Ethical Hacking News
Automation is revolutionizing the way pentests are delivered, transforming from static reports to real-time insights that support faster security and remediation. With platforms like PlexTrac at the forefront, organizations can unlock the full potential of their offensive security efforts and stay ahead of emerging threats in today's complex threat landscape.
Automated pentests are transforming the way vulnerabilities are delivered, moving away from traditional static reports to a dynamic, real-time experience.The current state of pentest delivery is outdated and relies on manual processes that can lead to delays and inefficiencies.The rise of Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) has increased the volume of findings generated by offensive testing, making automation essential for efficient management.Automated pentest delivery streamlines the process with components such as centralized data ingestion, automated real-time delivery, routing & ticketing, and triggered retesting & validation.Automation should be approached carefully to avoid common pitfalls, including overcomplication and lack of clear workflows.To automate pentest delivery effectively, organizations must map their current workflow, identify friction points, and start small with high-impact steps first.
Automation is redefining the way pentests are delivered, transforming the traditional static report-based approach into a more dynamic, real-time experience. The importance of this shift cannot be overstated, as it addresses the growing need for faster insights, tighter handoffs, and clearer paths to remediation in today's complex threat landscape.
The current state of pentest delivery remains largely unchanged from its early days, relying on outdated reporting methods such as static PDFs, emailed documents, and spreadsheet-based tracking. While this approach may have made sense a decade ago, it has become a bottleneck in today's fast-paced security environment. The problem lies in the way findings are presented: buried in lengthy documents that fail to align with how teams operate day-to-day.
After receiving these reports, stakeholders must manually extract relevant information, create tickets in platforms like Jira or ServiceNow, and coordinate remediation tracking through disconnected workflows. This manual process can lead to significant delays, as days or weeks may pass between the discovery of issues and their subsequent remediation.
The rise of Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) has significantly amplified this issue, leading to a surge in the volume of findings generated by offensive testing. Without an automated delivery system, teams struggle to keep pace with this rapid influx of data, resulting in inefficiencies and undermining the value of pentest efforts.
Automation is poised to revolutionize this process by cutting through the noise and delivering results in real-time. By leveraging platforms like PlexTrac, which centralizes security data from both manual testing and automated tools, organizations can unlock the full potential of their offensive security efforts. Automated delivery allows for faster insights, tighter handoffs, and clearer paths to remediation, making it an indispensable component of modern security operations.
Automated pentest delivery is comprised of several key components, each designed to streamline the process and improve outcomes. Centralized data ingestion consolidates all findings into a single source of truth, eliminating patchwork workflows and manual processes. Automated real-time delivery automatically routes findings to the right people and workflows without waiting for the full report.
Automated routing & ticketing standardize the assignment of findings, generate tickets in tools like Jira or ServiceNow, notify stakeholders through Slack or email, and close out informational issues, ensuring that all findings are automatically routed to the right teams and systems. Triggered retesting & validation also ensure that nothing slips through the cracks by triggering retesting or validation workflows when a finding is marked as resolved.
Despite these benefits, automation should be approached with care to avoid common pitfalls. Overcomplicating early efforts can stall momentum, while treating automation as a one-time setup leads to stale processes that no longer align with how teams operate. Automating without clearly defined workflows often creates more problems than it solves.
To begin automating pentest delivery, organizations must map their current workflow, identify friction points, and start small by automating high-impact steps first. They should choose the right platform that integrates with existing tools and provides visibility across the vulnerability lifecycle. Finally, measuring impact is essential to track metrics like MTTR, handoff delays, and retest completion.
As the threat landscape continues to evolve, it has become clear that automation is no longer a nicety but a necessity for any organization seeking to stay ahead of emerging threats. By embracing automated pentest delivery, organizations can drive maturity, demonstrate progress, and deliver measurable outcomes in their pursuit of security excellence.
Related Information:
https://www.ethicalhackingnews.com/articles/Automating-Pentest-Delivery-for-Faster-Security-and-Remediation-ehn.shtml
https://thehackernews.com/2025/09/automation-is-redefining-pentest.html
Published: Fri Sep 5 03:35:40 2025 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
