Internal network penetration testing is a manual security assessment that simulates an attacker who already has a foothold inside your perimeter - a compromised laptop, a malicious insider, or a phished employee - to measure how far they can move and what they can ultimately reach. Working from an assumed-breach position, CyberXplore's senior testers chain Active Directory attacks, lateral movement, and privilege escalation to pursue Domain Admin and your crown-jewel systems, mapping every step to MITRE ATT&CK. Engagements are senior-led and predominantly manual, exposing the trust relationships, weak segmentation, and misconfigurations that automated vulnerability scanners never connect.
MITRE ATT&CKPTESNISTOSSTMM
Why CyberXplore
Senior-only testers (OSCP, CRTP, CREST)
ISO 27001 & ISO 9001 certified
Free retest + attestation letter
Tailored scope and quote in 24 hours
Why it matters
Most serious breaches don't stop at the perimeter - once an attacker phishes one employee or compromises a single host, weak internal controls let them pivot to Domain Admin within hours.
Flat or poorly segmented networks turn a minor foothold into a full compromise; assumed-breach testing proves whether your segmentation actually contains an intruder or just looks good on a diagram.
Active Directory is the backbone of most enterprises, and common misconfigurations like Kerberoastable accounts, unconstrained delegation, and ACL abuse are routinely exploited by ransomware operators.
Insurers, regulators, and frameworks such as SOC 2, PCI DSS, and ISO 27001 increasingly expect evidence of internal - not just external - penetration testing.
Aligned with industry standards: MITRE ATT&CK · PTES · NIST · OSSTMM
Our methodology
01
Scoping & Assumed-Breach Setup
We agree objectives, in-scope ranges, and crown-jewel targets, then establish a realistic starting point - a standard domain user, an unauthenticated network drop, or a managed test host - to model a genuine internal compromise.
02
Discovery & Enumeration
We map hosts, services, shares, and the Active Directory environment, identifying users, groups, trust relationships, and misconfigurations using both passive collection and targeted active enumeration.
03
Privilege Escalation & Credential Access
We harvest and abuse credentials through techniques such as Kerberoasting, AS-REP roasting, LLMNR/NBT-NS poisoning, SMB relay, and local privilege escalation to elevate from low-privileged access toward administrative control.
04
Lateral Movement & AD Attacks
We pivot across the network and abuse Active Directory weaknesses - ACL and delegation abuse, pass-the-hash, pass-the-ticket, and trust exploitation - to reach high-value systems and pursue Domain Admin, every step mapped to MITRE ATT&CK.
05
Segmentation & Impact Validation
We test whether network segmentation contains the breach, attempt to reach sensitive data and critical infrastructure, and demonstrate concrete business impact safely, without disrupting operations.
06
Reporting, Remediation Support & Retest
You receive a prioritized report with full attack paths and reproduction steps; we support your team through fixes and re-test every finding to confirm remediation - included free.
What we test
Assumed-breach foothold (domain user, network drop, or compromised host)
Active Directory enumeration & attack paths (BloodHound-style analysis)
Lateral movement (pass-the-hash, pass-the-ticket, remote execution)
Local & domain privilege escalation to Domain Admin
Network segmentation & VLAN isolation validation
Internal service & host misconfigurations (SMB, RDP, LDAP, MSSQL)
Sensitive data and crown-jewel access (file shares, databases, backups)
Legacy protocols, weak credentials, and unpatched internal systems
What you get
Executive summary translating internal risk for leadership and stakeholders
Detailed technical findings with CVSS severity, evidence, and screenshots
Full attack-path narratives from initial foothold to Domain Admin
MITRE ATT&CK mapping of every technique used during the engagement
Prioritized, actionable remediation and AD-hardening guidance
Free retest with a remediation verification letter
Attestation letter for customers, auditors, and compliance frameworks
Sample deliverable
What you'll see in your report
Every engagement ends with a clear, prioritized report: severity-rated findings with CVSS scores, affected assets, and remediation status - plus a free retest. The figures below are illustrative.
Findings by severity
26 total
Critical
0
High
9
Medium
12
Low
5
High · CVSS 8.8CX-515
Lateral movement via reused local admin password
CWE-522fileserver.corp.localRetested
High · CVSS 8.3CX-509
LLMNR / NBT-NS poisoning yields credentials
CWE-29410.10.5.0/24Open
Illustrative internal network penetration test sample - anonymized to example.com.
High · CVSS 8.1CX-503
SMB signing disabled (NTLM relay)
CWE-28710.10.0.0/16Open
Want the full anonymized sample report? We'll include it with your quote.
Cumulative figures across our team's combined engagement history
Shared under NDA · details anonymized
“CyberXplore found critical issues three previous vendors missed. The report was the clearest we've ever received - our engineers fixed everything in a week, and the free retest confirmed every fix held.”
23 critical findings surfaced
HS
Head of Security
European SaaS platform · Series C · 450 employees
B2B SaaS
Shared under NDA · details anonymized
“Senior testers, fast turnaround, and a free retest that actually proved our fixes worked. They made our SOC 2 audit painless.”
SOC 2 passed first attempt
VE
VP of Engineering
Series B FinTech · Payments platform
FinTech
Certifications held by our testers
OSCP
CRTP
CREST
CEH
eWPTX
ISO 27001
ISO 9001
Frequently asked questions
Assumed breach starts the test from a position an attacker would realistically reach - a phished employee, a stolen laptop, or a rogue device on the network. Rather than spending the engagement getting in, we focus the time on what matters most: how far an intruder can move, escalate, and reach your critical data once inside.
