Website Penetration Testing Services

A website penetration test is a security test that looks at your public website from an attacker’s point of view, with your approval.

The test looks at what an outside attacker could find, access, change, or exploit through your website and its related technology.

For a business website, that may mean examining the website platform, content management system, plugins, exposed administrative functions, configuration, publicly accessible files, and externally reachable services.

For more complex websites, testing also checks interactive features and how the application behaves.

The main question is always:

“Could someone on the internet exploit the website to gain unauthorized access, expose information, compromise the site, or use it as a path to something more valuable?”

Tanner Security tests your website to answer this question before a real attacker does.

A public website gives attackers an obvious place to start.

They can identify your domains and subdomains, determine which technologies you use, discover administrative interfaces, inspect public resources, search for outdated components, and look for vulnerabilities that provide an initial foothold.

Your website may also rely on third-party components that introduce risk even when your company’s developers did not create them.

A penetration test can find weaknesses before an attacker finds them.

It can also help your company answer practical questions:

“Does our website expose unnecessary functionality?”

“Are outdated plugins or components creating a security risk?”

“Can someone access files or information that should remain private?”

“Does our website configuration create unnecessary exposure?”

These answers help your leadership and IT teams focus on fixing real risks instead of guessing where the problems are.

The exact scope depends on your website, hosting setup, technology, and what you want to achieve with the test.

Public Attack Surface: We examine what an outside attacker can discover about your website and its supporting infrastructure. This can include domains, subdomains, publicly exposed services, administrative interfaces, application endpoints, technology fingerprints, and other externally visible components.

Website and CMS Security: Many businesses rely on content management systems such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, or other platforms. Tanner Security can evaluate the website platform’s security and identify issues involving old software, vulnerable extensions, unnecessary functionality, insecure configuration, exposed administrative features, and other weaknesses within the approved scope.

Plugins, Extensions, and Components: Third-party plugins, modules, themes, libraries, and other components can expand your website’s attack surface. We examine applicable components for known vulnerabilities, insecure configurations, unnecessary exposure, and other weaknesses that could provide an attacker with an entry point.

Administrative Interfaces: Administrative functions represent an attractive target because successful access can give an attacker significant control over website content, configuration, users, or connected services. We evaluate externally accessible administrative interfaces and the controls that protect them.

TLS and Website Encryption: We examine the website’s use of HTTPS and related encryption configuration within the testing scope. Weak encryption settings or certificate issues can cause security and trust problems, especially if your website handles sensitive information.

Security Headers and Browser Protections: Website security depends partly on how browsers handle content and connections. Tanner Security can evaluate applicable HTTP security headers and browser-facing protections that help reduce risks such as content injection, framing attacks, and other browser-based abuse.

Public Files and Information Exposure: We look for files, directories, backups, configuration information, metadata, comments, or other publicly accessible resources that could reveal information an attacker could use. A website doesn’t need a big vulnerability to leak useful information. Sometimes, a few small issues together can give an attacker enough information to launch a bigger attack.

Server and Application Configuration: We examine security-relevant configuration exposed through the website and its supporting services. Depending on the environment, this can include unnecessary services, debugging information, directory listings, default configurations, exposed management functions, and other weaknesses.

Input and Interactive Functions: When the website accepts user input, we test applicable functions for issues such as injection, cross-site scripting, file-handling weaknesses, and other externally exploitable vulnerabilities. When those functions cover complex application logic, Tanner Security can expand the scope into a full web application penetration test.

A website can inherit issues from the software that powers it.

Content management systems, plugins, themes, server software, JavaScript libraries, frameworks, and other components all contribute to the attack surface.

Attackers go after outdated or weak components because they are the easiest ways in.

Tanner Security evaluates the components exposed by your website and helps determine whether identified issues create a practical security risk.

We also distinguish between:

A known vulnerable component that an attacker cannot reach,

and

A vulnerable component that provides a realistic path to compromise.

This helps your IT team focus on the most important issues instead of treating every scanner result as urgent.

Configuration weaknesses can create risks even if your software is up to date.

Examples can include exposed administrative functions, unnecessary services, directory listings, debugging features, overly permissive access, insecure defaults, or information that the website should not reveal.

The current OWASP Top 10:2025 lists Security Misconfiguration as A02:2025, stressing the importance of secure web settings.

Tanner Security can review your website’s configuration to identify weaknesses that could put you at risk.

Configuration weaknesses can create risks even if your software is up to date.

Examples can include exposed administrative functions, unnecessary services, directory listings, debugging features, overly permissive access, insecure defaults, or information that the website should not reveal.

The current OWASP Top 10:2025 lists Security Misconfiguration as A02:2025, stressing the importance of secure web settings.

Tanner Security can review your website’s configuration to identify weaknesses that could put you at risk.

Every Tanner Security project starts by setting authorization, scope, objectives, and testing rules.

1. Planning and Scoping: We identify the domains, subdomains, website platforms, environments, known technologies, hosting arrangements, administrative interfaces, and other components included in the approved test. We also identify systems and functions that require special testing limits.
2. External Reconnaissance: We examine the website from an outside attacker’s perspective. This process helps identify the technologies, public services, administrative interfaces, domains, subdomains, application entry points, and other information an attacker could discover.
3. Technology and Configuration Review: We examine the technologies supporting the website and look for outdated components, known vulnerabilities, insecure configurations, exposed functions, and other weaknesses.
4. Automated Security Testing: Automated tools help us identify common vulnerabilities and areas that require additional investigation. Automation helps us check more areas, but we don’t treat scanner results as the final answer.
5. Manual Validation: Our testers manually investigate findings to determine whether they create a practical security risk. This step helps distinguish false positives from vulnerabilities that an attacker could realistically exploit.
6. Controlled Exploitation: When the rules of engagement allow exploitation, we attempt controlled attacks to demonstrate the likely impact of confirmed vulnerabilities. We design our tests to avoid unnecessary disruption and still give you useful evidence.
7. Risk and Attack-Path Analysis: We consider how individual weaknesses could combine. A low-severity information disclosure may become much more important when it exposes information that helps an attacker exploit another weakness. Our assessment looks at the bigger picture, not just each issue by itself.
8. Reporting and Remediation Guidance: We provide a detailed report that explains the vulnerabilities, evidence, severity, potential business impact, and recommended remediation. After your team fixes findings, Tanner Security can perform targeted retesting.

A website penetration test is a good idea if your site is a key public asset, has admin features, uses lots of third-party components, handles sensitive data, or supports customers.

Testing also makes sense after substantial technology or architecture changes.

A major CMS migration, significant redesign, hosting migration, new authentication system, addition of externally accessible services, acquisition, or major security incident can justify another assessment.

Regular testing can also give you independent proof of your website’s security.

How often you should test depends on your website’s risk, how often it changes, how exposed it is, the sensitivity of its data, and any security rules you need to follow. Learn more about what events should trigger a penetration test.

Website penetration testing can help any business that relies on a public-facing website for sales, marketing, customer service, e-commerce, recruiting, communication, or other operations.

The testing approach varies by website type.

A small brochure website may need a focused external security assessment.

A WordPress site with numerous third-party plugins may require deeper CMS and component testing.

An e-commerce website may require both website security testing and a web application penetration test or a PCI CDE penetration test.

A customer portal or SaaS platform generally requires full web application penetration testing.

The real question isn’t just whether your company has a website. It’s about how much risk your website creates for your business.

Web application security often involves more than just the application itself. Tanner Security offers other services to give you a full view of your security risks.

Web Application Penetration Testing: Evaluate API authentication, authorization, data exposure, input handling, and business logic.

Custom Application Penetration Testing: Assess proprietary software with complex workflows, integrations, user roles, and business logic that require deeper manual testing.

Mobile Application Penetration Testing: Test iOS and Android applications along with the APIs and backend systems that support them.

SQL Penetration Testing: Focus specifically on SQL injection and database-query manipulation within web applications and APIs.

Cloud Penetration Testing: Evaluate AWS, Azure, Microsoft, and hybrid cloud environments for exploitable security weaknesses and attack paths. Read more about the top 12 AWS misconfigurations.

External Network Penetration Testing: Test internet-facing infrastructure, remote-access systems, public services, and other external attack surfaces.

Internal Network Penetration Testing: Determine what an attacker could accomplish after gaining an initial foothold inside the network.

Network Vulnerability Assessment: Identify known vulnerabilities and configuration weaknesses between penetration-testing engagements.

PCI CDE Penetration Testing: Test web applications and related systems that fall within the Cardholder Data Environment and applicable PCI DSS scope.

Your website is a public entry point to your business.

Website penetration testing helps you see what an attacker could find, access, and exploit before they do.

Tanner Security uses automated testing, manual analysis, controlled exploitation, and practical advice to help businesses strengthen their public-facing security.