ok..so i do have experience with this as I've commissioned dozens of these
types of assessments.

here is why it's smart to allow a bypass of the IDS/IPS....when you engage a
3rd party to do this work, you are paying for expertise and TIME.

Time is the important consideration because the 3rd party doesn't really
have the luxury to attack your network using a "low and slow" methodology.
They will generate a lot of noise that would trigger most IDS/IPS
immediately....possibly blocking access in an automated way.

An advanced attacker would perform attacks on your network over the course
of weeks or even months...probably using compromised PCs distributed across
the world. Attacking this way, it's much easier to evade IPS/IDS
technology.

In short, you have to consider why you are doing this assessment and what
you want out of it.

If you seek better security, bypassing the IDS/IPS isn't a cop out...it's
just a way to get better data in a faster timeframe.
If you seek a "we're all good here" report, leave the IDS/IPS in place and
flush your assessment dollars out the window.

my 2 cents

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kid Tangerine" <kidtangerine (at) gmail (dot) com [email concealed]>
To: <security-basics (at) securityfocus (dot) com [email concealed]>
Sent: Monday, August 06, 2012 8:57 AM
Subject: Disabling IPS for PENTEST

> All,
>
> Corporate has requested we get a PENTEST for our Internet facing
> website from a third party, but the third party asked us to allow
> their ip address to be excluded from our IPS.
>
> Is that a common practice to basically turn off our protection and
> allow them in?
>
> Obviously we aren't developers, so If the code has sql injections,
> cross site scripting, etc vulnerabilities we cannot fix it within the
> corporate guidelines, and our only leverage from the IT infrastructure
> side is to include the needed filters in the IPS to prevent their
> crappy code from being exploited. It we turn off the IPS I am sure all
> kinds of things will show up.
>
> Any experience appreciated.
>
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