Inside the Domain: A Field Manual for Active Directory Penetration Testing

Active Directory is at the heart of enterprise identity and access management—and one of the most critical attack surfaces in modern corporate networks. Yet assessing its security requires more than a collection of commands, isolated attack techniques, or scattered best practices.

Inside the Domain: A Field Manual for Active Directory Penetration Testing brings these techniques together into a structured, six-phase methodology designed for penetration testers, red team operators, security researchers, and security engineers.

From initial reconnaissance and credential exposure to privilege escalation, lateral movement, credential access, and post-exploitation, this 100-page expanded edition provides a practical, tool-driven approach to understanding and assessing Active Directory security.

What You'll Find Inside:

• A structured, six-phase Active Directory penetration testing methodology.
• Practical commands and examples using widely adopted offensive security tools.
• Coverage of Kerberos, NTLM, LDAP, SMB, trust relationships, and Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS).
• Explanations of common attack techniques, including Kerberoasting, AS-REP Roasting, NTLM Relay, delegation abuse, ACL abuse, DCSync, and certificate-based attack paths.
• Privilege escalation, lateral movement, credential access, and persistence assessment concepts.
• Attack-path analysis, MITRE ATT&CK mapping, and risk-based prioritization.
• Defensive considerations, detection opportunities, and hardening recommendations.
• Assessment worksheets, evidence-handling guidance, reporting templates, and laboratory exercises.
• Technical references to Microsoft documentation, MITRE ATT&CK, NIST, and other established security resources.

Unlike disconnected command collections, this field manual connects individual techniques to a broader assessment methodology, helping practitioners understand not only what to test, but why each test matters, how findings relate to one another, and how to communicate their security impact.

Who Is This Book For?

This book is intended for penetration testers, red team professionals, cybersecurity researchers, security consultants, and system administrators seeking a structured reference for evaluating Active Directory security.

Whether you are preparing for an authorized enterprise penetration test, strengthening your understanding of identity-based attack paths, or building a controlled AD security lab, Inside the Domain is designed to serve as a practical reference throughout the assessment lifecycle.

From Reconnaissance to Domain Dominance—Understand the Paths, Assess the Risks, Strengthen the Domain.

For educational purposes and authorized security testing only.