Red Teaming
Simulate sophisticated, multi-stage attacks to assess your organisation's ability to detect, respond to, and mitigate real-world adversaries.
Overview
Red Teaming is not a penetration test. It is a goal-oriented, unrestricted attack simulation designed to mirror the techniques of advanced persistent threats (APTs). CortexTrace's Red Team engagements test your organisation's ability to defend against multi-phase, stealthy adversaries who aim to bypass controls created by your technology, processes, and personnel security awareness.
Our approach goes beyond vulnerability identification, actively simulating real-world intrusion scenarios and assessing how effectively your defences can prevent, detect, and respond to prolonged attacks. Red Teaming exposes the true state of your security operations, incident response capabilities, and detection blind spots, delivering insights that cannot be gained through standard penetration tests.
The Red Team Lifecycle
Reconnaissance & Target Selection
- Passive and active intelligence gathering to profile external attack surfaces
- Open-source intelligence (OSINT) and social engineering to identify exploitable vectors
Initial Compromise
- Targeting externally accessible infrastructure, third-party services, and employee endpoints
- Techniques include spear phishing, supply chain compromise, and application exploitation
Persistence & Privilege Escalation
- Establishing footholds within compromised environments
- Persistence techniques bypassing EDR and maintaining access through custom tooling
Lateral Movement & Internal Recon
- Credential harvesting, Active Directory exploitation, and pivoting across networks
- Identifying sensitive systems, mapping internal environments, and expanding access
Objective Execution & Exfiltration
- Attaining predefined objectives such as data exfiltration or domain dominance
- Testing data loss prevention (DLP) mechanisms and network monitoring tools
Reporting & Knowledge Transfer
- Comprehensive documentation of findings, attack paths, and remediation guidance
- Executive and technical reporting with MITRE ATT&CK mapping
Reconnaissance & Target Selection
- Passive and active intelligence gathering to profile external attack surfaces
- Open-source intelligence (OSINT) and social engineering to identify exploitable vectors
Initial Compromise
- Targeting externally accessible infrastructure, third-party services, and employee endpoints
- Techniques include spear phishing, supply chain compromise, and application exploitation
Persistence & Privilege Escalation
- Establishing footholds within compromised environments
- Persistence techniques bypassing EDR and maintaining access through custom tooling
Lateral Movement & Internal Recon
- Credential harvesting, Active Directory exploitation, and pivoting across networks
- Identifying sensitive systems, mapping internal environments, and expanding access
Objective Execution & Exfiltration
- Attaining predefined objectives such as data exfiltration or domain dominance
- Testing data loss prevention (DLP) mechanisms and network monitoring tools
Reporting & Knowledge Transfer
- Comprehensive documentation of findings, attack paths, and remediation guidance
- Executive and technical reporting with MITRE ATT&CK mapping
Key Objectives & Outcomes
Expose Blind Spots
Identify attack paths and techniques that bypass traditional defences
Test Detection
Assess SOC, IR teams, and SIEM effectiveness in detecting real threats
Evaluate Security ROI
Quantify effectiveness of security tools and incident response processes
Uplift Defensive Teams
Provide tactical feedback to strengthen detection and response capabilities
Expose Blind Spots
Identify attack paths and techniques that bypass traditional defences
Test Detection
Assess SOC, IR teams, and SIEM effectiveness in detecting real threats
Evaluate Security ROI
Quantify effectiveness of security tools and incident response processes
Uplift Defensive Teams
Provide tactical feedback to strengthen detection and response capabilities
Deliverables
Comprehensive Engagement Report with full attack narrative
MITRE ATT&CK Mapping of all techniques used
Executive Summary for leadership and board reporting
Technical Debrief with your security team
Proof-of-Concept Payloads for validation
Post-Engagement Support and remediation guidance
Ready to Get Started?
Discover how a Red Team engagement can reveal the true state of your security posture. Our certified operators simulate real-world adversaries to test your defences end-to-end.