What is Red Teaming?

Table of Contents

1. Understanding Red Teaming
2. The Origin of Red Teaming
3. Key Differences Between Red Teaming and Other Security Assessments
   • 3.1 Vulnerability Assessments
   • 3.2 Penetration Testing
4. Objectives of Red Teaming
5. Types of Red Team Engagements
   • 5.1 Full Simulation
   • 5.2 Adversary Emulation
   • 5.3 Assumed Breach
   • 5.4 Tabletop Exercises
6. The Red Teaming Process
   • 6.1 Initial Access
   • 6.2 Network Propagation
   • 6.3 Privilege Escalation
   • 6.4 Defense Evasion
   • 6.5 Credential Access
   • 6.6 Lateral Movement
   • 6.7 Actions on Objectives
7. Challenges with traditional red teaming
8. Solution: Continuous Automated Red Teaming (CART)
9. The Importance of Post-Engagement Activities
10. Conclusion

1. Understanding Red Teaming

Red teaming is a comprehensive approach to testing an organization’s security by simulating real-world attacks. Unlike standard penetration tests, which focus on identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities in specific systems, red teaming takes a more holistic view. It assesses an organization’s people, processes, and technology to understand its overall security posture. The goal is to emulate tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used by actual adversaries, putting an organization’s defenses to the test.

2. The Origin of Red Teaming

The concept of red teaming originated from military exercises, where one unit acts as an adversary to test the defenses of another unit. This practice was adopted in cybersecurity to assess organizations’ resilience against potential threats. By simulating attacks, red teams provide valuable insights into how well an organization can detect and respond to actual threats.

3. Key Differences Between Red Teaming and Other Security Assessments

3.1 Vulnerability Assessments

Vulnerability assessments focus primarily on identifying weaknesses in systems or applications. They provide a snapshot of an organization’s security posture but do not test how those vulnerabilities could be exploited in a real-world attack. Red teaming goes beyond this by mimicking an attacker’s behavior, providing a more realistic view of the organization’s defenses.

3.2 Penetration Testing

Penetration testing involves simulating an attack on a specific system to identify vulnerabilities. While it may include some tactics from red teaming, it generally lacks the broader scope and context of red teaming engagements. Pen tests are often limited in scope and may not account for the full range of attack vectors and techniques that a red team would consider.

4. Objectives of Red Teaming

The primary goal of red teaming is to identify and demonstrate potential attack paths across the entire digital and physical landscape of an organization. By simulating adversarial tactics, red teams test not only technical defenses but also incident response processes, helping organizations strengthen their readiness against genuine cyberattacks. Post-engagement analysis, including forensic examination of simulated breaches, allows organizations to refine incident response protocols and better prepare for real-world attacks.

5. Types of Red Team Engagements

Full Simulation: In a full simulation, the red team mimics a comprehensive attack strategy, incorporating various TTPs. This engagement provides a detailed analysis of the organization’s security posture and identifies weaknesses across its defenses.

Adversary Emulation: Adversary emulation involves replicating the tactics of specific threat actors or groups. This approach allows organizations to understand how they might be targeted based on known adversary behavior.

Assumed Breach: In assumed breach scenarios, red teams start from the perspective that they already have access to the organization’s network. This approach tests how well the organization can detect and respond to threats once an attacker has breached its perimeter.

Tabletop Exercises: Tabletop exercises are discussions that simulate the response to various attack scenarios. These sessions help organizations refine their incident response plans and improve coordination among teams.

 

6. The Red Team Process

6.1 Initial Access

The first phase of red teaming involves gaining entry into the target environment. This can be achieved through various means, such as phishing, exploiting vulnerabilities, or leveraging social engineering tactics.

6.2 Network Propagation

Once inside, the red team seeks to move laterally through the network, gaining access to additional systems and data. This phase tests the organization’s ability to detect and respond to internal threats.

6.3 Privilege Escalation

In this phase, the red team attempts to elevate its privileges to gain greater control over the environment. This may involve exploiting misconfigurations or vulnerabilities to gain administrative access.

6.4 Defense Evasion

Red teams employ various techniques to avoid detection while conducting their activities. This phase assesses how well an organization can identify and respond to stealthy attacks.

6.5 Credential Access

Credential access involves stealing usernames and passwords to further facilitate lateral movement within the network. This phase highlights the importance of protecting sensitive credentials.

6.6 Lateral Movement

Lateral movement tests how effectively an organization can monitor and respond to threats that move within its network. Attackers often use this technique to access sensitive systems and data.

6.7 Actions on Objectives

The final phase focuses on achieving the red team’s objectives, such as data exfiltration or system manipulation. This phase assesses the organization’s ability to detect and respond to critical threats.

7. Challenges with traditional red teaming

7.1 Focus on Partial Assets

Traditional red team engagements often focus on core systems, neglecting peripheral assets such as development environments, cloud services, critical network components, databases, and external-facing websites. These overlooked areas are frequently targeted by attackers, leading to significant security gaps.

7.2 Infrequent Assessments

Traditional red teaming exercises are typically conducted annually or bi-annually, leaving long gaps between assessments. This infrequency allows emerging threats to go undetected for months, increasing the risk of successful attacks.

7.3 Limited Attack Scope

Traditional red teaming often relies on known vulnerabilities and commercial tools, providing a limited scope of attack methods. This approach may miss sophisticated tactics and custom-developed exploits used by advanced persistent threats (APTs).

7.4 High Cost and Difficult to Scale

Traditional red teaming relies heavily on human expertise, making it expensive and difficult to scale. Conducting these exercises more frequently would significantly increase costs and demand more resources.

 

8. Solution: Continuous Automated Red Teaming (CART)

Organizations are increasingly adopting Continuous Automated Red Teaming (CART) to enhance their security posture. CART involves the ongoing testing of defenses through automated simulations of attacks. This approach allows organizations to identify and remediate vulnerabilities in real-time, ensuring a proactive stance against threats. For more information on CART, consider exploring Continuous Automated Red Teaming (CART) | FireCompass.

9. The Importance of Post-Engagement Activities

After a red team engagement, it is crucial to conduct a thorough review of findings and recommendations. The organization should analyze the outcomes of the engagement, identify areas for improvement, and implement changes to enhance security. This process includes documenting lessons learned, updating incident response plans, and conducting follow-up training for team members.

10. Conclusion

Red teaming is an essential component of a robust cybersecurity strategy. By simulating real-world attacks, organizations can gain valuable insights into their security posture and improve their defenses against emerging threats. Continuous Automated Red Teaming (CART) represents the future of proactive security, enabling organizations to stay ahead of potential adversaries. For organizations looking for a comprehensive solution, FireCompass | Continuous Automated Red Teaming, Pen Testing & Attack Surface Management offers an AI-powered platform for ongoing assessment and improvement of security measures.