Penetration Testing

Penetration testing is an authorized simulated cyberattack performed by certified ethical hackers to identify security vulnerabilities in your systems before real attackers find them. Unlike automated vulnerability scanners, our penetration testers use the same tactics, techniques, and procedures as real-world threat actors to discover exploitable weaknesses in your networks, web applications, and infrastructure. Businesses in Dallas-Fort Worth and across Texas need regular pen testing to meet compliance requirements (HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOC 2), protect customer data, and reduce the risk of costly breaches.

We recommend conducting penetration tests at least annually, with additional testing after significant infrastructure changes, application updates, or new deployments. Many compliance frameworks like PCI DSS require annual testing at minimum. Organizations with rapidly changing environments or higher risk profiles should consider quarterly or semi-annual testing. After each penetration test, Innovation Network Design provides a free retest to verify that your remediation efforts have successfully closed the identified vulnerabilities.

Vulnerability scanning is an automated process that identifies known security weaknesses using a database of signatures, while penetration testing involves skilled ethical hackers manually attempting to exploit vulnerabilities to determine real-world impact. Scanners find potential issues; pen testers prove whether those issues can actually be used to compromise your systems. A vulnerability scan might flag an open port, but a penetration test will demonstrate whether that port can be used to gain unauthorized access, escalate privileges, or exfiltrate data. Both are valuable, but penetration testing provides the depth and context needed for informed security decisions.

Our penetration testing reports include an executive summary suitable for leadership and board presentations, detailed technical findings with evidence (screenshots, proof-of-concept), CVSS-based severity ratings for each vulnerability, step-by-step remediation guidance, and a risk prioritization matrix. Reports are delivered through the CyberOne platform, giving your team an interactive dashboard to track remediation progress. Each finding includes the business impact assessment so your team understands not just the technical risk, but the potential financial and operational consequences.

Penetration testing costs vary based on scope, complexity, and the type of testing required. Factors include the number of IP addresses, web applications, network size, and whether internal testing requires on-site work. For DFW businesses, we offer competitive pricing with the added benefit of delivering results through our CyberOne platform at no extra cost. Contact us for a free scoping consultation where we will assess your environment and provide a transparent quote with no hidden fees. We also include a free retest after remediation, which many competitors charge separately for.

Look for testers who hold industry-recognized certifications such as OSCP (Offensive Security Certified Professional), GPEN (GIAC Penetration Tester), CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker), or CREST CRT. OSCP is widely considered the gold standard because it requires candidates to pass a rigorous hands-on exam rather than a multiple-choice test. At Innovation Network Design, our penetration testers hold multiple offensive security certifications and bring real-world experience from engagements across healthcare, financial services, and critical infrastructure.

These terms describe how much information the tester has before the engagement begins. In black box testing, the tester has no prior knowledge of the target — simulating an external attacker. White box testing gives the tester full access to source code, architecture diagrams, and credentials — maximizing vulnerability coverage. Gray box testing falls in between: the tester receives limited information such as user-level credentials or network ranges. Most businesses benefit from gray box testing because it balances realism with thoroughness. During our free scoping consultation, we help you choose the right approach for your environment and compliance requirements.

A typical external network penetration test takes 1-2 weeks from scoping to final report delivery. Web application tests range from 1-3 weeks depending on the number of pages, roles, and API endpoints. Internal network assessments usually take 1-2 weeks including on-site time. Complex engagements that combine multiple test types can run 3-4 weeks. We provide a detailed timeline during the scoping phase and keep you informed throughout the process via our CyberOne platform.

No — a professional penetration test is designed to avoid business disruption. During the scoping phase, we identify critical systems and agree on testing windows, rate limits, and out-of-scope targets. Denial-of-service testing is never performed unless explicitly requested and scheduled during maintenance windows. Our testers maintain constant communication with your IT team through our SOC and can pause testing immediately if any issue arises. In over 25 years of combined engagements, we have never caused unplanned downtime for a client.

Yes — exposing credential-relay paths is one of the highest-value findings a modern internal network pen test produces. The April 2026 APT28 abuse of CVE-2026-32202 is a textbook example: an attacker triggers an authentication request from a domain machine, relays the captured NTLM hash to another server that does not enforce signing, and walks straight into Active Directory. A skilled pen tester will run the same coercion-and-relay tooling APT28 uses (PetitPotam, ntlmrelayx, ADCS abuse) against your environment, then hand you the exact list of unsigned LDAP endpoints, vulnerable AD CS templates, and over-privileged service accounts to fix. Pairing pen testing with our managed SOC closes the loop: the test proves the path exists, the SOC watches for it being walked.

Network penetration testing targets your infrastructure — firewalls, routers, switches, servers, VPNs, Active Directory, and internal network segments. The goal is to find misconfigurations, unpatched systems, weak credentials, and lateral movement paths an attacker could use to reach critical assets. Application penetration testing focuses on your web apps, APIs, and mobile applications — testing for OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities like SQL injection, cross-site scripting, broken authentication, and insecure API endpoints. Most organizations need both: network testing secures your perimeter and internal environment, while application testing secures the software your customers and employees interact with. We scope each engagement based on your architecture and compliance requirements.

Yes — hosting control panels are a default in-scope target for any external network or web application pen test where the panel is reachable from the internet. The May 12, 2026 follow-up disclosure on cPanel WHM CVE-2026-41940 confirmed the auth bypass was exploited in the wild for nearly two months before the patch shipped, and the same vendor stacked three more CVEs (29201/29202/29203) including a Perl injection in create_user right behind it. MSPs and hosting resellers are particularly exposed because a single compromised WHM admin endpoint exposes every customer account on the server. Our hosting-panel testing covers authentication bypass, privilege escalation, API token abuse, panel-to-server-shell escape, and the lateral path from a tenant account into the WHM root context. If your environment uses cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, or any vendor admin console exposed to the public internet, scope it explicitly during your free scoping consultation so we test those endpoints under the same threat model attackers use.

Yes — particularly if you run a managed file transfer platform, a hosting control panel, or any third-party software whose admin interface is reachable from the internet. The May 2026 Progress MOVEit Automation auth bypass (CVE-2026-4670, CVSS 9.8) lets an unauthenticated attacker run arbitrary code with no vendor workaround, and the cPanel CVE-2026-41940 auth bypass disclosed the same week is already being used against MSPs and government hosting environments. Both bugs sit on the same exploitation pattern: a flaw in how the application authenticates the request to its own admin endpoints, no credentials required. A penetration test against your perimeter and DMZ tells you which of those admin endpoints you actually have exposed (most companies have more than they realize), confirms whether your patch level, WAF rules, and IP allowlists keep an attacker out today, and proves which findings are exploitable rather than just theoretical. As always, our retest after remediation is included — you find out whether the fix actually worked.