Outdated and unpatched services
Web servers, VPN appliances, and middleware running software with known, exploitable vulnerabilities.
External Infrastructure Penetration Testing
Understand how your Internet-facing systems appear to attackers, and fix exploitable weaknesses before they are used against you.
Your perimeter is constantly exposed. Testing it should be too.
Every day, automated scanners and targeted adversaries inspect your Internet-facing assets for weaknesses. External infrastructure penetration testing shows you what they see – and what they can exploit – under controlled conditions.
Cyber Defence combines automated reconnaissance with deep manual testing to identify vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and weak controls across your perimeter, helping you close the gaps that matter most.
What we test
External infrastructure testing typically includes:
• Public-facing web servers, reverse proxies, and load balancers
• VPN gateways and remote access portals
• Mail gateways and secure email services
• DNS, certificate and PKI configuration
• Exposed administrative interfaces and management planes
• Perimeter firewall behaviour and filtering
The exact scope is defined with you in advance, and can be based on IP ranges, domains, or specific critical services.
How we approach external testing
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1. Reconnaissance & enumeration
Discovery of hosts, services, technologies, and exposures using OSINT, DNS analysis, certificate transparency, and network scanning.
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2. Vulnerability identification
Automated and manual analysis to identify outdated software, weak configurations, exposed services, and known vulnerabilities.
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3. Exploitation & validation
Targeted exploitation attempts against identified weaknesses to determine real-world impact and avoid false positives.
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4. Attack-path analysis
Mapping of how chained issues – such as weak VPN, exposed admin interfaces, or default credentials – could lead to deeper compromise.
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5. Reporting & remediation guidance
Clear technical findings, risk ratings, and practical remediation steps for your infrastructure and network teams.
Common findings
Issues we frequently identify on external tests
While every environment is different, recurring weaknesses include:
Misconfigured remote access
VPNs and remote portals with weak authentication, insufficient hardening, or legacy protocols enabled.
Exposed administrative interfaces
Management interfaces, orchestrators, and consoles reachable from the Internet without adequate controls.
Information leakage via DNS and TLS
Domains, subdomains, and certificates revealing internal naming schemes, technologies, or forgotten systems.
Misconfigured firewalls and access controls
Overly permissive rules, unnecessary open ports, and inconsistent segmentation at the edge.
Shadow IT and legacy systems
Unmanaged or forgotten assets presenting high-risk exposures outside standard vulnerability management processes.
Ready to test your perimeter properly?
Share your external IP ranges, domains, and critical services. We will propose a scoped engagement that focuses on the systems that matter most.
An external view informed by live threat intelligence
Our penetration tests are backed by Cyber Defence’s Threat Intelligence platform and SOC365 operations. We do not just test against generic vulnerabilities – we test against the ways attackers are currently targeting organisations like yours.
Findings from external tests can be fed directly into SOC365 detections and attack surface monitoring to provide continuous protection beyond the engagement.