Internal Penetration Testing
Once a single endpoint is compromised, how far does the attacker get? We assume that breach has already happened — then test exactly how an adversary would move laterally, escalate privileges, and reach domain admin in your Active Directory environment.
Assume-breach methodology
We start where real attackers end up: a foothold. From a single workstation, we trace every attack path that leads to your most sensitive assets.
Active Directory attack chains
Kerberoasting, AS-REP roasting, NTLM relay, ACL abuse, ADCS misconfiguration, GPO weaknesses — the techniques actively exploited by ransomware operators.
Production-safe by design
Written rules of engagement, change windows, immediate escalation on high-impact findings, and zero destructive techniques on production data.
What an internal pentest reveals that nothing else does
Vulnerability scanners find missing patches. EDR finds known-bad binaries. An internal penetration test finds the chain — the trust relationships, weak credentials, and overlooked permissions that let an attacker turn one compromised laptop into domain-wide compromise.
Lateral movement & pivoting
SMB, WinRM, WMI, RDP, and PsExec-based lateral movement testing across workstations, file servers, and application hosts — exactly the techniques ransomware affiliates use after initial access.
Active Directory privilege escalation
Kerberoasting, AS-REP roasting, NTLM relay (LLMNR/NBT-NS poisoning), ACL abuse, unconstrained delegation, ADCS ESC1–ESC11, and shadow credentials attacks against your live AD.
Network segmentation validation
VLAN-to-VLAN reachability testing, firewall rule efficacy verification, and east-west traffic analysis — confirming that "isolated" segments actually are.
Detection & response validation
Optional collaborative purple-team mode tests whether your SIEM, EDR, and SOC actually detect each technique — turning the engagement into measurable defensive uplift.
How does it work?
iSECTECH establishes a controlled internal foothold — typically a hardened jump host placed inside your network or a low-privileged domain account simulating a phished employee. From that starting position, our OSCP/OSEP-certified operators perform reconnaissance, credential harvesting, lateral movement, and privilege escalation under written rules of engagement, with daily status updates and immediate notification of any critical finding.
An internal penetration test is the single most effective control validation an enterprise can run. It is recommended annually as a baseline, and after any significant change: domain consolidation, AD migration, M&A activity, or major application rollout.
A structured, repeatable, auditor-accepted process
Aligned to PTES (Penetration Testing Execution Standard), NIST SP 800-115, and OSSTMM — the same standards your auditors, regulators, and cyber insurance carriers expect for compliance evidence.
Scoping & ROE
Targets, IP ranges, exclusions, foothold strategy, and escalation protocols agreed in writing before any traffic is sent.
Foothold & recon
Internal positioning, asset discovery, AD enumeration, BloodHound graph collection, and trust relationship mapping.
Privilege escalation
Kerberos, NTLM, ACL, ADCS, GPO, and credential-based escalation paths — manually validated and chained.
Lateral movement
Pivoting across hosts, services, and trust boundaries — demonstrating impact through proof-of-exploit, never destructive payloads.
Reporting & retest
Executive and technical reports delivered, plus complimentary retest of remediated findings within 90 days.
Every layer of your internal estate — under hands-on adversarial pressure
Comprehensive coverage from the user workstation through to the domain controller. External perimeter testing is handled separately under our dedicated External Penetration Testing service.
Active Directory Attack Path Analysis
BloodHound graph collection is the starting point — not the destination. From the graph we manually validate every attack path leading to Tier-0 assets: Kerberoasting and AS-REP roasting against weak service accounts, NTLM relay via LLMNR/NBT-NS poisoning, ACL abuse and DCSync paths, ADCS ESC1–ESC11 certificate template misconfigurations, GPP credential exposure, and shadow credentials. We don't just report theoretical paths — we demonstrate the working exploit and provide remediation guidance specific to your AD design.
Lateral Movement & Privilege Escalation
Hands-on lateral movement using the same techniques mapped in MITRE ATT&CK Lateral Movement (TA0008) and Privilege Escalation (TA0004) tactics: pass-the-hash, pass-the-ticket, overpass-the-hash, NTLM relay, RBCD attacks, token impersonation, and constrained delegation abuse. Every action is timestamped, attributed, and reproducible — giving your blue team a precise replay of how an adversary would have moved, ranked by which paths cause the largest blast radius.
Network Segmentation & Trust-Boundary Testing
VLAN-to-VLAN reachability testing, firewall rule verification, and east-west traffic analysis. We confirm whether your "isolated" segments — cardholder data environments, OT/ICS networks, IoT VLANs, executive subnets — are actually isolated, or whether ACL gaps allow lateral traversal that would bypass your firewall investment. Findings are mapped directly to PCI DSS 4.0 Requirement 1.3 (segmentation testing) and NIST SP 800-207 zero-trust principles.
Executive & Technical Reporting
You receive an executive narrative for the board, a detailed technical report for engineering with reproducible exploitation steps, an attack-path graph showing the shortest route to domain admin, MITRE ATT&CK® technique mapping for every finding, and a compliance appendix covering PCI DSS 4.0, SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, ISO 27001, and NIST SP 800-53. Every report goes through a senior peer review before delivery — no boilerplate, no copy-paste, no auto-generated content.
Not every quarter — but more often than once
Internal penetration testing is most valuable when it follows a meaningful change in your environment or precedes an audit cycle. Here are the three scenarios where it consistently pays for itself.
Annual baseline (compliance-driven)
Required by PCI DSS 4.0, recommended by SOC 2 Type II auditors, and increasingly mandated by cyber insurance underwriters. Annual cadence is the floor — most regulated organizations run two or more per year.
After a major infrastructure change
Domain consolidations, AD migrations, M&A integration, major application rollouts, data center moves, or a cloud lift-and-shift. Each one introduces new trust paths — and new chances for adversaries.
Before an audit or insurance renewal
Closing critical findings 60–90 days ahead of your audit window means a clean report the first time. Underwriters specifically reward organizations with recent, documented internal pentest evidence.
Scope-driven engagements, fixed-fee quotes
Every internal pentest is quoted as a firm fixed price after a 30-minute scoping call — there is no published price tier because the cost is driven entirely by your environment: live host count, VLAN count, AD complexity (forest vs single domain, ADCS deployment, trust relationships), and whether purple-team detection validation is included. We benchmark our quotes quarterly against published 2026 rates from Compass IT Compliance, Bright Defense, Astra Security, BSG, RedBot, and DeepStrike, and price our engagements approximately 20% below the mid-market median. Ask for our scope-comparison worksheet — we'll send it with your quote so you can compare like-for-like.
Frequently asked questions
The questions we get most from CISOs and IT directors evaluating internal pentest providers. Need more detail? Talk to a senior offensive security engineer.
What's the difference between internal pentest, external pentest, and red team?
How is an internal pentest different from a vulnerability scan?
How long does an internal pentest take?
Will testing disrupt production or trigger our SOC?
How do you establish the internal foothold?
What certifications do your operators hold?
Will this satisfy PCI DSS, SOC 2, HIPAA, and our cyber insurance?
Do you offer collaborative purple team mode?
Learn more about internal penetration testing
Buyer guides, case studies, and technical deep-dives from the iSECTECH offensive security team.
Internal pentest pricing in 2026: what you should actually be paying
A market analysis of internal pentest pricing, the variables that legitimately move the price, and the red flags that signal a vulnerability scan rebranded as a penetration test.
Read moreFrom phished user to domain admin in 8 hours: a healthcare engagement
How we chained an LLMNR-poisoned NTLM relay, a Kerberoastable service account, and an ADCS ESC1 misconfiguration to reach domain admin — and how the client closed every gap within 60 days.
Read moreScoping an internal pentest: a CISO's 12-point checklist
The twelve questions you should answer before signing a statement of work — and the specific vendor responses that should raise red flags during procurement.
Read moreSee your network the way an attacker would — from the inside
Three ways to start the conversation — pick whichever fits your stage.
Request a scoping call
A 30-minute confidential conversation with a senior penetration testing engineer. You'll receive a firm fixed-price quote within 48 hours, benchmarked at ~20% below market.
Request a sample report
See exactly what you receive — an anonymized executive summary, technical findings section, attack-path graph, and compliance mapping appendix.
Explore all services
Internal pentesting is one pillar of our offensive security practice. Explore external pentest, red team operations, and web application testing.
Office
443 Western AV. #1033
SOUTH PORTLAND ME,04106
Hours
M-F: 24/H
S-S: Closed
Call Us
+1(800) 325-1874