The aim of a white-box penetration test is to simulate an attack from the perspective of an insider who has full knowledge of the system. The testers are given access to source code, network diagrams, and other internal information to conduct a thorough and comprehensive analysis of the code and infrastructure to find every possible security flaw, not just those visible from the outside.
There are different types of penetration testing, categorized by the amount of information given to the tester. In a **white-box penetration test**, the ethical hacker is provided with complete information about the target system. This includes access to source code, network maps, credentials, and system architecture diagrams.
The aim of this approach is not just to see if an external attacker can get in (that's black-box testing), but to perform a very thorough and deep security audit from the perspective of someone with insider knowledge. By having full access, the testers can analyze the code and system design line-by-line to find deeply embedded or complex security flaws that would be very difficult or impossible to discover from the outside.
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