Cybersecurity Glossary
A plain-English guide to common penetration testing and cybersecurity terms. Click any term to read the full definition and find related services.
A
Attack Surface
An attack surface is the total number of points where an unauthorised user could attempt to enter or extract data from a system or environment. This includes network interfaces, APIs, web applications...
B
Brute Force
A brute force attack is a trial-and-error method used to guess passwords, encryption keys, or other credentials by systematically trying every possible combination until the correct one is found. Vari...
Bug Bounty
A bug bounty programme is a crowdsourced security initiative where organisations offer financial rewards to independent security researchers who discover and responsibly disclose vulnerabilities in th...
C
CBEST
CBEST is a threat intelligence-led penetration testing framework created by the Bank of England to assess the cyber resilience of UK financial institutions. It combines real threat intelligence with r...
CHECK
CHECK is a UK government-backed scheme administered by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) that certifies companies to carry out authorised penetration testing of public sector IT systems. CHECK...
CREST
CREST (Council of Registered Ethical Security Testers) is an international accreditation body for the cybersecurity industry. CREST-certified companies and individuals have passed rigorous technical e...
CVE
CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) is a standardised system for identifying and cataloguing publicly known cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Each CVE entry has a unique identifier (e.g., CVE-2024...
D
DAST
DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing) is a testing method that analyses a running application from the outside, simulating an external attacker. DAST tools send crafted requests to the applicati...
E
Enumeration
Enumeration is the active process of extracting detailed information from a target system, such as usernames, group memberships, network shares, running services, and software versions. It goes beyond...
Exploit
An exploit is a piece of code, a technique, or a sequence of commands that takes advantage of a vulnerability to cause unintended behaviour in a system, such as gaining unauthorised access or executin...
F
Footprinting
Footprinting is the process of collecting as much information as possible about a target system or organisation before launching an attack. This includes identifying IP address ranges, domain names, e...
I
IAST
IAST (Interactive Application Security Testing) combines elements of DAST and SAST by analysing an application from within while it runs. An IAST agent is deployed inside the application and monitors...
L
Lateral Movement
Lateral movement refers to the techniques an attacker uses to move through a network after gaining initial access, pivoting from one compromised system to another. The goal is typically to reach high-...
M
Man-in-the-Middle
A man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack occurs when an attacker secretly intercepts and potentially alters communication between two parties who believe they are communicating directly with each other. Comm...
O
OSCP
OSCP (Offensive Security Certified Professional) is a hands-on penetration testing certification awarded by OffSec. Candidates must complete a gruelling 24-hour practical exam in which they compromise...
OWASP Top 10
The OWASP Top 10 is a regularly updated list of the ten most critical web application security risks, published by the Open Worldwide Application Security Project. It serves as a widely accepted basel...
P
Payload
In cybersecurity, a payload is the component of an exploit that performs the intended malicious action on the target system. This could be code that opens a reverse shell, installs malware, exfiltrate...
Penetration Testing
Penetration testing (pen testing) is a simulated cyberattack against a system, network, or application to identify exploitable vulnerabilities. A qualified tester uses the same tools and techniques as...
Phishing
Phishing is a social engineering attack in which an attacker sends fraudulent messages, typically via email, designed to trick the recipient into revealing sensitive information or clicking a maliciou...
Privilege Escalation
Privilege escalation is the act of exploiting a vulnerability or misconfiguration to gain higher access rights than originally granted. Vertical privilege escalation involves moving from a low-privile...
PTaaS
PTaaS (Penetration Testing as a Service) is a delivery model that combines traditional manual penetration testing with a continuous platform-based approach. Organisations subscribe to ongoing testing...
Purple Teaming
Purple teaming is a collaborative security exercise where offensive testers (the red team) and defensive security staff (the blue team) work together in real time. Rather than operating in isolation,...
R
Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance (recon) is the first phase of a penetration test or attack, focused on gathering information about the target. Passive reconnaissance involves collecting publicly available data without...
Red Teaming
Red teaming is an adversarial security exercise where a team of skilled attackers attempts to breach an organisation's defences using any means necessary, including technical exploits, social engineer...
Reverse Shell
A reverse shell is a type of remote access connection where the target machine initiates an outbound connection back to the attacker's system, giving the attacker command-line access to the target. Th...
S
SAST
SAST (Static Application Security Testing) is a testing method that analyses an application's source code, bytecode, or binary without executing it. SAST tools scan for insecure coding patterns, hardc...
Social Engineering
Social engineering is the practice of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information, rather than exploiting technical vulnerabilities. Common techniques include phi...
T
Threat Modelling
Threat modelling is a structured approach to identifying, quantifying, and addressing security threats to a system or application. It involves mapping out assets, identifying potential attackers and t...
V
Vulnerability Assessment
A vulnerability assessment is a systematic process of identifying, classifying, and prioritising security weaknesses across systems, networks, or applications. Unlike penetration testing, a vulnerabil...
Z
Zero-Day
A zero-day vulnerability is a security flaw in software or hardware that is unknown to the vendor and has no available patch at the time of discovery. The term 'zero-day' refers to the fact that the v...