Credential harvesting and reuse
Capturing and replaying credentials from memory, network traffic, misconfigured services, and insecure storage.
Internal Network & Active Directory Testing
See your internal environment through an attacker’s eyes and understand how far a compromise could really spread.
Compromise is inevitable. Lateral movement does not have to be.
Once an attacker gains a foothold on a single workstation or server, the strength of your internal controls determines how far they can pivot. Internal network and Active Directory testing reveals the real lateral movement paths and privilege escalation opportunities in your environment.
Cyber Defence consultants simulate a realistic internal attacker – starting from a standard user context or a single compromised host – and map how credentials, misconfigurations, and trust relationships can be abused to reach high-value systems and data.
What we focus on
Internal testing typically includes:
• Active Directory design and configuration
• Workstation and server hardening
• Local and domain credential hygiene
• Network segmentation and access controls
• Lateral movement techniques and tooling
• Sensitive data exposure on internal shares
Testing can be performed from a standard user context, an assumed breach scenario, or a combined approach depending on your objectives.
Techniques
Techniques we use during internal tests
We apply a wide range of techniques drawn from red team tradecraft and MITRE ATT&CK.
Kerberoasting and AS-REP roasting
Identifying weak service accounts and accounts without pre-authentication to obtain crackable hashes.
Privilege escalation paths
Abusing local group membership, misconfigured services, and ACLs to gain elevated access.
Lateral movement mapping
Using standard administration tools and attacker techniques to move between hosts and segments.
AD misconfiguration analysis
Reviewing trusts, delegation, group policy, and privileged group memberships for abuse paths.
Data discovery and access testing
Locating sensitive information on file shares and systems to understand potential data exposure.
Typical internal / AD engagement flow
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1. Starting foothold
We begin from a defined context – for example, a standard user workstation or a compromised server – agreed during scoping.
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2. Enumeration and situational awareness
Identification of domains, hosts, users, groups, and key services using both native tools and specialist assessment utilities.
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3. Credential and privilege analysis
Hunting for reusable credentials and privilege escalation opportunities across workstations, servers, and Active Directory.
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4. Lateral movement and objective testing
Moving through the environment, targeting agreed objectives such as domain admin, specific data stores, or key systems.
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5. Reporting and hardening guidance
Documenting paths, weaknesses, and misconfigurations, with concrete steps to improve hardening and monitoring.
Understand your true internal exposure
If an attacker reached a single workstation, how far could they go? An internal and AD-focused test will give you an evidence-based answer.
Aligned with detection and hardening improvements
Findings from internal and AD tests are ideal input for SOC365 detection engineering, Threat Intelligence watchlists, and hardening programmes. We help you transform offensive insights into long-term defensive improvements, rather than a one-off report.