Offensive Security, Attack Path Validation, and Remediation Retesting
Find Out What an Intruder Can Actually Reach
A vulnerability scan lists open ports and unpatched software. A Global Digital Forensics penetration test proves whether an attacker can chain those exposures together to take over identity systems, move across network segments, and exfiltrate production data. Our senior operators validate every attack path by hand, rank findings by business consequence, and retest your fixes after remediation.
Scope the engagement
Precision Scoping Around Your Critical Assets and Uptime Windows
A weak penetration test usually fails before the first packet, because the scope was written around an asset list instead of the question leadership needs answered. We start with that question. Tell us which networks, applications, APIs, cloud tenants and identity systems carry the business, which of them cannot go down during a release or a trading day, and who will read the report. We build the rules of engagement around those facts, and testing windows, stop conditions and escalation contacts are agreed in writing before anyone touches a system.
Crown Jewel Targets
Identity providers, payment and production databases, build pipelines and the cloud roles that administer them, named in scope together with the connections that link them.
Uptime Windows and Stop Rules
Testing hours, rate limits, excluded systems and an escalation contact on call, so production keeps serving customers while we work against it.
A Report Built for Its Reader
An executive summary for the board, reproduction steps for engineering and a retest record an auditor or a customer assurance team can check.
Proof of Exploitability, Not a List of Possibilities
A scanner reports what might be wrong. A penetration test answers what an attacker could do with it. Our operators chain confirmed weaknesses into the routes an intruder would actually take: a phished password into a VPN that never enforced multifactor authentication, a service account with domain rights, a storage bucket that trusts every authenticated user. A medium severity flaw sitting beside a reused administrator password is a critical finding, and we report it that way.
AI assisted tooling speeds up reconnaissance and test case development across the approved targets. People decide what to test and validate every result by hand, and nothing reaches your report that an operator has not reproduced. The discipline comes from a forensic practice whose examiners have testified in federal and state courts, so every finding arrives with the evidence behind it.
One Engagement Across Network, Application, Cloud and Identity
A vulnerable application exposes data. A compromised account opens a path into the network. A permissive cloud role turns a small foothold into an outage. Attackers ignore the boundaries between your infrastructure, application and cloud teams, so we test across them, with one scope built around the systems the business depends on.
External testing covers internet facing systems, exposed services, remote access gateways and the information an outsider can gather about your people and technology. Internal and assumed breach testing starts from an agreed foothold, such as a standard user laptop, and measures privilege escalation, movement between systems and whether segmentation actually contains an intruder. Web application and API testing goes after authentication, session handling, authorization and business logic, the flaws that let one customer read another customer's records. Cloud and identity testing traces the path from an ordinary identity to administrative control of a tenant, a subscription or a production cluster.
When the question is narrower, the work narrows with it. Application penetration testing goes deep on one product, source code security review finds the root cause in the code behind it, AI powered penetration testing adds machine scale coverage under human direction, and OT, ICS and SCADA security assessments take the same discipline onto the plant floor.
Black Box, Gray Box or White Box Testing
Black box testing from the outside in
We start with little more than a real attacker would know and work from what your public footprint gives away. This is the right test when the question is how the organization looks from the internet before anyone hands over credentials or diagrams.
Gray box testing from an assumed breach
Selected accounts, documentation and architecture details let us measure what users at different privilege levels can actually reach. It answers the question most boards ask after a headline breach, which is what happens when one employee's password is stolen, and it is usually the most efficient use of a testing budget.
White box testing with source and architecture
With source code and system context, we connect each weakness in the running application to the implementation that causes it. Developers receive the specific condition to change rather than a symptom to chase, which shortens remediation and makes the retest conclusive.
Red team exercises against your defenders
A red team pursues an agreed objective across the defenses in scope and measures what your security operations team detects, how quickly it responds and where the response breaks down. Targets, permitted techniques, operating hours and stop conditions are fixed before the exercise starts.
Weighing black box against gray box for an upcoming audit or customer questionnaire? Call (800) 868-8189 and a senior operator will recommend the depth that answers your question at the lowest cost.
The GDF process
Nine Steps From First Reconnaissance to Final Report
Every step produces evidence your team can check, from the first target profile to the record of the final retest.
Discover the attack surface
See the environment the way an attacker does
Profile
We gather public information about the approved targets, including domains, exposed services, staff footprint and technology, to see what an outside attacker would discover first.
Verify
We confirm targets, written authorization, testing windows and escalation contacts with your IT lead, so the engagement stays inside approved boundaries from the first packet.
Initial scanning
We identify the networks, hosts and services in scope to establish coverage and aim the tests that follow.
Enumeration
We examine services, accounts, software versions and access details to choose the tests that fit the environment instead of running every tool at every host.
Validate the attack paths
Prove what an intruder could do
Attack plan
We walk the proposed attack paths through with your IT lead to confirm permitted techniques, operating conditions and stop rules before any exploitation begins.
Exploit
We execute the approved plan, confirm access and privilege by hand and preserve the evidence so your team can reproduce every material result.
When testing opens new networks or higher access
New ground: Return to Profile and confirm the scope change before testing any additional target.
No new ground: Continue to Analysis.
Explain the business impact
Turn findings into decisions
Analysis
We connect each result to the systems, data and operations it affects, so every technical weakness carries a stated business consequence.
Review
We walk your team through the findings and agree remediation priorities, so engineering hours go to the most consequential exposures first.
Final report and retest
You receive the executive summary, the technical evidence and the prioritized fixes. After remediation we retest the corrected findings and document the result.
A report that tells you what to fix first
- Executive summary
- The business exposure and the decisions that need leadership attention.
- Validated findings
- Affected systems, reproduction steps and evidence of the impact we demonstrated.
- Attack path analysis
- How individual weaknesses combined to reach the agreed objectives.
- Remediation priorities
- Practical fixes ordered by exposure and business consequence.
- Retest results
- Which corrections held and a clear record of anything still open.
Tell us whether the report goes to engineers, a CISO, the board, a customer assurance team or an auditor, and we plan the deliverables around that reader.
Scope Your AssessmentSenior Operators Backed by Court Tested Examiners
Global Digital Forensics has operated since 1992, and the same practice that attacks your network also preserves evidence and testifies about it. That combination shapes how we test. Activity is logged, findings are reproduced before they are written, and the report reads like a record someone could be asked to defend, because in our other line of work someone usually is.
Joseph Caruso, our founder, CEO and CTO, holds the CISSP and brings a technology career that began in 1980 and spans real time transaction systems and cybersecurity incident response, which is why our reports explain an attack path the way an engineer would rebuild it. Robert Knudsen pairs the CISSP and the Certified Computer Examiner credential with eighteen years of forensic experience, and the practice has served AmLaw 100 firms and Fortune 1000 companies. Read the full team biographies.
Airworthiness Penetration Testing for Aircraft and Ground Systems
GDF does a great deal of FAA and EASA airworthiness penetration testing. We test avionics, aircraft networks, in flight entertainment and connectivity, in flight satellite communications, airline and MRO IT and the ground systems that support them, to DO-326A/ED-202A, DO-356A/ED-203A, the FAA aircraft network security special conditions and EASA Part-IS. Manufacturers, avionics suppliers, airlines and MROs bring us in when a certification program needs security verification evidence organized for the authority's review.
See how that work is scoped on our aviation cybersecurity and airworthiness penetration testing page.
When the Test Finds an Intruder Already Inside
Now and then a penetration test turns up signs that someone got there first: an unfamiliar web shell, a scheduled task nobody created, credentials already circulating. When that happens we stop the affected testing, call your escalation contact and preserve what we found. Because GDF is a forensic practice, the same team can move straight into ransomware and data breach analysis without losing the evidence trail, and clients who want that response on standby sign an Incident Response SLA ahead of time.
Bring your system list and your next deadline to a free first call. Start here.
Free scoping tool
Download the Penetration Test Readiness Workbook
The workbook works as a scoping matrix. Its CSV checklist records targets, system owners, testing windows, authorization and retest dates; its obligation register captures the audit, contract or customer requirement behind the test; and the printable checklist walks your team through the decisions a tester will ask about on the first call. The completed checklist gives the scoping call a head start.
Penetration Test Readiness Workbook
Scoping matrix, obligation register and instructions for the people who will fill them in.
Format: ZIP with two CSV workbooks and a printable checklist.
Penetration Test Readiness Checklist
Scope, schedule, authorization, reporting and retest decisions to settle before testing starts.
Format: PDF, also readable online.
Preparing for an audit at the same time? The full library of preparation packages organizes audit and assessment records by subject.
Frequently asked
Scope, Depth, AI Use and Retesting
Can GDF test our network, applications and cloud access in one engagement?
Yes. We combine external and internal network testing, web application and API testing, cloud and identity testing and source code review in one defined scope, and we follow the paths between those systems, because that is where a real intruder moves.
What is the difference between black box, gray box and white box testing?
Black box testing starts with what an outside attacker would know. Gray box testing adds selected accounts or architecture details so we can measure what users at different privilege levels could reach. White box testing adds source code and system context so findings reach the root cause. On the first call we recommend the depth that answers your question.
How are findings ranked?
By business consequence, not by a scanner score alone. Each finding states what we demonstrated, the conditions it depends on, the systems and data it reaches and what it would cost the business if an attacker did the same, so engineers fix the exposures that matter first.
How do you use AI in penetration testing?
AI tools assist with reconnaissance, correlation and test case development across the approved targets. GDF operators choose the tools, direct the work and validate every finding by hand before it enters the report.
Do you retest after we fix the findings?
Yes. Once your team completes the corrections, we retest the agreed findings and give you a record of which exposures are closed and which remain open, which is usually the document an auditor or customer asks to see.
How do we get a scope and price?
Tell us which networks, applications and locations are involved, your deadline and the outcome you need, such as a board report, a customer assurance request or an audit. The first scoping call is free and covers the recommended testing depth, the timeline and the pricing.
Put Your Attack Surface in Front of a Senior Operator
Share the systems you want tested, the business concern behind the request and your deadline. A senior security lead will walk you through the recommended testing depth, timeline, and pricing on an initial scoping call, and that first consultation is free.
Reviewed by Joseph Caruso, Founder, CEO and CTO, CISSP. Last reviewed .