eShield Consulting delivers comprehensive Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) services in Dubai, UAE to help organisations discover, prioritise, and remediate security weaknesses before attackers exploit them. Whether you operate in finance, healthcare, retail, or government, our certified security engineers simulate real-world attacks to expose gaps across your networks, applications, and cloud infrastructure.

What is VAPT? Vulnerability Assessment vs Penetration Testing

VAPT combines two complementary disciplines into a single, comprehensive security engagement:

  • Vulnerability Assessment (VA): An automated and manual scan of your systems to identify known vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, missing patches, and weak credentials. The goal is breadth — cataloguing every weakness present.
  • Penetration Testing (PT): A simulated attack by ethical hackers who attempt to exploit identified vulnerabilities and chain weaknesses together to achieve a meaningful breach. The goal is depth — understanding real-world impact.

Together, VAPT gives you both the full inventory of risks and a proven demonstration of what an attacker could actually achieve on your systems today.

Our VAPT Services in Dubai

eShield offers a complete range of VAPT engagements aligned to international standards including PTES, OWASP, and NIST SP 800-115:

  • Network VAPT: Internal and external network infrastructure, firewall rules, router configurations, VPNs, and segmentation controls.
  • Web Application VAPT: OWASP Top 10 testing — SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, broken authentication, IDOR, and business logic flaws across customer-facing applications.
  • Mobile Application VAPT: Android and iOS application analysis covering insecure data storage, improper session management, API vulnerabilities, and reverse engineering risk.
  • Cloud Infrastructure VAPT: AWS, Azure, and GCP environment assessment — misconfigured S3 buckets, IAM privilege escalation, exposed management interfaces, and container security.
  • API Security Testing: REST and SOAP API authentication, authorisation, input validation, rate limiting, and data exposure checks.
  • Social Engineering Assessment: Phishing simulations and pretexting scenarios to measure human-layer security awareness.
  • Red Team Exercises: Objective-based adversary simulation combining multiple attack vectors over an extended engagement period.

VAPT Methodology — How We Work

Every eShield VAPT engagement follows a structured, repeatable methodology:

  1. Scoping and Rules of Engagement: Define targets, test windows, escalation procedures, and out-of-scope systems to ensure zero disruption to production operations.
  2. Reconnaissance: Passive and active information gathering — DNS enumeration, OSINT, port scanning, service fingerprinting, and technology stack identification.
  3. Vulnerability Discovery: Automated scanning combined with manual expert analysis to identify vulnerabilities missed by tools alone.
  4. Exploitation: Controlled attempt to exploit confirmed vulnerabilities to assess real-world impact, privilege escalation potential, and lateral movement paths.
  5. Post-Exploitation Analysis: Evaluate what data could be accessed, exfiltrated, or modified following a successful breach.
  6. Reporting: Detailed technical report with CVSS-scored findings, executive summary, evidence screenshots, and a prioritised remediation roadmap.
  7. Remediation Support: Our engineers remain available to answer questions and validate fixes during the remediation cycle.
  8. Re-testing: Optional re-test to confirm vulnerabilities have been successfully remediated before sign-off.

VAPT Compliance Requirements in UAE

Regulatory frameworks operating in the UAE and broader GCC region mandate regular VAPT as a compliance requirement:

  • UAE National Cybersecurity Strategy: Requires critical infrastructure operators to conduct regular penetration testing.
  • CBUAE (Central Bank of UAE): Banking and financial institutions must conduct annual VAPT under the Cyber Resilience Framework.
  • Dubai Electronic Security Center (DESC): Government entities and Smart Dubai partners must meet periodic VAPT requirements.
  • PCI DSS: Merchants and payment processors handling card data must conduct annual penetration testing (Requirement 11.4).
  • ISO 27001: Annex A control A.12.6.1 requires active management of technical vulnerabilities — VAPT is the standard mechanism.
  • HIPAA / DIFC Data Protection Law: Healthcare and financial data processors require regular security assessments.

VAPT Report Deliverables

Every eShield VAPT engagement delivers a comprehensive, audit-ready report containing:

  • Executive summary with business-level risk narrative
  • Full technical findings with CVSS v3.1 severity scores (Critical / High / Medium / Low)
  • Proof-of-concept evidence — screenshots and step-by-step exploitation paths
  • Risk heat map and prioritised remediation roadmap
  • Compliance mapping against PCI DSS, ISO 27001, NIST, and UAE regulations
  • Remediation guidance with recommended tools and configuration changes
  • Management presentation deck (optional)

Why Choose eShield for VAPT in Dubai?

  • Certified Engineers: Our team holds OSCP, CEH, CISSP, CISA, and GPEN certifications — no junior-only assessments.
  • UAE-Based Delivery: Local presence in Dubai means faster turnaround, on-site testing capability, and compliance with UAE data residency requirements.
  • Industry Experience: We have completed VAPT engagements across banking, healthcare, government, retail, and logistics sectors in the UAE and GCC.
  • Zero False Positives Policy: Every vulnerability is manually validated before inclusion in the final report.
  • Confidentiality Guaranteed: All engagements are covered by NDA. Your findings are never shared or benchmarked externally.

Frequently Asked Questions — VAPT Services Dubai

How long does a VAPT engagement take?

Duration depends on scope. A standard web application VAPT typically takes 5–10 business days. A full infrastructure VAPT for a medium-sized organisation takes 2–4 weeks including reporting and re-testing. We provide a detailed scope and timeline during the initial consultation.

Is VAPT disruptive to our business operations?

No. All testing is conducted within agreed rules of engagement and scheduled test windows. We use non-destructive techniques and coordinate with your IT team to avoid any impact on production systems. Out-of-scope systems are strictly excluded.

What is the difference between VAPT and a security audit?

A security audit is a compliance-focused review of policies, controls, and documentation against a standard (e.g., ISO 27001). VAPT is a technical assessment that actually tests whether your systems can be compromised. VAPT generates empirical evidence of exploitability; an audit confirms process compliance. Both are often needed together.

How much does VAPT cost in Dubai?

VAPT pricing in Dubai varies by scope, number of IP addresses or application pages, engagement type, and testing duration. A focused web application VAPT starts from AED 8,000–15,000. Network VAPT for a 50-host environment typically ranges from AED 15,000–35,000. Contact us for a scoped quote tailored to your environment.

Do we receive a certificate after VAPT?

Yes. eShield issues a Letter of Assessment confirming the scope, methodology, and completion of the VAPT engagement. This letter is accepted by regulators, clients, and third-party auditors as evidence of testing compliance. We can also provide a summarised attestation report suitable for board or compliance submissions.

How often should VAPT be conducted?

Best practice and most UAE regulatory frameworks require VAPT at least annually. Additionally, VAPT should be conducted after any significant infrastructure change, application release, merger/acquisition, or security incident. High-risk environments such as banking and payments may require quarterly assessments.