I share your frustration and I will end up writing my own internal pen-testing
methodology that I will use based on my own personal experience combining
details from a lot of different sources (OSSTMM (high level, I wish v3 would be
open to the public soon :-P ), ISSAF (I love the detail btw), methodologies
used in various books on pen-testing (I'm amazed at how many books there are on
the subject and they are all over the place in terms of quality)).
On the flip-side, you dont want to be "locked" into a stringent methodology
without keeping yourself open to new attack vectors, perhaps that is one of the
reasons that the existing methodologies are in the state they are today. Call
it "artistic" license or whatever, but many in the pen-testing field didnt
exactly get to where they are today by following methodologies. There are a
lot of variables to consider and each pen-test engagement is different.
One of the more difficult parts of pen-testing is the breadth of knowledge
required to be successful (networking, operating systems, internet
fundamentals, development lifecycle, databases, name services, telecom, XML/Web
services, the ability to write your own tools, etc, etc). Many of the books
cover the more "common" things to check but it is critical that you have access
to people/resources should you come across something you've never seen before
or need to get up-to-speed quickly (reading, testing in a lab, find others in
your network of friends that can help, etc).
-off
On Wed, May 17, 2006 at 12:38:39AM -0000, mythoughts@aboutosstmm.com wrote:
I find this thread interesting because I have never seen an OSSTMM that has
actually been finished, yet I have never seen any negative comments relating
to it.
I think that it is a fantastic high level guide, but to actually use the
methodology takes a huge amount of effort to figure out how to technically
perform each of the steps.
I understand that it is supposed to be "upto the creativity of the pen
tester" to figure out how to attack a target, but this doesn't provide a
consistent result between pen testers, which is what the whole methodology is
supposed to do - provide a consistent and comparable result for a client.
I haven't had a thorough look at ISSAF yet, but was impressed with the detail
that it provides.
I am interested to hear what others think in relation to these comments.
Anon
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