Imagine you just received your penetration test report. You scroll down and see only a couple of low-severity issues — maybe a clickjacking vulnerability or a misconfigured HTTP header. No critical bugs. No SQL injection. No exposed admin portals.
Should you be relieved? Happy? Or maybe… a little concerned?
⸻
What Low or No Findings Do Mean:
• Your application has passed a basic hygiene check — no obvious doors left wide open.
• You’ve likely already implemented some best practices: input validation, basic access controls, patched frameworks.
• Your software development lifecycle (SDLC) may already include code reviews, secure coding, and testing — all of which help reduce risk.
That’s good. You should feel proud.
⸻
But Here’s the Trap:
A clean pentest report doesn’t mean you’re safe.
It simply means that, at the time of testing, no obvious flaws were exposed — or perhaps the tester didn’t uncover the ones that exist.
Pentesting is not a guarantee of invulnerability. Like any assessment, it depends on the scope, methods, tools and the experience of the tester.
⸻
A Few Reasons Why Low Findings ≠ Immunity:
1. Pentests Have a Scope
• Most pentests are time-boxed.
• We test what we’re allowed to, if an endpoint or function is out of scope, it’s not tested — even if that’s where the real risk lies.
2. Attackers Have Unlimited Time
• Unlike ethical hackers, attackers don’t stop when time’s up.
• They use social engineering, phishing, leaked credentials and supply chain attacks — often out of scope for standard pentests.
3. “Low” Today Can Be “High” Tomorrow
• That simple clickjacking issue? Combine it with a clever CSRF trick, and you’ve got a session takeover
• A low-risk file upload flaw might seem harmless—until someone chains it with a MIME filter bypass to upload a PHP or JavaScript file to an accessible directory.
Vulnerabilities can be chained together, turning individually “low” findings into a serious breach. Read more about chaining vulnerabilities here.
4. Security Is Not a One-Off Event
• Pentesting is a snapshot, not a guarantee. Do not believe that you won’t get breached after a pentest exercise.
• Apps change. APIs evolve. Devs deploy.
• New libraries, zero-day vulnerabilities, and misconfigurations emerge all the time.
⸻
“Our Pentest Will Be Done in 3 Days” — Efficient or a Value Trap?
Sometimes you’ll hear a pentesting provider say,
“We can complete your pentest in just 3 days.”
It might sound impressive — but it’s worth asking:
• Are they doing manual testing, or just running automated scans?
• Have they scoped your application properly — including APIs, authentication flows and business logic?
• Are they spending time exploring real-world exploit or just checking boxes?
A quality pentest takes time, context and creativity. Rushing through it risks missing the very vulnerabilities that real attackers exploit.
So if a provider promises a very short testing window, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are efficient — it might mean they are superficial.
⸻
What You Should Do After a “Clean” Report
A clean report is a great sign, but it doesn’t mean you’re unbreakable — or that your application is flawless.
For your next round of pentesting, consider switching vendors.
Different testers bring different tools, perspectives and techniques. What one team misses, another might catch. A fresh set of eyes can make all the difference. Read more here.
⸻
How Perennial Consultancy Approaches Penetration Testing
At Perennial Consultancy, we don’t just run automated tools and call it a day.
We take time to understand:
• Your business logic
• How real attackers would approach your app
• Which combinations of seemingly “low-risk” issues could escalate into something serious
Our pentesting approach is:
✅ Focus on manual tests
✅ Balanced with CVSS scoring, but focused on real-world exploitability
✅ Not generic but designed to uncover and exploit vulnerabilities based on your unique risk landscape.
✅ Aligned with MAS TRM expectations for fintech and regulated industries in Singapore
⸻
Final Thought
Too often, companies treat penetration testing as just a checkbox for regulatory compliance, opting for the lowest-cost option just to meet the requirement. But security isn’t about ticking boxes — it’s about protecting your business from real-world threats.
Because when a breach happens, the impact isn’t just financial.
It’s your brand, reputation, and customer trust on the line.
Real security is more than passing a test.
It’s about building a culture of awareness, layered defense, and readiness for the unexpected.
