7MS #739: Tales of Pentest Pwnage – Part 89
7 Minute Security
Hey friends! Today is a tale of pentest pwnage episode, and this one features a path to escalation I have never seen before – one I could only find few references on the entire Internet. It happened completely by accident, but during the report readout I’m absolutely going to say it was intentional and that I totally meant to do that. Here’s what we cover: A client that’s actually doing the things – year two or three of testing this environment, and they had buttoned up so much that I had to dig deep. Great for them, freaking frustrating for me. Why my...
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7MS #738: Baby’s First ProjectDiscovery Neo
7 Minute Security
Hey friends! Today I’m talking about Baby’s First Neo — and to be crystal clear, I don’t mean Keanu, and I don’t mean the R&B guy with the hat. I mean the AI-powered pentest assistant from our pals at . Also to be crystal clear: this is not a sponsorship, ad, partnership or anything of the sort. Just me sharing a thing I like so you can decide if you like it too. Here’s what we get into: Why I didn’t renew my ProjectDiscovery cloud subscription after a full year of running it side-by-side with Nessus — including the three things that ground my...
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7MS #737: Tales of Pentest Pwnage – Part 88
7 Minute Security
Hello friends! Today’s tale of pentest pwnage isn’t a start-to-finish march to DA – it’s me finally emptying out the backlog of “gosh, I’ve got to share this next time” internal network tips that have been rattling around in my head. Here’s what we get into: Don’t skip the boring stuff. Even when I’m testing the same network for the third or fourth time, I’ve got an ever-growing list of things I check every single time – because config drift has a nasty habit of quietly reintroducing problems that were fixed years ago. Get a second opinion on...
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7MS #736: Securing Your Family During and After a Disaster – Part 9
7 Minute Security
Hey friends! Today’s another slice of our Securing Your Family During and After a Disaster miniseries, and fair warning — it’s a bit of a Friday mood-ruiner. It’s been almost two months since my dad passed, and we’ve moved into a phase nobody prepared me for. Here’s what we get into: The paperwork nobody thinks about — my mom still doesn’t know what her monthly income looks like now, and the answer is buried in a box somebody lost the key to. Divvying up a lifetime of stuff — and why our 2019 house fire completely rewired how I think about possessions....
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7MS #735: Baby's First Cloudflare Tunnel
7 Minute Security
Hey friends! Today’s episode has a new-to-me toy up front and some podcast housekeeping on the back half – all recorded with a raging case of the anxious parent giggidies, because my son Atticus had a big audition and I was minutes away from finding out whether we were doing tears of joy or tears of sadness. Baby’s first Cloudflare Tunnel Not a sponsor, not an ad – just a thing I’d heard about for years and finally had a reason to use. Here’s what we get into: The problem that sent me down this road: I wanted push-button status pages for clients that pull from one source...
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7MS #734: Insight Recon
7 Minute Security
Hey friends! Today’s episode is a two-parter: some security stuff up front, and then a big ol’ personal celebration on the back half. If you’re strictly here for the security bits, I love you and you’re free to bail after the first half. If you’re here for both, God bless you. Part 1: Kicking the tires on Insight Recon What it is: is an Active Directory security assessment tool out of Heath Adams’ new venture, . I signed up for early access a while back, finally got a login, and took it for a spin this week in my lab. Not a sponsor, not an ad — just a...
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7MS #733: Tales of Pentest Pwnage – Part 87
7 Minute Security
Hey friends! Today’s episode comes to you from a parking lot in the rain, with a mint hot cocoa in hand and your host absolutely dragging his butt (D-R-A-G-G-I-N-G, not D-R-A-G-O-N – I’ve never seen a dragon’s butt and can’t speak to how mine compares). I’ve had a bunch of internals back to back lately and I’m basically a drooling dog who found a frisbee and refuses to put it down. Sleep be darned. So instead of walking through one test start to finish, I want to share a few things that have helped me claw out a foothold in environments that are otherwise really locked...
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7MS #732: Tales of Pentest Pwnage – Part 86
7 Minute Security
Hey friends! Welcome back to another Tales of Pentest Pwnage — my favorite mini-series where I share the good, the bad, and the “why didn’t I check THAT first?!” moments from real-world engagements. Today’s story has a little bit of everything: a legit path to domain admin, some late-night rabbit holes, a lesson in humility, and a villain you’ve definitely met before. (Spoiler: it’s DNS.) A couple of quick plugs before we dive in: Private GOAD training is going strong! — We just wrapped a 3-day private session (7 students — that’s max capacity!) of our Active...
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7MS #731: CARTP – Cloud Red Team Tactics for Attacking and Defending Azure – THE FINAL CHAPTER!
7 Minute Security
Hey friends! Fair warning: today’s episode is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster — we’ve got a big security win, some honest lab feedback, and a very personal share about my dad’s funeral. Buckle up. certified, baby! — I’m officially a , courtesy of the folks at . It’s been a long time coming (I originally signed up for the live version and fell off after missing a couple Saturdays), but I came back for the self-paced 30-day version and finally finished the job. The lab experience — the good: — ~25 objectives, a solid lab guide, and a really fun...
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7MS #730: Baby’s First Project Swarm
7 Minute Security
Hey friends! Still your grieving pal over here, but also your swarming friend and Protecting My Network Edge host — because this week I’ve been tinkering with something called and I’ve got my diapers on regarding it, but I really, really like what I see so far. Then, fair warning, I flip on the tangent light and verbally barf up some personal stuff at the end. I’ll make the hand-off super clear, so if you want your free security podcast to do exactly what you want and nothing else — totally fair, and you won’t offend me by hopping off. Here’s what we cover: ...
info_outlineHello friends! Today’s tale of pentest pwnage isn’t a start-to-finish march to DA – it’s me finally emptying out the backlog of “gosh, I’ve got to share this next time” internal network tips that have been rattling around in my head. Here’s what we get into:
- Don’t skip the boring stuff. Even when I’m testing the same network for the third or fourth time, I’ve got an ever-growing list of things I check every single time – because config drift has a nasty habit of quietly reintroducing problems that were fixed years ago.
- Get a second opinion on your tools. Lately I’ve had BloodHound tell me a network is squeaky clean, and then gone and checked manually only to find the exact opposite sprawled all over the place. I don’t know how to account for it, but it’s changed how I work. (If you know the source of truth here, please write in!)
- Ghost machines. That innocent little checkbox in Active Directory that turns a computer object into a gift-wrapped present for an attacker. We keep finding these in environments that had zero of them last year – and I share the two-pass trick that shakes even more of them loose.
- The weekend freebie. Why I like to get my box lit up on a Friday even when the test doesn’t officially start until Monday, and what tends to come wandering into my capture over 48 quiet hours.
- SNMP sweeps. I’ve never been caught doing one, and yet they’ll happily hand over the make, model and firmware of some firewalls, switches and storage systems in the building. I think this finding deserves way more attention than it gets. (There are a few little commandlets waiting for you over at 7MinSec.wiki.)
- Be a consultant, not a Terminator 1000. Why I run certain checks even when I’m 99% sure I’ll find nothing, why “you don’t have this thing at all” belongs in the accolades section, and how that one habit has led to some of the most appreciated conversations we’ve had in report delivery meetings.
- Tangent department: the dumb-but-glorious AI project that gave me the giggidies – a fully automated lobby bot for a Steam game that is absolutely, positively not for the kiddos. Also: the one line I won’t cross with it, no matter how much my buddy eggs me on.
Got a tip of your own I should be adding to the “always check this” list? I’d love to hear it!
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