Vulnerability Assessment & Penetration Testing (VAPT)

The UAE Cyber Threat Landscape in 2026

The scale of cyber threats facing UAE businesses has reached critical levels. According to the UAE Cybersecurity Council, the country intercepts between 90,000 and 200,000 cyberattacks every single day — with over 70% attributed to state-sponsored actors. The UAE cybersecurity market is estimated at $0.91 billion in 2026, growing to $1.51 billion by 2031.

For UAE SMBs, the risk is immediate: 47% of Middle East organizations reported breach losses exceeding $100,000 in the last year. In early 2026 alone, 107 out of 149 global hacktivist DDoS attacks were concentrated in the Middle East. UAE regulators including NESA and DESC have moved from policy-based compliance to evidence-based security — requiring organizations to prove their controls work through regular VAPT.

Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) is a dual-layered security process that identifies weaknesses in your systems and validates how an attacker could exploit them. Unlike a basic vulnerability scan, VAPT involves human-driven testing that simulates real-world attack scenarios — giving you a true picture of your security posture.

UAE regulators including NESA, DESC, and ADHICS mandate regular penetration testing for organizations handling sensitive data or critical infrastructure. A failed audit or breach can result in regulatory penalties, reputational damage, and operational disruption.

Types of VAPT We Conduct

Network Penetration Testing — Internal and external network infrastructure, firewalls, routers, switches, and segmentation controls tested against real attacker techniques.

Web Application Penetration Testing — OWASP Top 10 and beyond: SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, broken authentication, insecure direct object references, API vulnerabilities, and business logic flaws.

Mobile Application Testing — Android and iOS apps tested for insecure data storage, weak cryptography, improper session handling, and backend API security.

Cloud Security Assessment — AWS, Azure, and GCP environments reviewed for misconfigurations, IAM weaknesses, exposed storage buckets, and insecure workloads.

API Penetration Testing — REST, GraphQL, and SOAP APIs tested for authentication bypass, data exposure, injection flaws, and rate limiting gaps.

Social Engineering — Phishing simulations and pretexting exercises to test your human layer — often the most exploited attack vector in UAE organizations.

Our VAPT Methodology

We follow PTES (Penetration Testing Execution Standard) and OWASP Testing Guide, ensuring comprehensive coverage aligned with international best practices.

Phase 1 — Scoping and Rules of Engagement: We define the target scope, testing windows, emergency contacts, and acceptable testing boundaries. No surprises.

Phase 2 — Reconnaissance: Open-source intelligence (OSINT) gathering — DNS records, exposed credentials, employee data, technology fingerprinting — exactly what a real attacker does first.

Phase 3 — Vulnerability Discovery: Automated scanning combined with manual testing to identify potential weaknesses across the agreed scope.

Phase 4 — Exploitation: Controlled exploitation of discovered vulnerabilities to validate their severity and demonstrate real-world impact — not just theoretical risk.

Phase 5 — Post-Exploitation: Privilege escalation, lateral movement, and persistence testing to understand how far an attacker could reach after initial compromise.

Phase 6 — Reporting: Executive summary for leadership and detailed technical report for your engineering team — every finding with CVSS score, evidence screenshots, and step-by-step remediation guidance.

Phase 7 — Retest: Free retest included. We verify your fixes actually work before closing the engagement.

UAE Regulatory Compliance

Regular VAPT directly supports compliance with:

• NESA (UAE Information Assurance Standards) — Requires periodic security assessments for critical information infrastructure
• DESC (Dubai Electronic Security Center) — Mandates penetration testing for Dubai government and regulated entities
• ADHICS — Abu Dhabi Healthcare Information and Cyber Security Standard requires annual VAPT
• ISO 27001 — Annex A.12.6 requires technical vulnerability management and testing
• PCI-DSS — Requirement 11 mandates quarterly vulnerability scans and annual penetration testing
• PDPL (UAE Personal Data Protection Law) — Requires appropriate technical measures to protect personal data

Deliverables

Every VAPT engagement includes: executive summary report, full technical findings report, risk-rated vulnerability list (Critical/High/Medium/Low/Informational), proof-of-concept evidence, remediation roadmap with prioritized action items, and free retest report.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a VAPT engagement take? A web application test typically takes 5-10 business days. A network VAPT for a mid-sized organization runs 1-3 weeks. We provide a precise timeline during scoping.

Will VAPT disrupt our operations? We schedule testing to minimize disruption and can work outside business hours. Destructive testing is never performed without explicit written consent.

How often should we do VAPT? NESA and ISO 27001 recommend at least annually. For organizations handling financial or health data, quarterly assessments are best practice. After major infrastructure changes, targeted retesting is recommended.

Do you provide a certificate of completion? Yes. We issue a formal letter of attestation confirming the scope, methodology, and completion date — suitable for regulatory submission.

Can you test our cloud environment? Yes — AWS, Azure, GCP, and hybrid environments. We follow cloud provider penetration testing policies and obtain necessary approvals before testing.

VAPT Pricing in UAE

Cyberdecript offers transparent, scope-based pricing for all VAPT engagements. We provide a fixed-fee quote after a free scoping call — no hidden costs, no surprise invoices.

• Web Application VAPT — from AED 7,500 (single application)
• Network Penetration Testing — scoped by IP range and complexity
• API Security Testing — from AED 5,000
• Mobile Application VAPT — from AED 6,500 per platform
• Cloud Security Assessment — scoped by environment size

All engagements include a free retest to verify remediation. Contact us for a free scoping call and fixed-fee quote within 24 hours.