If you remember the movie "Hackers", with Angelina Jolie as the lead role, then you probably thought how cool it was to be a hacker. After a couple of clicks on the keyboard, they were in the system. However, revisiting this film in the present day, many QA engineers would cringe.
Here are seven tips that put these principles into practice. 👇
All developers and testers understand that much planning goes into an attack, whether a minor attack or an attempt to compromise data. This prompts developers to put forth a lot of effort to prevent someone like “Angelina” from hacking their product in less than three minutes.
In many ways, testing the readiness of your product to withstand attacks is the responsibility of the engineers. Therefore, the better their strategy for penetration tests, the higher their chances of finding all possible vulnerabilities within the system.
Following pen testing best practices starts with understanding the structure of the process itself. Each phase builds on the one before it. Skipping a phase does not save time; it produces gaps that attackers find before your next test does.
Phase 1: Planning and reconnaissance.
Define objectives, scope, and rules of engagement before anything else. Gather publicly available information about targets: IP ranges, domain names, employee data, and technology stack details. The quality of this phase determines the quality of everything that follows.
Phase 2: Scanning and enumeration.
Use automated and manual tools to identify open ports, running services, and potential entry points. Enumerate user accounts, shared resources, and application endpoints. The goal is building a complete picture of the attack surface before any exploitation attempt begins.
Phase 3: Exploitation.
Attempt to exploit identified vulnerabilities and gain access. This is where penetration testing best practices diverge most sharply from vulnerability scanning: exploitation confirms whether a weakness is real and measurable, not theoretical. Document every successful and failed attempt with evidence.
Phase 4: Post-exploitation and lateral movement.
Once access is gained, test how far an attacker could move. Can they escalate privileges? Reach sensitive data? Access other systems? This phase reveals the actual blast radius of a successful attack, not just the entry point.
Phase 5: Reporting.
Compile findings into a report covering what was tested, what was found, how it was exploited, and recommended remediation steps. Prioritise by severity. Include evidence: screenshots, logs, and reproduction steps that developers can act on without ambiguity.
aqua cloud supports the full pentest lifecycle. Teams use it to manage test cases across all five phases, log findings with visual evidence through Capture, and track remediation from discovery to closure in one platform.
Wikipedia is considered the most popular source for falling into a rabbit hole. It would be a crime not to use this principle to avoid mistakes during your penetration testing — “…according to the principle of obliquity, the meandering path may eventually be more productive than a direct approach.”
Vulnerabilities are likely connected, creating a path of attack.
You must find at least one vulnerability and explore every device, browser, database, etc. This will identify possible loopholes, weaknesses and prevention methods for each discovered issue.
Pentesting isn’t like your dentist appointment. Yeah, yearly check-ups are recommended, but when you finally show up, there’s already a massive cavity in your tooth. So that’s why it is better to have regular check-ups even if it seems unnecessary.
HelpSystems research shows most respondents only run pen testing once or twice a year (16% twice a year, 17% quarterly); that’s not good.
Unfortunately, a lack of regular testing can give hackers more time to plan different attack methods.
If you still think that a business consists of a group of dudes sitting in a conference room talking about money, devoid of QA, you’re being shortsighted. Business always correlates with risk, and so do the measures undertaken to mitigate these risks; this defines exemplary businesspeople.
So take a look into your company’s security goals to set a better pentest workflow: what are they based on, what assets are critical and what can be addressed later? As soon as you assess all risks, you can undertake appropriate remediation efforts towards mitigating malware attacks and establishing the strongest penetration testing workflow.
Many QA newbies rely on serendipitous discoveries while testing. They tend to stick to this ideology regarding their system’s protection. They hope developers didn’t leave an opening for hacker intervention; that’s foolish because hackers don’t think this way.
aqua cloud's AI Copilot generates structured pen test cases from requirements in seconds
Penetration testing without a defined scope produces inconsistent results and legal exposure. Your team wastes time on areas that do not matter while missing the ones that carry real risk.
Define exactly what is in scope: specific IP ranges, applications, environments, and user roles. Document what is out of scope just as clearly. Get a signed scope agreement in place before a single test runs.
Scope creep during a pentest is one of the most common causes of incomplete findings. When testers follow a thread beyond agreed boundaries, results become unverifiable and comparisons between test cycles break down. A clear scope document solves this before it starts.
Fixing a reported vulnerability is not the same as closing it. Development teams often patch the specific issue described in the report while the underlying condition that allowed it remains. Retesting confirms the fix actually works.
After each remediation cycle, run targeted tests against every issue that was reported. Do not wait for the next full engagement. Partial fixes are common, and retesting catches them before they reach production.
Track retest results against the original findings in your test management tool. This creates a clear record of what was fixed, when, and by whom. aqua cloud links retest results directly to original defect reports, so your audit trail is complete without extra documentation effort.
To ensure they have the correct target, they must identify and research every available device, application or database.
The best QA engineers usually walk a similar path — they think like a criminal; to beat them at their own game. So take a minute, and consider what you would do if you wanted to cause a breach or compromise specific data. Please create and document test cases for each of these steps.
95% of users noted improvements in their QA after a month with aqua
Let’s say you’ve already done everything we described above… but want to go even further. Using the proper agile testing tool is an excellent opportunity to enhance penetration testing.
As it’s a common practice to make changes in your product infrastructure after penetration testing, it would be awesome to see the difference before and after. For example, aqua has a function for super detailed reporting which can depict, in percentage, how much each part of the system remains untested or unprotected. To summarise, try to find a comprehensive test management solution.
Penetration testing remains a pillar of high-quality products. You can’t underestimate its impact even though there’s still a big chance to screw it up, no matter how fantastic your penetration testing platform or your test cases game is. Only a complex and pervasive approach, with a strong plan, can achieve satisfactory results for your pen testing. However, in a bundle with the tips we’ve given you in this article, you can significantly enhance this approach.
Discover aqua for better penetration testing
There 6 main types of penetration testing:
However, there are some more types, such as
Here are the top 3 tools for penetration testing or, as it is also called, pen testing:
Wireshark is an open-source tool and is compatible with different systems. You can use it for quick capture and intercepting of network packets.
Burp suit is provided as a toolset for application security testing. It enables you to perform a man-in-the-middle attack, localised between a web server and a browser.
Netsparker is an automatic web application for penetration testing. The tool scans from cross-site scripting to SQL injection.
Bonus: aqua ALM
aqua ALM is a powerful tool that fits project managers, developers, QA leads and engineers. You can maintain the full development cycle and quality assurance within one solution.
Pentest is an ethical simulated cyber attack aiming to find weaknesses and vulnerabilities (not the same as vulnerability assessment) in a system and also evaluate risks, security level and potential threats from unauthorised parties.
White box, black box and grey box are considered targets for all types of penetration testing.
Vulnerability assessment identifies and lists known weaknesses in your system. Penetration testing goes further: it exploits those weaknesses to show real attack impact. One catalogs risks. The other proves they are real and measurable.
Test at minimum annually. After major infrastructure changes, new releases, or security incidents, test immediately. High-risk environments like fintech or healthcare benefit from quarterly pen testing. Critical systems may warrant more frequent checks.
