IT Baseline Protection Manual - The Information Warfare Site

Safeguard Catalogue - Organisation Remarks
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The test object or the test environment can be damaged or impaired by
penetration tests. To ensure that such damage does not have any
repercussions, backups should be made before penetration tests are carried
out.
Penetration tests can be supported by the use of security configuration- and
logging tools. These tools examine a system configuration and search for
common flaws such as, for example, generally legible files and missing
passwords.
Using penetration tests, the product should be examined for design flaws by
employing the same methods a potential ‘invader’ would use to exploit weak
points, such as, for example,
- changing the pre-defined command sequence,
- executing an additional function,
- direct or indirect reading, writing or modification of internal data,
- execution of data whose execution is not planned,
- use of a function in an unexpected context or for an unexpected purpose,
- activation of the error recovery,
- use of the delay between the time of checking and the time of use,
- breaking the sequence by interrupts, or
- generating an unexpected input for a function.
The mechanism strengths are defined using the terms specialised knowledge,
opportunities and operating resources. These are explained in more detail in
ITSEM. For example, the following rules can be used for defining mechanism
strength:
- If the mechanism can be mastered by a lay person alone within minutes, it
cannot even be classified as low.
- If a successful ‘invasion’ can be carried out by anyone except a lay person,
the mechanism must be classified as low.
- If an expert is required for a successful ‘invasion’ and the expert takes
some days with the available equipment, the mechanism must be classified
as medium.
- If the mechanism can only be mastered by an expert with special
equipment and the expert takes months to do it and has to come to a secret
arrangement with a system manager, it must be classified as high.
It must be ensured that the tests carried out cover all specific security
functions. It is important to note that only errors or differences from the
specifications can ever be determined by testing, never the absence of errors.
Typical aspects of investigation can be shown by a number of examples:
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IT-Baseline Protection Manual: Oktober 2000