Note: This blog post was originally published on May 11, 2022, and was reviewed, optimized, and updated by internal experts on Dec. 15, 2023.

Oro provides content designed to educate and help audiences on their compliance journey.

Penetration testing, also known as pentesting, is a form of “ethical hacking.” Is your business prepared to be hacked? There is only one way to find out—and it might be by hacking yourself.

Pentesting is a process where testers attempt to access or exploit vulnerabilities in your organization’s computer system, network, website, and applications within a controlled pentest platform. Pentesting acts as a simulated cyberattack, aiming to evaluate the effectiveness of your organization’s security measures and let you know if you need to make any improvements.

Pentesters are ethical hackers who perform this simulated attack internally or externally, manually or automatically. The opportunities for improvement they uncover should prevent any real hackers from finding weaknesses and security issues in your system.

There are multiple different types of pentesting, and each penetration test has its own advantages. Depending on what industry your organization is in and what goals you have for the test, you will perform a different type of test for the results you’re looking for.

What are the three types of pentesting?

There are three categories of penetration tests, which range from complete surprise and disruption to planned testing with an internal partner who performs pentests.

Black box pentest

With these external penetration tests, no data is provided to the tester or company conducting the testing. This type of test most closely represents a real-world scenario.  The attacker attempts to find holes and/or exploitable weaknesses in applications, architecture, configurations, API endpoints, and humans (via social engineering) to gain access to the environment.  

White box pentest

And finally, an internal, white box test—which is the softest approach when testing your security infrastructure. This test includes full disclosure of network and application architecture, IP addresses, and credentials. The test fully simulates a targeted attack with almost no system disruption.

Grey box pentest

During gray box testing, the tester will have partial access to the internal network or web application. This can be provided by making the tester a domain administrator or giving them software code and system architecture diagrams.

In most cases, only a set of login credentials for computer systems is provided. This strikes a balance between depth and efficiency. As most real-world scenarios include the attacker doing reconnaissance, a grey box test can be efficient and authentic.

The main advantage of gray box testing is the reporting provides a more focused and efficient assessment of your network’s security. Instead of a trial and error approach, gray pentesters can more easily identify weak spots in the network from the inside. From there, they can strategize ways to fill the gaps.