Pentest Reporting for Manufacturing & OT
Bridge the gap between IT and OT security with penetration testing reports that protect production lines, SCADA systems, and industrial control networks.
Security Challenges in Manufacturing & OT
Manufacturing organizations operate at the intersection of information technology and operational technology, creating a uniquely complex attack surface. The convergence of IT and OT networks, driven by Industry 4.0 initiatives and smart factory deployments, has exposed industrial control systems, SCADA platforms, and programmable logic controllers to threats they were never designed to withstand. A successful attack can halt production lines, damage physical equipment, compromise product safety, and endanger worker safety.
- Industrial control systems often run legacy protocols such as Modbus, DNP3, and OPC that lack built-in authentication or encryption, and cannot be patched without scheduling costly production downtime windows.
- The Purdue Model network segmentation that separates enterprise IT from production OT is frequently weakened by remote access requirements, cloud-connected IoT sensors, and vendor maintenance connections that create bridging paths.
- Threat actors including nation-state groups and ransomware operators specifically target manufacturing, knowing that production downtime costs can exceed millions of dollars per hour, increasing the likelihood of ransom payment.
Penetration testing in manufacturing environments requires extreme caution. Tests must be carefully scoped to avoid disrupting production processes, and findings must clearly distinguish between IT network vulnerabilities and OT-specific risks. Reports need to address both the CISO's enterprise security concerns and the plant manager's operational continuity priorities, often communicating across organizational silos that speak different technical languages.
How Vulnsy Helps
Vulnsy provides specialized reporting capabilities for manufacturing and OT penetration testing engagements. Finding templates cover both IT-side vulnerabilities that could serve as pivot points into OT networks and OT-specific issues such as unprotected HMI interfaces, insecure remote access configurations, and inadequate network segmentation between enterprise and production zones. Each template includes dual remediation tracks for IT and OT teams.
Report generation produces documents structured around the Purdue Model architecture levels, making it immediately clear which findings affect enterprise systems versus plant floor operations. This structure helps manufacturing clients prioritize remediation based on both cybersecurity risk and operational impact, ensuring that critical production systems receive appropriate attention without unnecessary downtime.
- Client portals allow both IT security teams and plant operations managers to track findings relevant to their domain, with customizable views that filter by network zone and asset criticality.
- Team collaboration supports joint IT/OT assessments where network testers and ICS specialists contribute findings to a unified report with consistent risk ratings calibrated for industrial environments.
- Compliance-ready formats align with IEC 62443, NIST SP 800-82, and sector-specific requirements from bodies such as the FDA for pharmaceutical manufacturing.