A penetration test or a pen test is the simulation of a cyberattack on a computer to check for potential vulnerabilities in the system. It is commonly implemented to augment a web application firewall (WAF). It can involve a simulated attack on any number of application systems such as APIs, frontend servers, and backend servers to discover any vulnerabilities present. The insights gained through this kind of testing can be used to tighten the WAF security policies and fix the detected issues.
Following are a few popular tools used for penetration testing:
Netsparker
Wireshark
Metasploit
BeEF
Aircrack