We were asked to get a penetration test done — what does a real-world example look like, and do we actually need it?

Enterprise retailers are terrified of supply chain risk. If your database is going to hold their store inventory or revenue figures, they have to justify that to their board. Don't make the mistake of exporting an automated vulnerability scanner report and passing it off as a pentest; their InfoSec team will spot it on page one and it'll kill the deal.

We had our first pentest done last autumn for our logistics SaaS, roughly the same size as yours. It took 4 business days and cost us 3,200 GBP. They discovered 6 issues in total, one being critical. We were very confident in our code, but an information leak in our server response headers was revealing our exact database version. We patched everything in a week, and the client signed off on the contract the moment they saw the clean report.

Be very careful when drafting the scope agreement. Do not include your cloud infrastructure's hosting provider in the scope; only include your own custom code, authorization mechanisms, and APIs. Otherwise, they'll try to scan the cloud provider's services, doubling both the testing time and your budget.

Don't jump on the first quotes sent by security firms. Many agencies ask for absurd prices like 10.000 GBP, only to run automated tools and call it a day. Get 2-3 different quotes from boutique, independent, certified senior experts instead. Make sure to confirm that the report will follow internationally recognized methodologies.

For a contract that brings in 52.000 GBP annually, a testing cost of around 3.000 GBP is definitely a customer acquisition cost worth paying. Plus, once you have this report, you'll be able to present it as proof of trust to other enterprise clients you negotiate with over the next 12 months.

what happens if vulnerabilities are found during the test and we cant patch them right away? anyway does the security firm send the report directly to the client or do they give it to us first?

Correction: I misremembered the figure, it was a bit lower.

The standard process consists of 4 steps: 1) Scoping and signing an NDA, 2) Attack simulation in a staging environment (a cloned server with no live data), 3) Handing over an interim report listing the vulnerabilities to your team for remediation, 4) Verifying the fixes and preparing the final clean report to be submitted to the client.

Let me share what happened to me; it might be useful. like most incidents start with a leaked password, not a vulnerability.

Proven by experience.

How did you solve this? If you don't write this down from the start, it leads to arguments later.

When making a decision, first look at what data you have on hand. That's all, sorry if I went on too long.

I think it's hard to be that definitive about penetration test example. If you scold false alarms, nobody will report again.

If I were you, I'd go this route.

Noted, thanks.

I'm curious too. When we decide without measuring, we always end up in the same place.

Security isn't absolute; it's about making attacks not worth the effort. I'm also curious if anyone does it differently.

Thanks for posting. If it's your first time, start small; scaling comes later.

Everyone rushing into penetration test example gets stuck at the same point. Proven by experience.

I partly agree, partly disagree. If you get three different answers on a topic, the question was asked wrong.

Solutions that work at a small scale collapse when you grow; I learned this late. Of course, it varies if your situation is different.

Let me share my experience. Everyone rushing into penetration test example gets stuck at the same point.

This is my opinion I'm not claiming it's absolute truth.

I agree, and I'd like to emphasize that. The answer varies greatly by industry; there is no one-size-fits-all rule.

Of course, it varies if your situation is different.

Great work.

The answer above hits the nail on the head. When making decisions write down the worst-case scenario too not just the best.

Payment information changes are never verified through the channel they came from. Proven by experience.