One way to formalize it is to find out the customer is willing to pay,
divide it by your rate, and voila you have the effort (semi-sarcastic
but very true in practice).
Besides what Kevin has mentioned, a big factor is whether the pentest
is intrusive, write vs. non-intrusive, read-only.
To really formalize it and to get some metrics going, you can address
the vulnerabilities in the OWASP Top 10 2007, put a weighted score on
what it takes for you to address each one, find out what the customer
wants (you might have to add some left out like DoS but this is
clearly noted in the Top 10 2007 documentation), then calculate your
total effort.
For reporting, my ratio for 5 days is 3 days reporting. After that the
ratio goes down slightly towards 2 days of reporting per 5 days of
testing. For 5 days of testing, 2 days are for the preliminary report,
then a calendar amount of time elapses with some meetings to agree on
the final report, then the final report takes one day. For 10 days of
testing, the reporting will take from 3 to 4 days.
The preliminary report should be purely technical irrespective of what
the customer wants in it or not. This covers yourself against possible
litigation in the future. The final report is the adjusted preliminary
report based on the client's wishes.
Iggy
On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 7:27 PM, kevin horvath <kevin.horvath_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> App testing is a different animal then network so its not as easy to
> figure out a timeframe without out detailed infromation from the
> client. You must have detailed knowledge of specific things (as
> mentioned earlier) before you can provide an accurate estimate.
> Although if your hands are tied and you are forced to then I would
> recommend giving an estimated range say 6-10 business day including
> reporting but if the application is more complex then this could
> change. Its kind of like going to a builder and saying give me an
> estimate on how much it will be to build a house although I dont know
> exactly what I want yet.
>
> On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 11:34 PM, Huynh Thien Tam <thientam82_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi Kevin,
>>
>> Thanks for your reply.
>> Yes, I always try to have an application walk through with the app team to
>> know more about the application before estimating the efford. However, half
>> of the time I have to come out with the estimated manday without having
>> chance to discuss in detailed with customer ( app not build yet, customer
>> not sure, bound tender, last minute tender..). I also want to synchronize
>> the efford estimation method among the whole team. Do you know any
>> quantitative efford estimation method for webapp PT , something similar to
>> manday estimation for Network PT from OSSTMM ?
>>
>> Regards,
>> Tam
>>
>>
>> On 5/29/08, kevin horvath <kevin.horvath_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> you need to find out from the client how many transactions the app
>>> performs (not static pages but actual functions such as transactions
>>> done through servlets for example), how users authenticate (form based
>>> user/pass or multi stage with soft/hard tokens for example), and how
>>> many accounts at different privilege levels (need at least 2 accounts
>>> at every level to test horizontal and veritical attacks) Additionally
>>> you also want to know if this app is tied into any other apps, such as
>>> it takes in data and/or authentication tokens from another app such as
>>> from a business partner. Basically you need to walk through the
>>> application yourself briefly and get detailed information from the
>>> client for each app. With this said app tests should take anywhere
>>> from 4 to 20 working days (or even more) including reporting.
>>>
>>> Kevin
>>>
>>> On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 2:24 AM, <thientam82_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>>> > Dear list,
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Would you able to share with me how you estimate the efford (man-day)
>>> > for a web pentest project?
>>> >
>>> > Previously, I quoted manday based on number of pages, number of
>>> > functions, criticalness of transaction,.... Each project normally take about
>>> > 3 to 6 mandays. I want to formalize the efford estimation for WebPT. Any
>>> > suggestion is appreciated.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Thanks
>>> >
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>>> >
>>
>>
>
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This list is sponsored by: Cenzic
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in Securing Web Applications
Find out now! Get Webinar Recording and PPT Slides
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Received on May 30 2008
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