What should be the fundamental approach/method to start red team operations in penetration testing (pentest)? Should we first focus on identifying vulnerabilities in target systems or jump straight into exploit development? Which path does the community generally prefer? Learning process approaches are also important here—for example, is it more logical to focus solely on information gathering (recon) in the initial stage, or does transitioning immediately to attack vectors increase efficiency? Share your experiences.
What are some practical methods for red teaming?
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Actually, both information gathering and vulnerability analysis should go hand in hand. Initially, focusing on recon makes sense because developing an exploit without understanding the data at hand is futile. When I first targeted a corporate network, I started by mapping out the infrastructure—domains, subdomains, DNS records, service versions... Then I scanned them using tools like Nessus or OpenVAS and reviewed the CVEs that came up. I didn’t need to develop exploits during this process; I just moved forward with existing PoCs.
Of course, later on, developing custom exploits becomes important, especially in an APT-style scenario. My advice? For your first 3-4 pentests, focus only on known vulnerabilities, collect data with automated scanning tools, analyze it, and make sense of the outputs. Later, for example, when performing lateral movement in an internal network, you can start developing exploits with a simple Python script. The community generally prefers this approach—information gathering + ready-made exploits, followed by custom development.