The Pentest has become a highly sought-after service for companies, serving as a way to assess the security of their networks through a vulnerability test that provides visibility into existing risks and issues within the environment.
Furthermore, the demand for Pentests has skyrocketed following the implementation of the LGPD and the pursuit of compliance. Alongside the need for Pentests, vulnerability analysis has also become highly requested, particularly for vulnerability management.
But what is Vulnerability Analysis?
Vulnerability analysis is a process of recognition, analysis, and classification of vulnerabilities to understand the weak points in your environments and gain an overall visibility of risks, mapping each of your assets.
A vulnerability analysis utilizes automated scanners and vulnerability management tools to search for breaches, aiming to remediate them based on a risk assessment process. Typically, each asset is assigned a score based on its criticality, making it easy to determine where to start and where to finish.
Pentest vs Vulnerability Analysis
There is often confusion between these two concepts, as some companies consider a vulnerability analysis to be a Pentest. However, while they complement each other well, they have different objectives and are distinct tasks.
When discussing vulnerability analysis, several advantages and disadvantages arise.
| Automated checking | Will not discover all vulnerabilities |
| Time and cost-saving advantage | Will not discover all vulnerabilities |
| Time and cost-saving advantage | Higher false positive rate |
| Explicitly required in many compliance frameworks | Does not include all security compliance requirements |
| Multiple tools available on the market | Some scanners do not integrate well into larger security ecosystems |
In a Pentest, however, you gain a more targeted perspective. The tests require simulating a real and more focused attack, which is why manual testing becomes crucial. Discovering vulnerabilities can be more challenging, necessitating a focus on validating potential breaches found to rule out false positives.
Therefore, understanding whether you need a Pentest or a vulnerability analysis is essential; after all, since they are distinct tasks, their costs differ as well.
A customized pentest service can start at 25,000 reais and exceed 100,000 reais, while a vulnerability analysis service starts at 15,000 reais and can go up to 80,000 reais.
If you lack visibility into your environment and have never conducted a vulnerability analysis, this is undoubtedly the first step you can take to gradually ascend the security ladder.
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A key component of the manual pentest comes from the human aspect that employs logic and ingenuity to uncover flaws or vulnerabilities in systems related to business processes. With a detailed inspection, testers often identify issues that vulnerability scanners miss.
Conclusion
Beware of offers below market value, as they may be conducted by unqualified professionals or automated tools that do not adequately assess the security of the environment, creating a false sense of security.
Therefore, if someone offers you a Pentest at the price of a vulnerability analysis, avoid hiring them. A Pentest cannot be performed using automated tools; it requires a certified specialist who uses creativity to find issues that no tool can detect and delivers an even more detailed report.