The Ultimate Guide to Writing Effective Penetration Testing Report.

Hello my dear hacker friends, welcome back to my new article. This is your friend Sagar. I hope you all are good, safe & secure at your home/ your country and wherever you are.

Today I’m back with new intresting and another hot topic, about ethical hacking and penetration testing.
Because this will gonna importnant topic which you should not miss out at any cost !!!

Today in this article we are gonna see about writing an effective penetration testing reports.

We’ll learn the essential tips and tricks for creating impactful and effective pentest reports. Discover the best practices for organizing findings, documenting vulnerabilities, and communicating results effectively.

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Q. What is Penetration Testing Report ?

A pentest report is a document file with the complete detail of finding, exploiting, vulnerabilities and recommendations resulting from a simulated cyberattack on a system OR network.

It explain the methods used by tester to gain unauthorized access, assesses the level of risk posed by identified vulnerabilities and provide guidance on remedition steps to improve security posture.

Q. Why Penetration Testing Report We Need ?

Penetration testing is a crucial to protectivity identify and fix security weaknesses in system and networks, preventing potential cyberattacks.

It helps organizations assess their security posture, comply with regulations, and protect sensitive data from unauthorized access.

To create a professional pentest report, we will need to follow standard format and should include all the relevant information.

Here are some total 6 factors to create a professional and effective penetration testing report. There are total 6 points you need to know as follows.

1. Executive Summary
2. Introduction
3. Methodology
4. Findings
5. Appendices
6. Recommendations

Let’s see each point in depth…

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1) Executive Summary :

This provide a high-level overview of the penetration testing findings, including key vulnerablities discovered, their potential impact on the organization’s security posture, and brief recommendations for remediation, It’s typically aimed at executives and stakeholders who may not have the technical expertise to delve into the details but need to understand the overall security implications.

2) Introduction :

This section sets the stage for the report by explaining the purpose and scope of the penetration testing exercise.
It should also outline any specific goals or objectives defined for the assessment, as well as provide background information about the organization’s infrastructure & system under evaluation.

Also, in this section, you need to put brief introduction about a person OR group of peoples, who involved in the penetration testing process.

☛ You need to add following information about organization and target scopes.

➛ Organization’s Name
➛ Target IPs in Scope
➛ Purpose/Objective of Penetration Testing
➛ Engagement Model (On-Site/Remote)
➛ Start Date of Penetration Testing
➛ Deadline of Penetration Testing

☛ You need to add following information about tester(s).

➛ Pentester’s Name
➛ Email
➛ Qualification
➛ Social Media
➛ Certifications
➛ Expertise
➛ Cyber Security Service Provider

3) Methodology :

In this section, the pentester explain it’s own hacking methodology, tricks, tool, techniques used during penetration testing process. This helps establish the credibility of the findings and provides transparency into the testing methods employed. It should cover ascept such as Information gathering, Scanning, Enumeration, Vulnerability assessment, Exploitation and Post-Exploitation.

Complete Penetration Testing Methodology.

In the above article, I already explained Penetration Testing Methodology with tools and techniques. For more information, don’t forget to check it out.

4) Findings :

This is the heart of your penetration testing report, where you are present the result of penetration testing engagement. You should make categorization and prioritize the vulnerabilities discovered based on their severity and potential impact on the organization’s security posture.

It include the visual ads such as a pie diagram OR graphs, which helps to show you different types of vulnerabilities,attack vectors, attack surface according to their severity in depth, which makes you to easier to do risk management.

✯ Sample of Pie Diagram ✯

5) Appendices :

This section typically includes supplementary materials such as a screenshots of vulnerabilities , proof-of-concept (POC), exploits, list of penetration testing tools which are used. These provided additional context and evidence to support the findings presented in the body of the report.
Integrating relevant screenshots and POCs into the findings and methodology sections can enhance the readability and comprehensiveness of the report.

☛ In appendices, you need to add following information about your POC which you used.

➛ Tools
➛ Exploits
➛ Manual Payloads
➛ POC of video/screenshots

While writing the reports, you can add findings and appendices simultaneously.

6) Recommendations :

This is the last but important part of your penetration testing report.
At here you should conclude the report with actionable recommendations for addressing the identified vulnerabilities and improving the organization’s overall security posture.

Overall, your pentest report points cover essential aspects of a comprehensive penetration testing report, providing stakeholders with the information they need to understand the security risks facing the organization and take appropriate remediation actions.

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➾ Bonus Points :

1. Always make report into MSWORD file or PDF file while sending. Always avoid in txt and other formats.
2. While taking screenshot, you need to use always high quality software.
   Here I can recommend you, software like ShareX & Greenshot.
3. Microsoft Word is a best ever software if you want’s to make your reports manually.
4. When you writing report, it should important to use clear and concise langauge and to understand issues identified and take the appropriate action.
5. Don’t forget to add recommendation for prenevting attack & mitigating identified vulnerabilities.
6. Don’t include any other garbage things, such as memes, funny images etc into your report, it makes your report unimpressive. If you wants to add some extra stuff to make your report looks good & professional, then you can add text font, best professional page theme, different text colour, add page numbers, logo of organization at first page etc.
7. Remember, penetration testing reports are confidential keep it safe, because it has each and every details about the vulnerable machines.
8. Always try to upgrade yourself, identify the mistakes while writing reports, learn from them and fix those mistakes to next reports.
9. First of all you have to write your own pentest report manually using MSword software, once you know and clear the concept then you should turn towords automation.
   These are some tools which helps you to automate your report writing process.
   ➛ PentestReports
   ➛ VulnRepo
   ➛ VulnRepo-Site
   ➛ PeTeReport
   ➛ SysReptor
   ➛ Pwndoc
   ➛ Pwndoc-ng
   ➛ WriteHat
   ➛ Dradis
10. Here is some public pentest report sample, which I gives you to study.

GitHub - juliocesarfort/public-pentesting-reports: A list of public penetration test reports…

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