Our methodology is built on industry standards — PTES, OWASP Testing Guide, OSSTMM, and NIST SP 800-115 — adapted through years of real-world offensive engagements. Every phase is documented, every finding is validated, every report drives action.
Every engagement follows the same rigorous process — tailored to your scope, executed with precision, and concluded with clear, actionable outcomes.
Before a single packet is sent, we invest in understanding your environment, business context, and risk tolerance. We define rules of engagement, testing windows, emergency contacts, and out-of-scope boundaries. A signed Statement of Work (SoW) and Rules of Engagement (RoE) document protects both parties.
We build a complete picture of the target — passively from open sources, and actively through direct interaction. This phase shapes our attack strategy and ensures we don't miss any part of the attack surface.
The core of our work. We combine targeted automated scanning with deep manual analysis — spending human effort where tools are blind. Every potential vulnerability is investigated, and every confirmed finding is fully exploited to demonstrate real-world impact.
Where applicable, we demonstrate what an attacker achieves after initial compromise — lateral movement, privilege escalation, data access, and persistence. This phase shows the true business risk of discovered vulnerabilities rather than treating them in isolation.
Our reports are written for two audiences: executives who need business context, and engineers who need technical depth. After delivery, we hold a debrief call to walk through findings and answer questions. We then stay available for 30 days to support remediation decisions, and provide a free re-test to verify fixes.
Our overall framework for engagement structure — from pre-engagement through reporting. Ensures consistency across all assessment types.
For web application assessments, the OWASP Testing Guide defines our coverage checklist — ensuring no test category is overlooked.
The NIST Technical Guide to Information Security Testing provides our baseline for technical assessment methodology and reporting requirements.
All red team and adversary simulation findings are mapped to ATT&CK tactics and techniques — enabling your blue team to tune detections directly.
No finding is included in a final report without peer review by a senior consultant. This eliminates false positives, ensures accurate CVSS scoring, and guarantees remediation advice is technically sound.
Request an assessment and experience a HEXSTRIKE engagement from scoping to re-test.