PTES
The Penetration Testing Execution Standard — a community-developed baseline for professional engagements.
What It Is
The Penetration Testing Execution Standard is a community-developed standard that defines seven phases of a professional penetration test, each backed by its own set of Technical Guidelines describing concrete, tool-level detail for how to actually execute that phase — not just high-level process description.
Why It's Still Relevant
PTES is one of the most commonly cited baselines in professional pentest engagement scoping and contracts. Its Technical Guidelines give practitioners concrete, actionable guidance for each phase, which is why many teams treat it as the practical default even on engagements formally scoped against OWASP or NIST — it fills in the "how" that other frameworks leave to the tester's judgment.
Phases, as Implemented in SecurAppt
Pre-engagement Interactions
Intelligence Gathering
Scanning
Vulnerability Assessment
Threat Modeling
Exploitation
Post Exploitation
Reporting
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SecurAppt automatically surfaces the right tools for each PTES phase.
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