Even if your external defenses are locked down, what happens if an attacker makes it inside?
Internal penetration testing helps answer that question. By simulating a threat actor already inside your network, whether via a compromised laptop, stolen VPN credentials, or rogue employee, we uncover the paths they could take to escalate access and exfiltrate sensitive data.
Red Sentry’s internal pentesting process is built around clarity, impact, and action. Our methodology spans four focused phases that reveal weaknesses inside your internal environment and provide a clear path to remediation.
The first step in any internal pentest is understanding the internal environment. Our security engineers actively map your network infrastructure to identify surface area, assets, potential entry points, and more.
Key reconnaissance activities include the following:
Network Discovery:
Technology Identification:
Publicly Accessible Shares:
Using tools like Nmap to scan for live hosts, open ports, and exposed services within your internal network.
Pinpointing operating systems, patch levels, and service versions to identify vulnerable software.
Using tools like Nmap to scan for live hosts, open ports, and exposed services within your internal network.
Network Discovery:
Using tools like Nmap to scan for live hosts, open ports, and exposed services within your internal network.
Technology Identification:
Pinpointing operating systems, patch levels, and service versions to identify vulnerable software.
Publicly Accessible Shares:
Using tools like Nmap to scan for live hosts, open ports, and exposed services within your internal network.
Once your internal assets are discovered, we dive deeper to fingerprint services and gather detailed data that informs the next phase of testing. This step focuses on understanding what’s running inside—and where the vulnerabilities may lie.
Here’s what our fingerprinting phase includes:
Service Enumeration:
Active Directory Enumeration (if AD is present):
Credential Discovery:
Actively scanning internal machines to identify file servers, web applications, database services, and more.
Tools like BloodHound and AD Explorer help us map user groups, trust paths, GPOs, and privilege relationships.
Searching configuration files, scripts, and public shares for stored or hardcoded credentials that could grant unauthorized access.
Service Enumeration:
Actively scanning internal machines to identify file servers, web applications, database services, and more.
Active Directory Enumeration (if AD is present):
Tools like BloodHound and AD Explorer help us map user groups, trust paths, GPOs, and privilege relationships.
Credential Discovery:
Searching configuration files, scripts, and public shares for stored or hardcoded credentials that could grant unauthorized access.
This is where ethical hacking meets action. Based on the weaknesses uncovered earlier, we simulate real-world attacks to show how far an adversary could go if they breached your internal network.
Exploitation techniques include the following:
Password-Based Attacks
Password Spraying: Attempting weak or common passwords across multiple accounts. Hash Cracking: Extracting password hashes (via tools like Mimikatz) and cracking them offline. Pass-the-Hash (PtH): Reusing stolen hashes to move laterally without needing actual passwords.
We evaluate how exposed your internal environment is to weak credentials, stolen hashes, and common password reuse techniques.
Privilege Escalation & Lateral Movement
Once inside, we attempt to escalate privileges and move laterally across systems using common internal network misconfigurations.
Kerberoasting: Extracting service account hashes from AD to gain elevated access. GPO Exploits: Finding misconfigured Group Policies that allow for escalation or internal pivoting. Remote Code Execution: Leveraging protocols like SMB or RDP to access new systems. Pass-the-Ticket Attacks: Using Kerberos tickets to impersonate other users.
Advanced Active Directory Attacks
For environments with Active Directory, we simulate advanced adversary tactics to demonstrate the full impact of a compromised internal foothold.
DCSync & DCShadow: Extracting or injecting credentials by simulating Domain Controller behavior. Golden & Silver Tickets: Forging Kerberos tickets to gain domain-wide or service-specific access. Pass-the-Ticket Attacks: Using Kerberos tickets to impersonate other users.
At the conclusion of your internal pentest, you’ll receive a detailed report documenting everything we found and how we found it. But we don’t stop at the technical findings—we help you take action.
Our reports include:
A prioritized list of identified vulnerabilities
The exploitation methods used to confirm impact
Clear, actionable recommendations for remediation
Why Choose Red Sentry for Internal Pentesting?
Red Sentry delivers ethical hacking tailored to the realities of modern environments. Whether you operate a flat network or complex hybrid infrastructure, our internal penetration testing uncovers real risks—not theoretical gaps.
Our approach is trusted by fast-scaling startups, enterprise IT teams, and security-conscious organizations that need to know what’s lurking behind the firewall.
Ready to find out what a bad actor could do with internal access?
Let’s make sure you find the weaknesses before they do.
