Red Teaming Part 2
by zero
Discover the evolving landscape of red teaming in 2024/2025 with a comprehensive review of top offensive security tools. This post examines every phase of a red team engagement—from initial reconnaissance using Nmap, Shodan, Recon-ng, and Maltego to initial access via Metasploit, Evilginx2, Modlishka, and SET. It highlights effective phishing and credential harvesting with tools like Gophish, Phishing Frenzy, and CredSniper, and explores password spraying techniques using Spray365, Trident, and Hydra. In post‑exploitation, advanced command‑and‑control frameworks such as Cobalt Strike, Sliver, Havoc, PowerShell Empire, and PoshC2 enable sustained adversary simulation. Fostering enhanced security posture and robust operational resilience.
Red Teaming in the Modern Era: Initial Access, Phishing, and Password Spraying Discussion
In today’s ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape, organizations face a constant barrage of threats from highly sophisticated adversaries. To keep pace, red teams—trusted groups of offensive security experts—simulate real-world attacks, exposing weaknesses before malicious actors can exploit them. This blog post examines the latest trends in red team initial access techniques, the evolution of phishing as both an attack vector and a simulation tool, and the emerging tools for password spraying. Drawing from recent reports and open-source intelligence, we’ll create a knowledgebase that details the tactics, techniques, and tools that define modern red teaming.
The Changing Face of Red Team Initial Access
Initial access is the first foothold that an attacker establishes within a target network. Recent studies highlight that adversaries are moving beyond traditional brute force or malware-based methods. Instead, they leverage complex multi-step attack chains that mimic real-world intrusions.
According to recent trends, red teams now routinely exploit vulnerabilities in AI-driven systems, legacy internet-facing applications, and even SaaS environments. For example, attackers are now using artificial intelligence to craft personalized phishing messages or launch prompt injection attacks against integrated AI systems. This approach not only bypasses conventional security measures but also minimizes the technical footprint of the simulated attack.
Moreover, as organizations increasingly rely on cloud services, the exploitation of SaaS credential leaks and misconfigured identity and access management (IAM) systems has become a prominent theme. Red team exercises now often include simulated breaches via compromised Office 365 or Azure accounts, taking advantage of weak or outdated authentication practices.
Phishing Evolution: A Key Initial Access Vector
Phishing has transformed from rudimentary spam emails to sophisticated, multi-channel campaigns that can bypass advanced defenses. Modern phishing techniques now incorporate:
- Adversary-in-the-Middle (AiTM) Attacks: These sophisticated phishing campaigns intercept authentication tokens and session cookies, making multi-factor authentication (MFA) less effective. Tools such as Evilginx2 and Modlishka have been at the forefront of these simulated attacks, allowing red teams to recreate the tactics used by state-sponsored groups .
- QR Code Phishing: With the widespread adoption of mobile devices, attackers have embraced QR codes to deliver malicious links discreetly. Advanced variants even use ASCII-based QR codes to evade detection by traditional email scanners.
- Phishing-as-a-Service (PhaaS): The rise of PhaaS platforms has democratized access to advanced phishing kits. These ready-made tools enable attackers—and red teamers—to launch campaigns that steal MFA tokens and leverage deepfake technology for added credibility .
By integrating these techniques into red team scenarios, organizations can test and refine their defenses against attacks that not only target technological vulnerabilities but also exploit human behavior.
Core Code Tools and Frameworks: A Sample Red Team Arsenal
Red teamers have access to a plethora of code tools and frameworks hosted on platforms like GitHub and GitLab. These resources are continuously updated to reflect the latest adversarial techniques. Among the most notable are:
- Evilginx2 and Modlishka: Reverse proxy frameworks that capture credentials and session tokens, simulating real-world bypasses of MFA protections.
- CredSniper: A Python-based framework that focuses on capturing multi-factor authentication tokens by simulating phishing attacks.
- Gophish: An open-source phishing toolkit that allows the design, execution, and tracking of large-scale phishing campaigns , .
These tools provide red teams with the flexibility to simulate a wide array of scenarios—from broad phishing campaigns to targeted credential harvesting. Moreover, repositories that aggregate these tools, such as awesome-RedTeam-Tools and various proof-of-concept collections, ensure that practitioners are always equipped with the latest offensive capabilities.
Password Spraying: A Silent but Potent Threat
While phishing often captures headlines, password spraying remains one of the stealthiest techniques in an attacker’s playbook. Unlike brute force attacks that target one account at a time, password spraying involves attempting a small set of common passwords across many accounts. This “low and slow” approach is designed to avoid detection and account lockouts.
Recent reports have highlighted several cutting-edge tools for password spraying, including:
- Spray365: Tailored for Office 365 and Azure endpoints, Spray365 uses Microsoft’s Authentication Library (MSAL) to identify and exploit weak conditional access policies. Its two-step process—first generating an execution plan and then executing a stealthy spray—makes it especially effective in modern cloud environments .
- Trident: Designed for multi-cloud operations, Trident increases the IP pool for spraying campaigns, making detection much more challenging. Its support for advanced scheduling aligns with real-world account lockout policies.
- SharpSpray and Spray-AD: These tools focus on Windows domains and Active Directory environments. By leveraging protocols like LDAP and Kerberos, they simulate realistic attacks that generate less noise in the system logs .
Each of these tools addresses a critical need: to uncover weak password policies before an adversary exploits them. By integrating password spraying into red team engagements, organizations can gain insight into both the technical and human factors that contribute to security breaches.
Integrating Techniques for a Holistic Red Team Engagement
Modern red teaming is not about isolated tactics—it’s about weaving together multiple techniques to mimic sophisticated adversaries. Consider an engagement that begins with:
- Reconnaissance and Initial Access: Utilizing open-source intelligence and automated scanning tools, the red team identifies weak points in the target’s digital perimeter. They may discover exposed cloud services, legacy systems, or misconfigured IAM systems.
- Phishing and Credential Harvesting: Armed with this intelligence, the team deploys advanced phishing campaigns. Whether it’s through AiTM attacks, QR code phishing, or PhaaS kits, the goal is to harvest credentials and gain an initial foothold.
- Password Spraying: If phishing fails or as a complementary method, password spraying tools like Spray365 or SharpSpray are used to test the strength of account credentials across the organization.
- Post-Exploitation: Once access is gained, the team uses red team frameworks to simulate lateral movement, privilege escalation, and data exfiltration, mirroring the tactics of actual threat actors.
By integrating these stages, red team engagements can provide a realistic, end-to-end assessment of an organization’s security posture. This approach not only identifies technical vulnerabilities but also exposes gaps in security awareness, incident response, and policy enforcement.
Conclusion: Preparing for the Future
The convergence of red teaming, advanced phishing techniques, and stealthy password spraying represents the future of offensive security testing. As adversaries become more adept at exploiting both technological and human weaknesses, organizations must adopt a proactive stance. By embracing these advanced tools and techniques, security teams can uncover vulnerabilities before they are exploited by malicious actors.
The knowledgebase presented here—from red team initial access trends to the latest code tools and password spraying platforms—provides a comprehensive view of the modern threat landscape. In doing so, it empowers organizations to build robust, layered defenses that not only protect against known attacks but also prepare them for the emerging tactics of tomorrow’s adversaries.
Stay vigilant, keep testing, and continue evolving your defenses—because in cybersecurity, the battle is never truly won; it’s only paused until the next innovative attack emerges.
Sources integrated from provided files: initial access trends phishing evolution and , red team code tools and , and password spraying tools .
tags: redteaming - phishing - initialaccess - tools