Penetration testing guides

Short, plain-English explanations of how penetration testing works: what each term means, how the approaches differ, and how a path is proven all the way to Domain Admin. Start with the concept you need.

• Autonomous penetration testing: software that attacks a network the way a red team would and proves every step, the idea AutoAttack is built on.
• AI penetration testing: how artificial intelligence carries out the attack itself, and how that differs from a human engagement.
• Automated penetration testing: what scripted attack tools do, where they stop, and how autonomous testing goes further.
• Active Directory penetration testing: attacking the directory that runs a Windows network, chaining misconfigurations into Domain Admin.
• Domain Admin: the keys-to-the-kingdom privilege in a Windows network, and why it is the bar that proves a breach.
• Red teaming: the goal-driven adversary exercise, how it differs from a pentest, and what autonomous red teaming changes.
• Agentic red teaming: red teaming run by AI agents that choose their own moves, and how that differs from red-teaming AI systems.
• Ransomware readiness: why the path to domain-wide encryption is the domain-takeover path, and how proving it measures readiness.
• Agentless penetration testing: testing a network from one deployment with nothing installed on the hosts, instead of a per-host agent rollout.
• Assumed-breach penetration testing: starting from a phished or insider credential to measure how far one foothold reaches, and whether an identity’s access is correctly scoped.

See it proven

See the measured benchmark, the use-case walkthroughs, or how it compares to NodeZero and Nessus.