White Box Testing in Ethical Hacking
>> Sunday, September 06, 2009
This article is posted under the ‘Ethical Hacking Student Guide Series’ Don’t forget to subscribe to be updated.
White box testing is the form of penetration testing as I explained before; it is performed with the full knowledge of subjected network or system. Ethical hackers are hired for this purpose which could be freelancers or from professional firms which carries out such tests for you.
Analysis of Network
Ethical hackers when comes to some company it gives him the full access to network. He first studies the network, and gathers following data about the network.
1. Operating systems running on all computers
2. Types of networks & number of networks
3. Information about current security measures applied.
4. Takes the previous reports of network security managers or ethical hackers.
5. He gets the all addresses of all database security & application servers.
By taking all this data ethical hacker prepare the actual map of the network & use it for further security application.
Security Measures in White Box
The security measures are common in both white box & the black box testing but what they know about the system matters much more that what they apply after. So white box in plain simple words is just a penetration test having complete knowledge of sytem.
Why To Apply White Box Text?
White box allows reduce waste of ethical hackers’ time in mapping the network. Because mapping network is very time consuming. If he have to complete the complete network securing in less time or have a closer deadline then it is preferred to have a white box test. Again, one more important thing is he directly work on finding new & unique vulnerabilities in the system which are undetectable by Vulnerability scanners.
Why Not to prefer White Box Test?
White box is not what actually a criminal hacker perform. And if we are suppose to track the criminal hackers mind & the way he works, black box is the thing exactly what we should go for. Without knowing anything about network ethical hackers gathers information from outside & attack on system & finds possible threats to system or network.
