A company contracts a security engineer to perform a penetration test of its client-facing web portal.
Which of the following activities would be MOST appropriate?
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A. B. C. D.C.
Out of the given options, the most appropriate activity for a security engineer performing a penetration test on a client-facing web portal would be option B - "Scan the website through an interception proxy and identify areas for code injection."
Explanation:
A penetration test is a simulated attack on a computer system, network, or web application to identify potential vulnerabilities that can be exploited by attackers. The goal of this test is to identify weaknesses in the system's security defenses before an attacker can take advantage of them.
Option A - Using a protocol analyzer against the site to see if data input can be replayed from the browser, involves analyzing the network traffic to check if any data can be replayed from the browser. While this can be useful in detecting certain types of vulnerabilities, it is not an appropriate activity for testing the security of a client-facing web portal.
Option C - Scanning the site with a port scanner to identify vulnerable services running on the web server, is a useful activity in identifying open ports and services running on the web server. However, this activity alone may not provide a complete picture of the security posture of the web portal. A port scan may not be able to detect vulnerabilities that are not related to open ports and services.
Option D - Using network enumeration tools to identify if the server is running behind a load balancer, may be useful in identifying the server's location and the type of infrastructure used. However, this activity alone may not be sufficient to identify all the potential vulnerabilities in the web portal.
Option B - Scanning the website through an interception proxy and identifying areas for code injection, involves analyzing the web traffic through an interception proxy to identify potential vulnerabilities, such as input validation flaws, SQL injection, and cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities. This activity can help identify specific areas of the web portal that may be vulnerable to code injection attacks, which is a common technique used by attackers to compromise web applications.
In summary, option B is the most appropriate activity for a security engineer performing a penetration test on a client-facing web portal as it helps identify potential vulnerabilities in the web portal that could be exploited by attackers.