Overview
External attackers probe your internet-facing perimeter first. Public IPs, web applications, VPN gateways, email systems, and exposed services form the attack surface that adversaries use to gain initial access. Misconfigurations, unpatched software, weak credentials, or exposed management interfaces can allow attackers to breach your defenses and pivot inside.
Our External Penetration Testing service simulates real-world attacks from the public internet to identify and validate exploitable issues in your perimeter, and to measure how visible and resilient your external footprint is today.
External
Asset Discovery
Public IPs, domains, subdomains, exposed services and management interfaces.
Web Application Testing
SQLi, XSS, auth flaws, business logic abuse, API weaknesses.
Perimeter & Firewall Testing
Misconfigured firewall rules, exposed ports, and management interfaces.
VPN & Remote Access
Weak VPN setups, exposed RDP/SSH, default configs.
Email & Mail Gateways
Spoofing, open relays, phishing exposure, SPF/DMARC/ DKIM gaps.
Vulnerability Scanning
CVE discovery, missing patches, and insecure services.
Credential & Authentication Testing
Brute-force, weak/default credentials, authentication bypasses.
Monitoring & Detection
Evaluate alerting, WAF rules, and SOC response to simulated attacks.
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.
Hospitality
Forgotten staging portal takeover
Compromised an outdated CMS reachable via leaked DNS entry and reused credentials.
Outcome
Decommissioned stale hosts, enforced SSO for admin panels, and set continuous external discovery.
Insurance
TLS downgrade and weak cipher support
Identified edge appliances allowing legacy ciphers that exposed sessions to MITM.
Outcome
Hardened TLS profiles, automated certificate renewal, and added pre-deployment SSL scans.
Retail
Subdomain shadow IT
Enumerated unmanaged marketing microsites with outdated plugins and admin defaults.
Outcome
Folded assets into CMDB, patched stacks, and added WAF coverage with change control.
Testing Methodology
1
Scoping & Kick-off
Confirm scope (IP ranges, domains, excluded hosts), testing windows, and success/stop criteria. Agree on communication and emergency contacts.
2
Reconnaissance & Footprinting
Map public assets, enumerate subdomains, harvest technologies and service fingerprints to build an accurate external attack surface.
3
Vulnerability Identification
Combine automated scanning and manual verification to identify misconfigurations, missing patches, and high-risk service exposures.
4
Exploitation & Validation
Safely exploit validated findings to prove impact (web app exploits, exposed services, auth bypasses) while avoiding disruption to production.
5
Post-Exploitation Simulation
Show likely attacker follow-on steps such as credential harvesting, pivot suggestions, and potential data-access paths without carrying out destructive actions.
6
Reporting & Debrief
Deliver a prioritized report with executive summary, technical findings and PoCs, risk ratings mapped to business impact, and clear remediation steps. Present results in a restitution meeting.
7
Retest (Optional)
Verify that fixes are effective and no new issues were introduced.
FAQ
- Defined scope: public IP ranges, domain names, and subdomains.
- Approved testing windows and emergency contact details.
- Whitelist tester IPs for WAF or perimeter devices if required.
- Test credentials only if credentialed testing is requested.
External testing reveals how visible and vulnerable you are to attackers on the internet today. It finds exploitable weaknesses in public-facing systems before they become incidents.
Typical timelines by scope:
- Small (≤50 IPs): 3–5 business days
- Medium (51–500 IPs): 7–12 business days
- Large (501–2,000 IPs): 12–20 business days
Credentialed testing, complex web apps, or WAF tuning can extend timelines.
Testing is planned to be safe and non-destructive. We coordinate intrusive steps with your team, define stop criteria, and avoid destructive payloads unless explicitly authorized.