Red Team Assessment

 

A Red Team Assessment is a full-scope, adversary-simulated cybersecurity exercise where skilled security professionals (the red team) emulate real-world threat actors to test an organization’s detection, prevention, and response capabilities across people, processes, and technology.

Unlike traditional penetration tests, red team assessments go beyond vulnerabilities—they test how well your blue team (defenders) detects and responds to threats under realistic conditions.

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🔴 Red Team Assessment – Overview

Aspect	Details
Goal	Simulate real-world attacks to test security defenses & incident response
Approach	Covert, adversarial simulation using custom tools and tactics
Scope	Network, endpoints, applications, physical security, social engineering
Duration	2 to 6 weeks (varies based on organization size and maturity)
Outcome	Gaps in detection, monitoring, incident response, and attack surface

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🛠 Typical Red Team Attack Chain (MITRE ATT&CK Framework Alignment)

Phase	Description	Examples
Reconnaissance	Open-source intelligence gathering (OSINT)	LinkedIn scraping, Whois, subdomain enumeration
Initial Access	Gaining a foothold	Phishing, USB drops, exposed RDP, or VPN access
Execution	Running malicious code or payloads	Macro-based Office docs, PowerShell scripts
Persistence	Maintaining access	Scheduled tasks, registry keys, service creation
Privilege Escalation	Gaining higher-level privileges	Token impersonation, kernel exploits
Defense Evasion	Avoiding detection	Obfuscation, living-off-the-land (e.g., LOLBins)
Credential Access	Capturing credentials	LSASS dump, keyloggers, password spraying
Discovery	Mapping internal network	Net view, LDAP queries, BloodHound
Lateral Movement	Expanding across systems	Pass-the-hash, remote WMI, RDP
Exfiltration	Stealing sensitive data	C2 channel via DNS, HTTPS exfiltration
Impact	Final attack objective (if allowed)	Data encryption, defacement, simulated ransomware

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🧪 Tools Commonly Used by Red Teams

Tool Category	Example Tools
C2 Frameworks	Cobalt Strike, Sliver, Mythic, Brute Ratel
OSINT	Maltego, Recon-ng, SpiderFoot, Shodan
Exploits / Payloads	Metasploit, Empire, Nishang
Credential Dumping	Mimikatz, Rubeus
Network Mapping	BloodHound, SharpHound
Web Exploitation	Burp Suite Pro, SQLMap, OWASP ZAP
Obfuscation / Evasion	Invoke-Obfuscation, Veil, AMSI Bypass techniques

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🧾 Red Team Assessment Deliverables

Document	Description
Rules of Engagement (RoE)	Scope, timing, constraints, and escalation contacts
Initial Recon Report	OSINT and external threat surface summary
Engagement Summary Report	Narrative of attack chain, tools used, access gained
Technical Findings Report	Detailed list of vulnerabilities and misconfigurations exploited
Detection Timeline	Time-to-detect vs. dwell time analysis
Remediation Recommendations	Specific, prioritized mitigation strategies
Purple Team Debrief (Optional)	Joint session with blue team to replay and analyze red team techniques

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🧩 Common Red Team Testing Scenarios

• Phishing Campaign: Targeted email or SMS with payloads
• Insider Threat Simulation: USB drop, rogue employee access
• Physical Intrusion: Badge cloning, tailgating attempts
• Cloud Attacks: Compromise of AWS/Azure credentials or IAM abuse
• Application Abuse: Business logic bypass or session hijacking

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✅ Compliance & Governance Links

Red team assessments help meet controls from:

Standard	Relevant Area
ISO 27001	A.12.6 (Technical vulnerability management)
NIST 800-53	CA-8, CA-7, IR controls
SOC 2 / Type II	Security & incident response testing
PCI DSS	Requirement 11.3.2 (Internal penetration testing)
GDPR	Article 32 (Security of processing)

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Would you like a sample Red Team test plan, or help designing a custom assessment strategy for your organization?