8 Uncommon Penetration Testing Techniques You Might Never Heard Of

What is Pen Testing and Why is it Important? 

Penetration testing (also known as pen testing or pentest) is a proactive security practice where ethical hackers simulate real-world cyberattacks to identify vulnerabilities in systems, applications, or networks. These tests help organisations strengthen their defences before malicious hackers can exploit any weaknesses. In this blog, we'll deep dive into 8 uncommon penetration testing techniques you might never heard of!

Benefits of doing Penetration Testing

In an increasingly digitised and interconnected world, performing regular pen testing is crucial for:

• Identifying security gaps before threat actors do

• Meeting regulatory compliance requirements

• Building trust with clients and stakeholders

• Ensuring operational resilience against evolving threats

Whilst most people know about common attack methods like SQL injection or brute-force attacks. But there are many other techniques that are less well known—and just as dangerous.

8 Uncommon Penetration Testing Techniques

1. Timing Attacks: Timing attacks look at how long it takes for a system to respond. For example, if a login page takes a little longer to respond when the first letter of a password is correct, an attacker can guess the password one letter at a time. These attacks work well when systems don’t handle timing securely.

2. Clickjacking: Clickjacking tricks users into clicking something they didn’t mean to. A hacker hides a real web page (like a settings page) under a fake button or link. When you click, you might turn on your camera or approve something without knowing it.

3. Insecure Deserialization: Some apps take in data from users in a special format called “serialized” objects. If these objects are not checked properly, a hacker can send in a fake object that runs harmful code when the system reads it. This is common in programming like Java, PHP, and Python.

4. Heap Spraying: Heap spraying is when an attacker fills a computer’s memory with their own code. This makes it more likely that their code will run if there’s a weakness in the system’s memory. It’s often used with other attacks to get around security protections.

5. Subdomain Takeover: If a company has a subdomain (like test.example.com) that points to an outside service (like an AWS bucket) that they no longer use, a hacker can claim that service and take over the subdomain. This can be used for phishing attacks or spreading malware.

6. Side Channel Attacks: These attacks don’t go directly after the software—they look at clues from the physical system. For example, by measuring power use or timing, a hacker might figure out secret keys or other sensitive data. These are more common in hardware and IoT devices.

7. Cache Poisoning: Cache poisoning is when an attacker tricks a website or service into storing harmful content in its cache (temporary storage). Then, when users visit the site, they get the bad content instead of the real one. This can be used to spread malware or steal crucial information.

8. HTTP Parameter Pollution (HPP): This trick takes advantage of how websites handle multiple inputs with the same name. For example, if a link has ?id=123&id=456, some systems might get confused and use the wrong value. Hackers use this to change how a website behaves or to get access they shouldn’t have.

Summary

The unknown penetration testing techniques may not be as famous as things like XSS or buffer overflows, but they can be just as harmful. Including them in your pentest strategy can help uncover hidden risks. 

Regular pen testing with a wide range of attack methods helps protect your business from real threats. If you want to improve your cybersecurity, work with a pen testing team (like Complete Cyber 😉) that knows both common and rare attack types.

Want to find the hidden risks in your systems? Talk to us about how our penetration testing services can help you stay secure. Book a call with us here.