While traditional penetration tests focus on which assets to include, Red Team Engagements focus on which areas to exclude, as they seek to compromise your most critical business assets. This process includes the following steps:

• Identifying key targets or "flags" to be captured during the assessment

• Outlining a "Rules of Engagement," specifying permissible activities, such as social engineering or on-site tests

• Noting any exclusions, such as specific IP addresses, applications, or personnel

• Confirming the testing period and relevant time zones

• Obtaining authorization letters (often called "Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Cards") for on-site activities

Red Team scenarios are tailored to reflect real-world tactics external attackers might use.

Once the information gathering is complete, we begin mapping the attack strategy based on the collected intelligence. The specific approach varies depending on the data obtained, but typical steps include:

• Enumerating subdomains and hidden environments

• Analyzing cloud services for misconfigurations

• Testing authentication mechanisms for weak or default credentials

• Correlating network and web application vulnerabilities with publicly-known exploits

• Identifying manual attack vectors for any discovered weaknesses

• Developing social engineering scenarios

Clear, actionable reporting is essential to understanding the value of a Red Team engagement. Black Hat Defense produces detailed reports tailored to the specific scope of the assessment, highlighting identified vulnerabilities and their potential business impact. Each report includes:

• A breakdown of discovered vulnerabilities, including their likelihood of exploitation and potential consequences

• Recommendations for mitigating the identified risks

Our reports are designed to be comprehensive yet easy to understand, providing your organization with both technical insights and strategic guidance to improve your security posture.

The first phase of a Red Team assessment involves gathering as much information as possible. Black Hat Defense uses a combination of public and private intelligence sources to build a detailed profile of the target organization. This early-stage intelligence is crucial for shaping the attack strategy. Some examples of information we gather include:

• External network IP ranges, hosting providers, and exposed services

• Web and mobile applications, including API endpoints

• Personnel identities, email addresses, phone numbers, and related data (e.g., social media profiles)

• Data from previous breaches, including leaked credentials

• Information on IoT devices and embedded systems in use by the organization

The data gathered during reconnaissance allows us to launch attacks using various methods. Depending on the vulnerabilities and weaknesses identified, these attacks may include:

• Exploiting services with known vulnerabilities

• Breaching testing environments or sandboxes with fewer security controls

• Using compromised or brute-forced credentials to access servers

• Conducting social engineering attacks on personnel

• Combining vectors, such as sending phishing emails to exploit client-side vulnerabilities