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Choosing the right access method for your Internal Infrastructure assessment
Choosing the right access method for your Internal Infrastructure assessment

This guide will walk you through the different access methods we offer for Internal Infrastructure Penetration Tests.

Matthew Elliott avatar
Written by Matthew Elliott
Updated over a year ago

On-site In Person

Process

A Penetration tester would physically attend your site with their corporate laptop. Testing will be undertaken on your own network in person.

Pros

  • Physical access is often the simplest solution for an internal infrastructure assessment. Having a contact physically available also eases and expedites communications and allows any potential problems to be overcome more quickly.

Cons

  • Expenses are charged for physical site visits. Depending on the location and duration of the test this may be something that requires consideration.

NUC (Next Unit of Computing)

Process

An Intel NUC (a small, barebones PC) is configured with Kali Linux with a number of licensed and proprietary tools. This is shipped to your address.

The NUC will obtain a DHCP IP address, then create a reverse SSH connection to a Remote Access Server in our network. This connection is then used to execute commands on the NUC.

Pros

  • Allows physical access to your environment without having to arrange transport/expenses for a Penetration tester.

Cons

  • A network with strong segregation may need to change ports throughout the test window. This can be time-consuming, especially when relying on remote communications.

  • Arranging delivery/collection of the device adds additional overhead to the project.
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Virtual Machine (VM)


Process

Similar to the NUC, a VM is configured with Kali Linux or Ubuntu with a number of licensed and proprietary tools.

Pros

  • Allows physical access to your environment without having to arrange transport/expenses for a Penetration tester.

Cons

  • At present Bulletproof does not have a data store capable of delivering the VM to customers. As a result, we are reliant on your infrastructure being capable of setting up a method to receive the VM (e.g. an FTP server).

Virtual Private Network (VPN)


Process

If your company has a VPN, we ask you to provide us with some login credentials and the Penetration Tester completes the test via your VPN.

Pros

  • Many companies already have VPN access in place and account set-up is often simple to provision.

Cons

  • Access via a VPN is often slow.

  • Scans run over VPN can cause disruption to your service.

  • Some traffic is not sent via VPN, specifically, any layer 2 attacks would be out-of-scope. It is important to note that layer 2 type attacks can be extremely dangerous and in many instances can lead to an entire Domain compromise. Using a VPN prevents this type of testing from taking place, as such the report will be caveated.

  • In a network with segregation, it may not be possible to assess the entire scope of work.

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