Physical Pentest Checklist
Alyssa Dipiero
Physical penetration testing is a crucial element in assessing and improving the security posture of any organization. Often likened to its digital counterpart, cyber penetration testing, physical penetration testing requires a meticulous approach to identify and exploit vulnerabilities in a building or organization's physical security. But before embarking on a covert mission, one must understand the importance of conducting thorough physical security audits. This blog post aims to guide budding physical penetration testers on how to start in this field, emphasizing the necessity of security audits as a foundation for successful penetration testing.
In physical penetration testing, every potential vulnerability must be identified and assessed. This process is akin to a cyber penetration tester who meticulously checks for a range of vulnerabilities like XSS, SQL injections, firewall configs, etc. Just as in cyber security, where overlooking a single vulnerability can lead to a breach, the same holds true for physical security.
Physical security audits are the preliminary step where a pentester compiles a comprehensive list of all possible security flaws within a building's physical setup then goes and assess the building, without trying to be covert, to verify if they have actual weaknesses.
Familiarization with Diverse Security Aspects: It provides an opportunity to familiarize oneself with various security elements, ranging from door locks, CCTV placement, access control systems, to employee security habits.
Baseline Knowledge for Covert Operations: By first learning how to test these security measures overtly, pentesters can acquire the necessary knowledge and experience to later execute these tasks covertly and more effectively.
Comprehensive Security Perspective: Such audits allow pentesters to view the security infrastructure holistically, ensuring that no potential entry point or security lapse is overlooked.
A physical security audit will usually only take 1-2 days per building and can be done with only 1 or 2 people. The idea is to simply walk through the building during working hours (and perhaps later in the evening) and locate and test all the things on your list that you would hae attempted to abuse during a real pentest.
The shorter time and smaller team size will also help you to sell these things more than a two to four week black team engagement with 3-6 people, which means you can do far more of these and gain that much more experience for you and your team.
You are not trying to be covert here, you will likely be given a guest ID badge and you are simply moving through the building checking off the things on your list. Far more boring than a covert engagement sure, but when you are first starting out, it will teach you how to test things , which will then become how to test them quickly and covertly.
When starting in physical penetration testing, one of the primary tasks is to create and continuously refine a list of potential physical security vulnerabilities. Think about the myriad ways a building or organization could be compromised. Do you have a comprehensive list? Is it exhaustive? How will you test each item on your list, and how will you do so during a physical pentest without being detected?
Drawing a parallel to the cyber realm, consider the OWASP Top 10 for web application security weaknesses. Just as these top 10 vulnerabilities provide a framework for cyber security professionals, your list will serve as a guide in the physical penetration testing domain. It's about not just identifying these vulnerabilities but also understanding how they can be exploited and mitigated.
Before you jump into pentesting, consider what exactly you are actually testing and go make yourself a list. This list should include all the weaknesses of a organization in general, but also how will you go about testing these and which have priority ?
Remember your goal is to test everything, and you cannot do that if you get caught on day two. So prioritize what you will test, in what order and by what method. Also include backup methods in case your go to wont work for a specific engagement.
This list will likely be massive once you really get started with it, and realize you want to test as many of these things as you can. Prioritize them of course, and rank them on what is least and most likely to get you caught but make your own list.
Actions Post-Entry: What did you do after gaining access? Did you manage to access sensitive areas, retrieve confidential information, bug sensitive rooms, or identify internal security weaknesses?
Now that you understand the need of physical auditing and going through to test all the things you are hopefully going to include on your ever expanding security list, the question of what gear to get changes light.
You are trying to get gear that will accomplish tasks for you to verify things on your checklist. By doing audits, you get to test them out in the real world without the stress of doing so covertly without any forgiveness if you mess up. It will also help you to better understand what gear works well for you and in what environments and which pieces of gear you cannot use or simply dont work.
By the time you have done a few audits, you will likely have a huge bag of gear that you have used enough times to understand how it works, and become familiar enough with it to actually use it in a covert manner.
For those embarking on a career in physical penetration testing, remember that the journey begins with understanding the full spectrum of physical security through comprehensive audits. It's about building a foundation that allows you to assess, exploit, and provide valuable feedback on an organization's physical security measures. Just as in cyber security, physical penetration testing is an art that combines skill, creativity, and a deep understanding of the target environment. Begin with the basics, understand the full scope of potential vulnerabilities, and always aim to provide comprehensive, actionable insights to your clients.
For individuals looking for a hands on training that includes all of the above topics, Covert Access Team (covertaccessteam.com) provides training courses focused on physical penetration testing, lockpicking, bypassing techniques, social engineering and other essential skills.
As someone who has done this for nearly two decades, I know it can be a lot of fun and exciting. Its a rush to break into a high security area and steal something important. The first time you\u2019ve bugged a board room and you\u2019re sitting in your hotel room listening in on confidential meetings is a thrill, but this is not where you should begin with physical pentesting.
In physical pentesting, you cannot afford to get caught or the game is over \u2026 so how do you get actual real world experience before you get experience ? The best answer I can give you, is to first do some audits.
Think of any complexed task from cyber pentesting, inspecting a car, or organizing a big public event and realize just how many things you would put on a checklist of things to check, verify and then double check \u2026 now ask, whats on your physical security checklist? Have you even thought about such a list, let alone created one?
Physical security audits are the preliminary step where a pentester compiles a comprehensive list of all possible security flaws within a building's physical setup then goes and assess the building, without trying to be covert, to verify if they have actual weaknesses.
The shorter time and smaller team size will also help you to sell these things more than a two to four week black team engagement with 3-6 people, which means you can do far more of these and gain that much more experience for you and your team.
You are not trying to be covert here, you will likely be given a guest ID badge and you are simply moving through the building checking off the things on your list. Far more boring than a covert engagement sure, but when you are first starting out, it will teach you how to test things , which will then become how to test them quickly and covertly.