Red teaming

Red teaming is a specific form of internal penetration testing that focuses on simulating the actions of potential attackers and testing an organization’s defense capabilities. Unlike traditional penetration testing, which typically targets specific systems or applications, red teaming provides a comprehensive assessment of an organization's overall security resilience.

The team, known as the red team, employs various techniques and tactics, including social engineering, physical intrusion, cyberattacks, and other strategies, to identify weaknesses in security measures and procedures. The goal is not only to uncover technical vulnerabilities but also to test human factors, processes, and incident response capabilities.

Red teaming helps organizations better understand how they can defend against real threats and provides valuable insights to improve their security strategies and procedures.

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Techniques Used in Red Teaming

The technical aspects of red teaming cover a broad range of disciplines and skills essential for successfully simulating real attackers and testing an organization's security measures. Some of the key areas include:

• Ethical Hacking: Utilizing advanced hacking techniques, including vulnerability exploitation, network penetration, data theft, and application attacks. The red team must identify and exploit weaknesses in security configurations and software.

• Social Engineering: Manipulating individuals to obtain confidential information or gain access to secured systems. Techniques include phishing and other human-behavior-based attacks.

• Networks and Communications: Analyzing and infiltrating network infrastructures, including LAN and wireless networks. The red team may conduct attacks such as man-in-the-middle attacks, eavesdropping, and network traffic manipulation.

• Application Security: Identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities in applications, including web and mobile applications, misconfigurations, or poorly written code.

• Malware and Exploits: Developing and deploying malicious software and exploits to examine security system responses and identify potential breach points.

• Security Analysis: Gathering and analyzing information about the target organization and its systems, including publicly available data for attack planning (OSINT is also offered as a standalone service).

• Defense and Incident Response: Evaluating an organization’s ability to detect, respond to, and recover from security incidents.

• Physical Intrusion: Testing physical security by attempting to gain access to buildings and secured areas. While this is used minimally in our services, we can offer entry card security tests.

Red Teaming Project Workflow

A red teaming project typically follows several key phases, ensuring a systematic and effective simulation of attacks and security testing. These phases generally include:

• Defining Objectives

• Information Gathering

• Attack Planning

• Active and Passive Reconnaissance

• Exploitation and Intrusion

  • Initiating the Attack
  • Lateral Movement
  • Establishing Persistence

• Exfiltration and Data Processing

• Cleanup and Covering Tracks

• Detailed Report Preparation, including descriptions of conducted activities, identified vulnerabilities, and recommendations for improvement

• Presentation of Results to relevant teams

Red Teaming Evaluation in Collaboration with the Blue Team

The final evaluation is a crucial step to ensure that the findings from red team operations are effectively used to strengthen an organization’s overall security. This process typically involves:

• Presentation of Findings: The red team presents a detailed report on their activities, including penetration methods, discovered vulnerabilities, and any data exfiltrated.

• Discussion with the Blue Team: The blue team provides feedback on the red team’s findings, including what was detected, what went unnoticed, and how incident responses were handled. This discussion helps both teams understand their strengths and weaknesses.

• Incident and Attack Analysis: Reviewing specific incidents or attacks conducted by the red team helps the blue team understand how these incidents appear from an attacker’s perspective and how to respond effectively.

• Identifying Potential Improvements: Based on red team findings, specific steps and strategies are identified to enhance security measures, processes, and protocols. These may include technical improvements or changes in procedures and policies.

• Planning Remediation Actions: Supporting the implementation of corrective measures and improvements.

• Planning Future Tests: Scheduling additional, recurring red teaming exercises for continuous security testing and enhancement.

Other Types of Testing

In addition to the tests described above, we also provide our clients with various other types of penetration testing – see Penetration Testing Overview.