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.
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.