---
title: "What is pentest? | Daniel Christensen"
canonical_url: "https://danielchristensen.no/en/glossary/pentest"
last_updated: "2026-09-02T13:55:00.061Z"
locale: en
meta:
  description: "A controlled, authorized attack on your own systems to uncover vulnerabilities, documented in a report."
  "og:description": "A controlled, authorized attack on your own systems to uncover vulnerabilities, documented in a report."
  "og:title": "What is pentest?"
---

[← All terms](https://danielchristensen.no/en/glossary)Glossary

# Pentest (penetration test)

A controlled, authorized attack on your own systems to uncover vulnerabilities, documented in a report.

Also called: pentesting, pentester, penetration test, penetration testing

A pentest is a simulated attack on an application, a network or an organization, performed with permission and within an agreed scope. The tester tries everything a real attacker would: weaknesses in the code, misconfigurations, reused passwords and more.

The value is in the report. A good pentest report doesn’t just point at the holes. It explains how serious they are, how they’re exploited, and exactly what needs to be done to close them, in a form both developers and leadership can use.

The scope decides what the test actually measures, and it should be settled before anyone touches a keyboard. Is it only the web shop, or the office network too? Do employees know it’s happening, or is part of the point to see whether anyone notices? Am I allowed to try to fool people, or is only the technology being tested?

A common misconception is that a pentest is the same as a vulnerability scan. A scanner reads off known flaws and hands you a list. A pentest connects the findings: a password that leaked in one place, an access right that’s slightly too broad in another, and suddenly the way in is open even though neither part was serious on its own. Real attackers live off the connections between weaknesses, and no scanner sees those.

See also: [See talks on digital security](https://danielchristensen.no/en/talks)

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