This skill outlines methodologies for performing authorized penetration testing against AWS, Azure, and GCP cloud environments. It covers understanding the shared responsibility model for testing scope, leveraging cloud-specific attack tools like Pacu and ScoutSuite, exploiting IAM misconfigurations, testing for SSRF to cloud metadata services, and reporting findings aligned to MITRE ATT&CK Cloud matrix.
Conducts comprehensive network penetration tests against authorized target environments by performing host discovery, port scanning, service enumeration, vulnerability identification, and controlled exploitation to assess the security posture of network infrastructure. The tester follows PTES methodology from reconnaissance through post-exploitation and reporting. Activates for requests involving network pentest, infrastructure security assessment, internal network testing, or external perimeter testing.
Configures host-based intrusion detection systems (HIDS) to monitor endpoint file integrity, system calls, and configuration changes for security violations. Use when deploying OSSEC, Wazuh, or AIDE for endpoint monitoring, building file integrity monitoring (FIM) policies, or meeting compliance requirements for change detection. Activates for requests involving HIDS configuration, file integrity monitoring, OSSEC/Wazuh deployment, or host-based detection.
Harden LDAP directory services against common attacks including credential harvesting, LDAP injection, anonymous binding, and channel binding bypass. Covers LDAPS enforcement, channel binding, LDAP si
Deploys deception-based honeytokens in Active Directory including fake privileged accounts with AdminCount=1, fake SPNs for Kerberoasting detection (honeyroasting), decoy GPOs with cpassword traps, and fake BloodHound paths. Monitors Windows Security Event IDs 4769, 4625, 4662, 5136 for honeytoken interaction. Use when implementing AD deception defenses for detecting lateral movement, credential theft, and reconnaissance.
Deploy and configure Tailscale as a WireGuard-based zero trust mesh VPN with identity-aware access controls, ACLs, and exit nodes for secure peer-to-peer connectivity.
Detect and prevent API enumeration attacks including BOLA and IDOR exploitation by monitoring sequential identifier access patterns and authorization failures.
This skill covers detecting cyber attacks targeting Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems including man-in-the-middle attacks on industrial protocols, unauthorized command injection into PLCs, HMI compromise, historian data manipulation, and denial-of-service against control system communications. It leverages OT-specific intrusion detection systems, industrial protocol anomaly detection, and process data analytics to identify attacks that traditional IT security tools miss.
Detect AWS IAM privilege escalation paths using boto3 and Cloudsplaining policy analysis to identify overly permissive policies, dangerous permission combinations, and least-privilege violations
Spearphishing targets specific individuals using personalized, researched content that bypasses generic spam filters. Email security gateways (SEGs) like Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Proofpoint,
Executes authorized attack simulations against Active Directory environments to identify misconfigurations, weak credentials, dangerous privilege paths, and exploitable trust relationships that could lead to domain compromise. The tester uses BloodHound for attack path analysis, Mimikatz for credential extraction, and Impacket for protocol-level attacks including Kerberoasting, AS-REP Roasting, and delegation abuse. Activates for requests involving Active Directory pentest, AD attack simulation, domain compromise testing, or Kerberos attack assessment.
Exploit misconfigured Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) ESC1 vulnerability to request certificates as high-privileged users and escalate domain privileges during authorized red team assessments.
Identifies and exploits insecure local data storage vulnerabilities in Android and iOS mobile applications including unencrypted databases, world-readable files, insecure SharedPreferences, plaintext credential storage, and improper keychain/keystore usage. Use when performing mobile penetration testing focused on OWASP M9 (Insecure Data Storage) or assessing compliance with MASVS-STORAGE requirements. Activates for requests involving mobile data storage security, local storage exploitation, SharedPreferences analysis, or mobile data leakage assessment.
Exploit the noPac vulnerability chain (CVE-2021-42278 sAMAccountName spoofing and CVE-2021-42287 KDC PAC confusion) to escalate from standard domain user to Domain Admin in Active Directory environments.
Exploit the Zerologon vulnerability (CVE-2020-1472) in the Netlogon Remote Protocol to achieve domain controller compromise by resetting the machine account password to empty.
Hardening Docker containers for production involves applying security best practices aligned with CIS Docker Benchmark v1.8.0 to minimize attack surface, prevent privilege escalation, and enforce leas
Detect NTLM relay attacks by analyzing Windows Event 4624 logon type 3 with NTLMSSP authentication, identifying IP-to-hostname mismatches, Responder traffic signatures, SMB signing status, and suspicious authentication patterns across the domain.
Implements AWS Nitro Enclave-based confidential computing environments with cryptographic attestation, KMS policy integration using PCR-based condition keys, and secure vsock communication channels. The practitioner builds enclave images, configures attestation-aware KMS policies, validates attestation documents against the AWS Nitro PKI root of trust, and establishes isolated computation pipelines for processing sensitive data such as PII, cryptographic keys, and healthcare records. Activates for requests involving Nitro Enclave setup, enclave attestation validation, confidential computing on AWS, or KMS enclave policy configuration.
This skill covers deploying AWS Security Hub as a centralized cloud security posture management platform that aggregates findings from GuardDuty, Inspector, Macie, and third-party tools. It details enabling security standards like CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark, configuring automated remediation, and building executive dashboards for compliance tracking across multi-account AWS organizations.
Deploys remote browser isolation (RBI) as a core component of a Zero Trust architecture. Implements isolation policies with URL categorization and risk-based routing, content disarming and reconstruction (CDR) for file sanitization, data loss prevention controls within isolated sessions, and integration with Secure Web Gateway and ZTNA platforms. Based on Cloudflare Browser Isolation, Menlo Security, and Zscaler RBI approaches. Use when hardening web access against zero-day exploits, phishing, credential theft, and browser-based data exfiltration.
