Penetration Testing mailing list archives

Re: rules of engagement scope


From: "Morning Wood" <se_cur_ity () hotmail com>
Date: Sat, 13 May 2006 13:25:00 -0700

I'd be curious to find out what the typical scoping is for a pen test rules of engagement agreement.

do blackhats play by rules? no

Do folks go with a "anything goes" or "no holds barred" approach?

yes and yes, otherwise it would be worthless to the customer and
then becomes a vulnerability test

What limits on ROE do people normally see in these types of agreements?

DoS conditions are generally frowned upon, but cannot always be avoided.
This can be defined during the scope agreement, although I might consider a DoS against a critical service to be a "success" ( DoS is representive of killing a needed service or denying access to a service / application by a fault of the software[ not a connection flood type of DoS ] ) in other words, a attack that kills an exchange server to deny email access could be considered a "success"

defining the scope ( or ROE ) with your customer prior to pentesting is very critical, and can encompas a wide range of "what is allowed". IMHO a pen-test should be just that, a no-holds-barred all out attempt to circumvent applied security measures at all costs.

my2bits,
MW



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