AI and automated penetration testing tools are becoming increasingly widespread in our industry, but it’s critical to fully understand them before attempting to leverage their capabilities as part of your security infrastructure.
Penetration testing has always been an important, proactive cybersecurity practice. As our world becomes more digitally connected and the number of people online grows, so does the number of cyberattacks.
In 2023 alone, the industry saw a 20% increase in data breaches from the previous year.
As the danger grows, so does the number of regulations, compliance requirements, and potential gaps there are to check and double-check in an organization’s security posture.
You scan, patch, implement monitoring software, train your staff, create response plans, etc., but at the end of the day, can a real-world attacker still get in?
Despite everything we do for our security programs, we still have to check. Traditionally, that’s where a penetration test comes in.
The final exam, so to speak, for a security program.
The Development of Penetration Testing Over Time
Like all things in tech, penetration testing has evolved rapidly.
Manual Penetration Testing
Initially, pen testing was a largely manual process, relying on the expertise and creativity of individual security professionals. Testers would manually examine systems for weaknesses, using the same techniques employed by actual, malicious hackers.
Automated tools began to emerge very early on, capable of scanning systems for known vulnerabilities and executing common attack vectors. This eliminated some of the tedium for human testers, reducing the need for red team experts to spend their time trying every attack by hand.
Today, penetration testing has become a more sophisticated and systematic process, combining both manual and automated techniques to provide comprehensive assessments of security posture.
And recently, of course, AI-enabled penetration testing has made its debut.
What is Automated Penetration Testing?
Automated penetration testing uses software trained to explore potential vulnerabilities and identify weaknesses in security systems by simulating attacks based on an algorithm and existing knowledge of attack vectors.
Human penetration testers usually use automated tools to streamline their tests and prioritize efforts. When they don’t have to try every single vulnerability, it frees the tester up to focus on more complex attacks.
With this in mind, perhaps the better question is, “What parts of a penetration test are being automated?”
Automated penetration testing tools determine whether a system’s base security controls work effectively and quickly identify areas of improvement. They can also look for easily compromised credentials, exposed data, misconfigurations, poor security controls, and even weak security policies.
A human penetration tester can utilize a tool like this to streamline their test, while synchronously supplying their own expertise, situational awareness, and creativity to locate vulnerabilities and attempt more intelligent attack vectors.
Autonomous or Continous “Penetration Testing”
Tools that purport to fully automate penetration testing or offer continuous testing have appeared recently, though the truth is that they are a bit of a misnomer. The reality is that these products are not penetration tests at all, but rather vulnerability scans at their core- a slightly different kind of security service.
The difference is in the name. True penetration testing objectively cannot be fully automated with the tools available to the general public at this point in time.
We’ll get into the specifics of why this is the case a little later, but for now, let’s discuss the pros and cons of these tools, as they do have their place in the security world.
Pros
- For SMBs with limited budgets, these tests can be a great way to identify vulnerabilities.
- Autonomous ‘penetration tests’ are fast, efficient, scalable solutions that can supply an organization with a lot of valuable data about their attack surface and security posture very quickly.
- Many are also continuous solutions. This means your organization is getting a constant or regular picture of flaws in its armor.
Cons
- These tests are limited only to known vulnerabilities, which inhibits their ability to identify risks unique to an organization or environment.
- They’re also limited in complexity. These tools are not able to competently execute the types of complex, multi-stage attacks, that experienced human penetration testers would employ.
- They also do not yet exhibit a logical understanding of business impact and can overwhelm an organization with poorly prioritized, and inconsequential findings.
- Autonomous ‘penetration tests’ are often notably ‘noisier’ or not as subtle as a human attacker- this means a monitoring system is more likely to be triggered, contributing to a false sense of security brought about by a lack of similarity to real-world attacks.
- This type of tool also cannot conduct social-engineering attacks.
To be clear, businesses can absolutely benefit from a continuous vulnerability scanning tool, but this isn’t the same as a true penetration test, and it’s important to understand the difference.
Automated Penetration Testing vs. AI Penetration Testing
It’s important to understand the (admittedly) subtle differences between automated penetration testing and AI-enabled penetration testing. They’re similar concepts, but easily confused, and frequently lumped together.
Artificial intelligence is simply meant to augment automated penetration testing tools and help the algorithms “learn” more rapidly. This is done by analyzing information, en masse, from a vast and ever-growing database of other penetration tests- something that would have previously been a monumental task for any software, let alone human engineers to achieve.
Every new test is an advancement for AI-enabled tools, and the algorithms get ‘smarter’ progressively over time, so when you hear the phrase AI penetration testing or AI-enabled penetration testing, we’re usually talking about an automated pen test whose algorithm is being trained and enhanced in this way through the use of artificial intelligence.
This allows them to identify more complex vulnerabilities and potentially discover previously unknown attack vectors. In essence, AI-powered penetration testing offers a more dynamic and intelligent approach to security assessment.
The Importance of Human Oversight in AI-Enabled Penetration Testing
As with all things artificial intelligence, AI-enabled penetration testing tools are new to the market, can be error-prone, and require expert human oversight.
These tools, and AI as we know it today, have not been around long enough for us to fully understand the implications of using or relying on it completely.
This means that human oversight is still absolutely crucial in the penetration testing process. Problems like false positives and negatives, data quality, the limited complexity of analysis and foresight, as well as over-dependence on AI are still prevalent, no matter how advanced- or well-marketed- these tools are.
Manual vs. Automated Penetration Testing
The vast majority of penetration tests conducted today are NOT fully manual tests. These are almost always far too costly and time-consuming for both the company contracting the test and the pen testers themselves.
There are too many controls and variables to manage hands-on in most organizations.
As our penetration testing team at Blue Team Alpha puts it, “You can chop down a tree with an ax, but it’s much easier to use a chainsaw.”
What this means is that almost all tests today are conducted by humans using automated penetration testing tools, but closely monitoring progress, verifying results, and deploying custom exploits to be absolutely certain that the most sophisticated and intelligent attack vectors are employed during the test.
AI and automated tools are not infallible and are nowhere near ready to be deployed strictly on their own. Even if they reach that point, cybersecurity experts will still need to be involved in the remediation and reconfiguration process post-test, as well as the validation stage of re-attempting the attack vectors that were successful in the initial run-through.
This is how your penetration testing partner should be conducting their tests, and this method is how we ensure that your organization is getting the most comprehensive and accurate look at the entire potential attack surface.
For these reasons, the manual elements of today’s penetration testing are still an objectively critical part of the process.
Wrapping Up
AI has pushed automated penetration testing technology forward and revolutionized the pen testing process in many ways, and you should be aware that this advancement is a very good thing! The speed at which AI enables algorithms to learn is a non-negotiable piece of keeping up with our malicious counterparts.
Your penetration testing provider needs to be at the cutting edge of the technology available today because the threat actors out there in the real world have shown time and time again that they are at the top of their own side of the craft.
To get in touch with Blue Team Alpha about conducting an AI-enabled penetration test, reach out to us for a quote, or if you have any remaining questions about automated penetration testing, let us know.
Our team is always available to assist you.
