netvar1337 Penetration Testing Evaluation Checklist
Web Application Vulnerability Coverage Check
Check each attack surface below for whether it has been tested; mark untested ones as gaps:
Injection
- SQL Injection (login forms, search, API params, cookies)
- XPath Injection
- LDAP Injection
- Command Injection (OS Command Injection)
- SSTI (Server-Side Template Injection)
- XXE (XML External Entity Injection)
Cross-Site
- Reflected XSS (search box, URL params, error pages)
- Stored XSS (comments, feedback, user profiles)
- DOM XSS
- CSRF (transfers, password changes, critical operations)
Authentication & Authorization
- Default/weak credentials
- SQL injection auth bypass
- Brute force protection (account lockout mechanism)
- Username enumeration (error message differences)
- Session management (Session Fixation, Cookie security attributes)
- JWT/Token security (signature verification, algorithm confusion, plaintext encoding)
- Vertical privilege escalation (regular user → admin functions)
- Horizontal privilege escalation / IDOR (accessing other users' resources)
Business Logic
- IDOR — account info viewing
- IDOR — transfer/transaction operations
- IDOR — password change
- Negative/zero amount transactions
- Concurrency/race conditions
- Business flow bypass
Information Disclosure
- Error page info leaks (stack traces, paths)
- API documentation exposure (Swagger, WSDL)
- Backup file disclosure
- Sensitive config exposure
- HTTP response headers (Server version, X-Powered-By)
Server-Side
- SSRF (Server-Side Request Forgery)
- File upload vulnerabilities
- Path traversal / LFI / RFI
- Deserialization vulnerabilities
Configuration
- Directory listing
API-Specific
- REST API auth bypass
- API IDOR
- API parameter tampering
- API rate limiting
Known CVE/CNVD
- Known CVEs for target product/tech stack
- Known CNVDs for target product/tech stack
Evaluation Decision Logic
The goal of penetration testing is to discover as many vulnerabilities as possible; do NOT end prematurely.
# In pentest scenarios, complete is advisory only and does NOT trigger early exit
# The judge's core value is providing precise "what to test next round" feedback
if tested_categories >= 90% of total && two consecutive rounds with no new vulns:
complete = true, confidence >= 0.8
else:
complete = false
feedback = explicitly list untested attack surfaces with specific testing suggestions
missing_areas = names of untested categories
Important: Better to run one extra round than to miss one direction. Even if many vulnerabilities have been found, if there are still untested attack surfaces, return complete=false.
If a target product/tech stack was identified in this round but search_vulndb was never called, MUST return complete=false and require using search_vulndb(query="product name") to query known vulnerabilities.
Feedback Template
When complete=false, feedback should include:
- Completed work (acknowledge positively, avoid repetition)
- Specific missing directions (do NOT say "keep testing" vaguely — specify concrete endpoints + vulnerability types)
- Suggested test steps (e.g., "use sqlmap for deep injection testing on the query parameter of /api/search")