Automated penetration testing employs specialized, graph-based software to simulate offensive attack scenarios, discovering and mapping security vulnerabilities across an organizational internal network.
By adopting an assumed breach mindset and starting from an initial foothold point within the environment, automated penetration testing tools visualize how attackers could exploit interconnected vulnerabilities and misconfigurations to escalate privileges, move laterally, and compromise high-value targets.
As automated penetration testing discovers security vulnerabilities within an organizational network, starting from a domain-joined initial access point, it systematically expands its reach.
For example, the automated penetration testing software might identify a high-privilege Kerberoastable account with a weak password, crack it offline to obtain the plaintext credential, and leverage that credential to access a new network asset through attack simulations.
With each newly accessed asset, dynamic enumeration techniques run to identify additional targets. As the tool discovers and accesses more assets through offensive TTPs, the attack graph grows progressively larger.
Figure 1. An example critical attack path leading to a domain admin account
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To manage this expansion, some automated penetration testing vendors, like Picus, also provide attack path mapping capabilities to visualize and prioritize the stealthiest, and most critical attack paths an attacker could take to achieve their objectives, such as domain admin compromise, or ransomware deployment on an entire domain. |
This way, security teams can prioritize remediation efforts at the most critical choke points, particularly where multiple attack paths converge and could lead to severe consequences.
For all offensive security professionals, including black and ethical hackers, enumeration is key to success. Hence, automated penetration testing is no different.
In automated penetration testing, the enumeration process is dynamic, continuous, and concurrent. It maps an organization’s internal network to gather detailed information about resources and configurations. This process goes beyond traditional vulnerability scanners by tracking the relationships between users, devices, and permissions, providing an up-to-date view of the attack surface.
By integrating identity mapping (such as AD objects and ACLs), infrastructure assessments (including policies and configurations), and connectivity insights (like active sessions and domain trusts), data collection uncovers the underlying connections within the network. This process mimics adversarial enumeration behaviors that occur after initial access (e.g., assume breach mindset), ensuring that any new asset or permission change is promptly analyzed for potential attack paths.
Figure 2. Example discovery techniques run in an arbitrary environment with Picus APV
An automated penetration testing software dynamically simulates real-world adversarial tactics within an organization's internal network to validate whether security misconfigurations can be chained in high-impact attack paths.
This process mimics attacker behaviors, such as vulnerability exploitation, privilege escalation, credential harvesting, and lateral movement (as shown in Fig. 2), to assess potential risks.
As the simulation progresses, new nodes and systems are accessed, triggering discovery techniques that expand the attack surface. This iterative process provides security teams with a continuous view of potential attack paths, enabling them to prioritize remediation efforts.
Figure 3. Attack techniques for automated penetration testing (Picus APV)
Attack path mapping illustrates the possible routes an attacker might take to reach critical assets, expanding dynamically as the threat simulation progresses. As the simulation uncovers new access points, additional discovery techniques are triggered, which in turn leads to further identification of assets and vulnerabilities.
With each new node accessed, more data is gathered, enriching the map with additional details.
This makes attack path mapping an integral part of attack path validation, in collaboration with automated penetration testing, evolving alongside the exploitation of vulnerabilities and the application of new access techniques.
Therefore, attack path mapping plays a crucial role in visualizing the progression of an attack.
Figure 4. An example attack path mapping with Picus APV
In automated penetration testing, risk prioritization for business-critical attack paths focuses remediation efforts on paths that target high-value assets, such as Domain Admin accounts.
The priority is placed on attack chains that lead to the compromise of these critical systems, as they pose the highest risk.
For instance, a chain like Service Enumeration → Modifiable Service Exploitation → Privilege Escalation → LSA Credential Cache Dumping → Password Cracking → Domain Admin is prioritized due to its direct impact on valuable assets. Paths leading to critical targets are ranked higher than those ending at lower-privilege systems.
Even techniques that appear to be low-risk, like Service Enumeration, become critical when they contribute to an attack path that leads to domain compromise.
It's crucial for understanding the true value of automated penetration testing to answer this question.
While automated penetration testing software can handle sophisticated tactics that surpass the abilities of a mid-level red teamer, they still can't replicate the creative and strategic thinking of a senior red teamer.
This difference highlights how automation can complement, rather than replace, the human touch in cybersecurity.
Organizations achieve optimal security posture by combining both methodologies: automated testing for continuous validation and comprehensive attack path mapping, with periodic manual assessments for deep-dive analysis of critical systems and business-specific vulnerabilities.
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Category |
Manual Penetration Testing |
Automated Penetration Testing (with Attack Path Validation) |
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Scope and Depth |
Focuses on a limited scope defined upfront. Delivers deep analysis of specific systems, applications, or controls, often targeting a single objective or vulnerability chain. |
Provides network wide coverage by continuously discovering assets, vulnerabilities, and misconfigurations. Combines automated pentesting with attack path mapping to reveal how exposures can be chained to reach high value objectives such as domain admin or ransomware execution. |
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Cost and Resource Allocation |
High cost and resource intensive due to reliance on skilled testers. Engagements are time bound and require careful coordination, limiting how often they can be performed. |
Significantly reduces manual effort by automating discovery, exploitation, and validation. Runs safely and autonomously, enabling frequent testing without operational disruption or repeated human involvement. |
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Accuracy and Depth |
Excels at contextual analysis and business logic flaws. However, testing typically stops once exploitability is proven, often exposing a single viable attack path and leaving alternative routes unexplored. |
Validates every step of an attack path through execution. Determines which exposures are truly exploitable, maps lateral movement, privilege escalation, and credential abuse, and identifies choke points where multiple attack paths converge eliminating false positives. |
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Frequency and Scalability |
Conducted infrequently due to cost and duration. Best suited for point in time assessments such as compliance audits, major releases, or architectural changes. |
Designed for continuous and scalable assessments. Can be scheduled or initiated on demand from any point in the network, allowing teams to keep pace with dynamic environments and evolving attacker techniques. |
In automated penetration testing, white box testing provides more complete, reliable, and actionable outcomes because it reflects how attacks unfold once an adversary is inside the network.
Automated penetration testing for internal penetration testing starts from a domain-joined account (as stressed earlier) inside the network, deliberately assuming the attacker already has a foothold.
Hence, it is not black-box testing; it perfectly mirrors post-compromise attacker behaviors observed in real intrusions.
From the initial access point, the tool performs continuous and adaptive discovery, running sophisticated enumeration techniques (like Windows Active Directory enum.) to map users, groups, services, permissions, trusts, and policies.
Enumeration is central because attackers can only move as far as their visibility allows. As new information is uncovered, the testing logic adapts in real time.
When exploitable conditions emerge, such as a Kerberos-enabled account combined with weak credentials, the tool validates whether that condition can be abused. If credentials are successfully cracked offline and access shifts from one identity to another, discovery immediately resumes from this new security context. With higher privileges, previously hidden assets, relationships, and attack paths become visible.
This process repeats as access is gained through credential abuse, privilege escalation, lateral movement, or vulnerability exploitation.
Each newly accessed node triggers further enumeration, causing the attack path map to expand dynamically and concurrently, just as it would during a real attack.
Crucially, this approach is goal-driven and stealthy, not noisy or exhaustive. The tool does not attempt to compromise every system. Instead, it prioritizes privilege escalation and traversal toward high-value targets like Domain Admin, reflecting how real attackers conserve access, minimize exposure, and focus on outcomes.
The result is a highly realistic internal penetration test that answers a critical question:
If a specific user account is compromised, what paths can an attacker actually take from there? By testing from any internal starting point, teams can understand real blast radius, validate exploitability, and identify the attack paths that truly matter.
Yes. Autonomous pentesting can be used to model insider-threat and disgruntled employee scenarios by starting from legitimate internal user accounts and simulating how abuse of access, misconfigurations, and credential weaknesses can be chained to escalate privileges or access sensitive assets.
Rather than detecting malicious intent, it answers a practical question: what damage could a compromised or misused internal account realistically cause, and which paths lead to high-impact outcomes such as domain admin access or sensitive data exposure.
Automated penetration testing supports Zero Trust by continuously validating whether trust boundaries, access controls, and privilege assignments actually prevent attacker progression under real attack conditions.
By executing full attack chains, spanning discovery, privilege escalation, credential abuse, and lateral movement, it exposes where implicit trust still exists between users, systems, and services. This allows security teams to identify and eliminate hidden access paths that violate Zero Trust principles, ensuring that least privilege, segmentation, and access policies are enforced not just by design, but in real-world adversarial scenarios.
Here are the key questions you need to ask before choosing the best automated penetration testing tool for your organization:
The best automated penetration testing solution for meeting security compliance requirements is one that goes beyond checkbox testing and continuously validates real exploitability in your environment.
It should operate with an assumed-breach mindset, execute realistic attacker behaviors, and map attack paths to critical assets so you can demonstrate not just that controls exist, but that they actually prevent privilege escalation, lateral movement, data exfiltration, and ransomware impact.
From a compliance perspective (PCI DSS, ISO 27001, DORA, SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA), the strongest solutions provide continuous evidence, outcome-driven reporting, and clear remediation prioritization tied to business risk. This allows security teams to stay audit-ready at all times while giving auditors and decision-makers defensible proof that security controls are actively tested, effective, and maintained in dynamic environments.
In alignment with this, on November 8, Gartner published a report titled “How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management,” which highlights that the following technologies and practices have been integrated into the broader category of Adversarial Exposure Validation.
As emphasized earlier, Automated Penetration Testing and Attack Path Mapping technologies provide security teams with accurate, risk-free, and continuous testing.
Within Picus Attack Path Validation (APV), these capabilities are offered together to deliver unparalleled efficiency, minimizing network disruptions and reducing the time security operations teams spend on manual research. APV not only identifies critical risks but also maps actionable next steps to address them promptly, empowering teams to prioritize and remediate threats effectively.
Figure 7. Automated Pentesting and Attack Path Mapping to Achieve an Attacker’s Objective
The benefits of utilizing Picus Attack Path Validation (APV) are outlined below. If you prefer to dive straight into the case study, feel free to skip this brief section and proceed to the next title.
In addition, when combined with Picus Breach and Attack Simulation security teams can benefit from a comprehensive approach to Adversarial Exposure Validation, as they work to improve their security posture.
In the previous section, we explored the capabilities of Picus APV and walked through a step-by-step case study of running a simulation with the platform. Now, let’s hear directly from one of our customers about how Picus APV has transformed their security operations.
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“PICUS APV has been instrumental in elevating our proactive defense capabilities, particularly through its automated pentesting features. Its capabilities allow us to identify gaps swiftly and enhance our cybersecurity posture in real-time. Additionally, the platform's ability to adapt to specific client requirements has been a determining factor in meeting our unique security needs. We've seen a significant improvement in our overall threat readiness, making PICUS APV a key component of our cyber resilience strategy.” - Andrea Licciardi |
This testimonial underscores the real-world value Picus APV delivers to organizations, helping them stay ahead of evolving threats while strengthening their security posture through automation and adaptability.
For Picus Attack Path Validation (APV), our pricing is based on the number of hosts in the environment. This means that as the size of the environment increases, the number of host licenses required, and consequently the cost, also increases.
However, we understand that some clients may prefer to start with a smaller scope to evaluate the solution. In such cases, we offer the flexibility to initiate the APV process by selecting a limited number of hosts randomly. This approach allows the client to experience the solution's capabilities without committing to a full-scale deployment upfront.
To get a better understanding, click here to get a demo.
Picus Attack Path Validation mimics real attacker behavior to uncover your most critical paths to crown-jewel assets like Domain Admin accounts. This red team emulation shows how credentials are stolen, cracked, and used to escalate privileges, step by step. In just minutes, security teams gain actionable visibility into where attackers could succeed and where to focus their defenses.