common-pentest-methodology

Penetration Testing Methodology (PTES-Aligned)

Priority: P0 (CRITICAL)

Always-Apply Rules

• No Exploit = No Report: Every finding requires reproducible Proof-of-Concept. Hypotheses without PoC are discarded.
• No Production Testing: All dynamic probes target local/staging only. Confirm authorization before Phase 1.
• No Single-Platform Bias: Assess backend, frontend, AND mobile surfaces when in-scope.

Workflow

Load alongside /pentest workflow. Provides methodology backbone for all 7 phases.

1. Scope → Define test mode (whitebox/greybox/blackbox), platforms, exclusions.
2. Recon → Build asset inventory per platform. See platform-recon.
3. Threat Model → Rank endpoints by risk. See threat-modeling.
4. Analyze → Run vulnerability matrix across all domains. Load common-owasp, common-security-audit, common-dast-tooling.
5. Exploit → Validate each finding with PoC. See exploit-techniques.
6. Post-Exploit → Assess blast radius, lateral movement, privilege escalation.
7. Report → Audit-grade output with CVSS scoring. See report-template and compliance-mapping.

Platform Coverage Matrix

Domain	Backend/API	Frontend/Web	Mobile (iOS/Android)
Injection	SQLi, CMDi, NoSQLi, LDAPi	Template injection, DOM sinks	Content provider SQLi, Intent injection
XSS	Response encoding	DOM XSS, innerHTML, framework bypasses	WebView loadUrl, JavaScript bridges
Auth	JWT, OAuth, Session, MFA	Token storage, session management	Keychain/Keystore, biometric bypass
AuthZ	BOLA/IDOR, BFLA, Mass Assignment	Client-side role gates	Local permission checks without server
SSRF	HTTP client + user URL	SSR with user-supplied URL	Custom scheme fetching arbitrary URLs
Business Logic	Race conditions, workflow bypass	Client-only validation, price tamper	IAP bypass, receipt validation skip
Crypto	Weak hash, missing TLS	HTTP calls, weak CSP	Missing cert pin, cleartext traffic
Config	CORS, debug mode, headers	Source maps, debug flags in prod	debuggable=true, ATS exceptions
Deps/SCA	npm audit, pip-audit, cargo audit	Bundle vuln analysis	pod audit, Gradle dependency scan
Secrets	Entropy + regex + liveness	Secrets in JS bundles	Keys in BuildConfig/Info.plist
LLM/AI	Prompt injection, excessive agency	Output to DOM sinks	Agent tools without confirmation

Continuous & Compliance Execution

• Continuous Testing: Execute Delta scans on PRs or Replay regression PoCs. See continuous-pentest.
• Compliance Mapping: Map findings to SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, or OWASP MASVS. See compliance-mapping.

Anti-Patterns

• No "scan and dump": Raw tool output not a pentest. Correlate findings across SAST + DAST + manual.
• No severity inflation: Theoretical risk without exploit evidence ≠ confirmed vulnerability.
• No happy-path-only: Test error states, edge cases, race conditions, not just golden flow.

References

• Platform Reconnaissance — Phase 1 recon commands per platform
• Threat Modeling Guide — Phase 2 attack surface prioritization
• Exploit Techniques — Phase 4 PoC construction per vuln class
• Report Template — Phase 6 audit-grade report format
• OWASP Mobile Top 10 — Mobile vulnerability detection
• Compliance Mapping — SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS mapping
• Continuous Pentesting — CI/CD integration and Delta testing