen test.
