Stages of penetration testing

To have a better understanding of penetration testing, let's go through the stages of the process:

• Stage 1: Reconnaissance 
• Stage 2: Enumeration
• Stage 3: Vulnerability assessment and analysis
• Stage 4: Exploitation (includes the post-exploitation period)
• Stage 5: Reporting

This can be seen in the following diagram:

Each and every stage has its own set of tools and techniques that can be used to perform the testing efficiently.