Overview
Active Directory (AD) is the backbone of identity and access management in most enterprises, controlling user authentication, permissions, and resource access. However, misconfigurations, weak password policies, and overlooked trust relationships can provide attackers with paths to escalate privileges and move laterally across your entire network, potentially taking over your domain.
Our Active Directory Penetration Testing service simulates realistic attack paths to show how these weaknesses translate to business impact, without causing disruption.
Active Directory
Domain Enumeration
Map users, groups, computers, domain trusts, and organizational structure.
Credential Harvesting
Kerberoasting, AS-REP roasting, password spraying, credential extraction.
Delegation Abuse
Exploit unconstrained, constrained, and resource-based delegation for impersonation.
Privilege Escalation
Abuse ACLs/DACLs, nested groups, and writable GPO paths for privilege gain.
Lateral Movement
Pass-the-Hash, Pass-the-Ticket, token impersonation, WinRM/WMI/SMB pivots.
Attack Path Analysis
Map chains from low privilege to domain dominance; validate chokepoints with DCsync or shadow credentials.
Domain Controllers & Trusts
Review cross-domain trusts, replication, and privileged objects exposure.
Configuration Issues
Identify legacy protocols, missing patches, and misconfigured security settings.
What you will get
Deliverables that keep every stakeholder aligned
We deliver more than raw findings: you receive a complete package that leadership, engineers, and auditors can all act on immediately.
Reporting package
Evidence-rich documentation for executives and technical teams.
Executive summary that explains business impact, key risks, and the
narrative behind the assessment.
Vulnerability summary with grouped issues, risk owners, severity,
and time-to-fix guidance.
Technical analysis that includes screenshots, observations, attack
flow notes, and proof-of-exploitation where appropriate.
Metrics & scoring covering CVSS, likelihood/impact rationales,
and remediation priority to unblock quick decisions.
Remediation toolkit
Clear next steps, mapped to the people fixing the issues.
Excel remediation tracker that consolidates every vulnerability with
owners, status, due dates, and comments so progress is easy to measure.
Prioritized backlog with quick wins, blocked items, and prerequisites
highlighted to reduce remediation friction.
Restitution meeting to walk through findings live, align on
fixes, and answer engineer questions while the context is fresh.
Optional retest to validate patches and refresh CVSS scores so the
final report reflects your latest posture.
Where this service excels
Recent scenarios our team solved
Real-world stories that mirror the way customers deploy, defend, and recover.
Higher Education
Kerberoasting chain to domain admin
Harvested weak service account hashes and escalated via unconstrained delegation.
Outcome
Rotated keys, applied delegation controls, and enabled detection rules for abuse patterns.
Public Sector
Pass-the-hash lateral movement
Abused shared local admin credentials replicated across kiosks.
Outcome
Implemented LAPS, reduced admin tier scope, and added workstation isolation for privileged sessions.
Healthcare
Misconfigured GPO exposed to interns
Found writable scripts that allowed startup persistence across clinical workstations.
Outcome
Hardened GPO permissions, introduced code signing, and audited startup tasks regularly.
Testing Methodology
1
Scoping & Kick-off
Define objectives, in-scope assets, exclusions, testing mode (blackbox or greybox), credentials, test windows, and required approvals.
2
Reconnaissance
Gather passive and active information to map the Active Directory environment, identify key assets, and understand network topology and domain structure.
3
Threat Modeling
Analyze AD topology to identify attack paths through nested groups, Kerberos weaknesses, and trust misconfigurations. Prioritize domain controllers, service accounts, and high-privilege objects.
4
Vulnerability Analysis
Query the directory and perform credential testing to uncover weak service account passwords, delegation misconfigurations, vulnerable ACLs, NTLMv1 exposure, and missing patches on domain controllers.
5
Exploitation & Initial Access
Safely exploit validated AD weaknesses to demonstrate realistic privilege escalation and access scenarios without disrupting operations.
6
Post-Exploitation & Lateral Movement
Demonstrate lateral movement across the domain by compromising additional users or service accounts, escalating to Domain Admin, and exfiltrating sensitive data. Simulate persistence techniques relevant to AD environments.
7
Reporting & Debrief
Produce a comprehensive report with executive summary, scope, methodology, prioritized findings with PoCs, business impact, and actionable remediation, then present the results during a restitution meeting.
8
Retest (Optional)
Ensure all identified vulnerabilities have been properly fixed without introducing new risks.
FAQ
- Provide a basic user account with limited permissions for testing.
- Allow network access onsite or via secure VPN.
- Coordinate with SOC or EDR teams to temporarily whitelist tester activities and avoid false positives.
Active Directory is the backbone of authentication and access in most organizations. If compromised, attackers can gain full control of your network. This service uncovers misconfigurations, privilege escalation paths, and weak credentials to prevent domain-wide breaches.
The duration varies depending on environment size:
- Small (≤300 workstations, one site): 5–7 business days
- Medium (≤600 workstations, one site): 8–10 business days
- Large (≥2 sites, up to 600 workstations): 10–15 business days
Factors such as segmentation, number of domain controllers, and access logistics can extend the duration.
All testing is safe and non-destructive. When performed in production, testing windows are coordinated to minimize impact. Potentially disruptive actions are executed only after agreement and approval.