Internal Lateral Movement Assessment for a Media & Entertainment company in the Americas

Needs And Requirements:

The client required a targeted internal security assessment to evaluate whether sensitive business information could be accessed from a standard user network. Rather than focusing solely on technical vulnerabilities, the objective was to simulate a realistic attack behavior and determine whether misconfigurations, excessive permissions, or inappropriate operational practices could allow unauthorized access to assets. The engagement was conducted in a greybox setting to reflect a scenario in which an attacker has limited initial knowledge of the environment but valid internal access.

Main Challenges:

Exposure of Sensitive Business Data: The organization needed assurance that sensitive departments, such as Finance, were properly segmented and protected from unauthorized internal access.

Overprivileged Access and Misconfiguration: There was concern that accumulated configuration drift, legacy permissions, or weak access controls could unintentionally expose critical data.

Limited Visibility into Lateral Movement Risks: The client lacked clarity on how far an attacker could move within the internal network after gaining a foothold.

Solution:

Penetration Testing: Hitachi Cyber conducted a greybox internal assessment simulating a threat actor operating from a user network. The objective was not to enumerate every vulnerability, but to identify the activities, configurations, and access control weaknesses that could be leveraged to reach sensitive targets (which were pre-defined).

Starting from a standard user-level position, the team attempted to map the internal environment, identify accessible systems, enumerate privileges, and analyze trust relationships. The assessment focused on techniques commonly used in real-world attacks, including credential discovery, privilege escalation opportunities, misuse of legitimate tools, and lateral movement across network segments.

Particular attention was given to access control models, file share permissions, Active Directory configurations, and segmentation boundaries. The team documented how certain configurations, or operational practices could be used inappropriately to gain access to sensitive resources, such as Finance department records, even in the absence of critical software vulnerabilities.

Outcomes:

The assessment provided the client with a clear understanding of how an attacker with internal access could navigate the environment and potentially reach sensitive information. Rather than producing a vulnerability list alone, the engagement highlighted weaknesses in access governance, network segmentation, and privilege management.

The findings enabled the client to strengthen internal access controls, refine their privilege settings, improve monitoring of suspicious internal behavior, and reduce the risk of data leaks resulting from lateral movement.

Next Steps:

The client plans to implement corrective measures focused on access governance, segmentation improvements, and monitoring enhancements. Follow-up validation testing will be done to ensure long-term resilience against internal threat scenarios.