conducting-internal-network-penetration-test

Conducting Internal Network Penetration Test

Overview

An internal network penetration test simulates an attacker who has already gained access to the internal network or a malicious insider. The tester operates from an "assumed breach" position — typically a standard domain workstation or network jack — and attempts lateral movement, privilege escalation, credential harvesting, and data exfiltration to determine the blast radius of a compromised endpoint.

When to Use

• When conducting security assessments that involve conducting internal network penetration test
• 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

• Signed Rules of Engagement with internal network scope
• Network access: physical Ethernet drop or VPN connection to internal VLAN
• Standard domain user credentials (assumed breach model) or unauthenticated access
• Testing laptop with Kali Linux, Impacket, Responder, BloodHound
• Coordination with IT/SOC for monitoring and emergency contacts

Legal Notice: This skill is for authorized security testing and educational purposes only. Unauthorized use against systems you do not own or have written permission to test is illegal and may violate computer fraud laws.

Phase 1 — Network Discovery and Enumeration

Initial Network Reconnaissance

# Identify your own network position
ip addr show
ip route show
cat /etc/resolv.conf

# ARP scan for live hosts on local subnet
arp-scan --localnet --interface eth0

# Nmap host discovery across internal ranges
nmap -sn 10.0.0.0/8 --exclude 10.0.0.1 -oG internal_hosts.gnmap
nmap -sn 172.16.0.0/12 -oG internal_hosts_172.gnmap
nmap -sn 192.168.0.0/16 -oG internal_hosts_192.gnmap

# Extract live hosts
grep "Status: Up" internal_hosts.gnmap | awk '{print $2}' > live_hosts.txt

# Port scan live hosts — top 1000 ports
nmap -sS -sV -T4 -iL live_hosts.txt -oA internal_tcp_scan

# Service-specific scans
nmap -p 445 --open -iL live_hosts.txt -oG smb_hosts.gnmap
nmap -p 3389 --open -iL live_hosts.txt -oG rdp_hosts.gnmap
nmap -p 22 --open -iL live_hosts.txt -oG ssh_hosts.gnmap
nmap -p 1433,3306,5432,1521,27017 --open -iL live_hosts.txt -oG db_hosts.gnmap