What is Network and Active Directory Pentesting — And Why It Matters
In today’s digital age, most organizations rely heavily on internal networks and Microsoft Active Directory (AD) to manage user access, permissions, and resources. While these systems are essential to daily operations, they are also prime targets for attackers once perimeter defenses are breached.
That’s where Network and Active Directory Pentesting comes in—a critical security practice that simulates real-world attacks within your internal infrastructure to uncover hidden risks.
From open shares and legacy protocols to insufficient segmentation—understanding your internal access points is the first step in securing your infrastructure.
Active Directory is often the weakest link in enterprise security.
We uncover misconfigurations, abuseable permissions, and privilege escalation paths that attackers exploit to gain full domain control.
Once inside, attackers rarely stop at their first compromise.
We simulate advanced adversary techniques such as Pass-the-Hash, Kerberoasting, and domain trusts exploitation to assess how far an attacker could pivot across your network.
Our automated tools and custom scripts test how attackers could maintain access undetected.
We simulate persistence mechanisms like scheduled tasks and service abuse, ensuring your environment is resilient against advanced persistent threats (APTs).
Understanding Network and AD Pentesting
Network and AD pentesting involves ethically probing your internal network as if an attacker has already gained a foothold. This process includes scanning for vulnerable services, assessing segmentation between systems, evaluating how users and computers are structured in AD, and simulating attacker techniques like lateral movement and privilege escalation.
Security professionals conducting this type of test emulate advanced attackers, leveraging real methods used by ransomware groups and sophisticated adversaries.
Why It’s Crucial
Many organizations focus on external defenses like firewalls and antivirus solutions. However, once an attacker slips through the cracks—via phishing, social engineering, or an insider threat—the internal environment often lacks proper controls.
Internal pentesting reveals the blind spots that traditional perimeter testing misses. Misconfigured devices, outdated protocols, or over-permissive Active Directory settings can make it dangerously easy for an attacker to move laterally and elevate privileges.
These assessments provide insight into how resilient your network really is against modern threats. They also help security teams improve detection capabilities, refine incident response plans, and validate whether network segmentation and access controls are working as intended.
Common Issues Discovered
Through these assessments, we often uncover legacy protocols like SMBv1 or insecure name resolution methods that allow credential interception. Active Directory environments may contain service accounts vulnerable to Kerberoasting or trusts that enable privilege escalation across domains. Misconfigured DNS, overly permissive group policies, and reused local admin credentials are also common findings.
Tools like BloodHound help visualize privilege escalation paths and identify how an attacker might go from a compromised user account to full Domain Admin access.
Why You Should Act Now
Network and AD pentests are not just about ticking compliance boxes—they are about real protection. Attackers are increasingly targeting the inside of networks, and you need to know what they can see and exploit once they’re in.
At CyberPars, we conduct realistic internal threat simulations to help organizations harden their infrastructure and protect their most valuable digital assets.
If you're curious about your exposure, we offer a free internal scanning demo. Contact us directly at gorkem@cyberpars.com to schedule your assessment or learn more.