Penetration testing is a strategy used by organizations to proactively assess the security of their IT environments. It consists of using the same techniques as attackers to discover if there are security vulnerabilities and exploit them in a safe and controlled way. Thus, it helps security professionals determine the risk level to help prioritize remediation of those vulnerabilities.
A pen test can find weaknesses in operating systems, services and application flaws, improper configurations, or risky end-user behavior.