Penetration Testing
Demand more than a list of vulnerabilities. Put your systems under realistic attack and get clear evidence of what an attacker could exploit, what it means for your business and what to fix first.
CovertSwarm named in the Gartner® Hype Cycle™ for Security Operations, 2026
THE PROBLEM WITH TRADITIONAL PEN TESTING
Don’t just test it. Prove it.
The most important question is simple: what could an attacker achieve in your business?
When a pen test becomes a checklist exercise, it rewards coverage over curiosity. Weaknesses are assessed in isolation. Business logic gets less attention. The report records the issues, but leaves your team to work out which ones could become a serious business problem.
A real attacker connects the dots. They combine weaknesses, adapt when a route closes and look for ways to turn access into impact. Your penetration test should bring that same intent to the systems in scope.
Meet the testing requirement. Demand more from the test.
Give your defenses a worthy adversary.
Spot Swarm brings CovertSwarm’s adversarial approach to a focused, one-off penetration testing engagement.
Within an agreed scope, our operators investigate your systems, challenge the assumptions behind your defenses and connect weaknesses to demonstrate real business impact.
Attack capabilities
AI & agentic systems
Put your AI’s guardrails under pressure. We target prompt injection, exposed tools and misplaced trust between agents to reveal where attackers could gain control, reach sensitive data or trigger unauthorized actions.
Network and infrastructure penetration testing
Give an intruder’s ambition to your network test. We attack routers, firewalls, servers and Active Directory, connecting weaknesses to expose routes to privileged access, sensitive systems and business disruption.
Cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure) penetration testing
Challenge the security behind your cloud settings. Across AWS, GCP and Azure, we investigate excessive permissions, exposed storage and weak workload boundaries to show how misconfigurations could become meaningful compromise.
Web and application penetration testing
Your applications deserve more than a checklist. We challenge authentication, access controls, APIs and business logic, pursuing the ways an attacker could manipulate workflows, reach protected data or abuse trusted functionality.
Mobile penetration testing
Put your iOS and Android apps in an adversary’s hands. We investigate local storage, API interactions and client-side controls to expose how attackers could manipulate the app and compromise the data it handles.
Build and configuration review
Make your hardening stand up to scrutiny. We examine build pipelines, server images and device configurations for insecure defaults, unnecessary services and gaps between your security standards and what’s actually deployed.
Turn attacker pressure into boardroom confidence.
What would an attacker target in your business? Talk to our team about what you need to protect and what you want to prove.
Together, we’ll define the objectives, scope and approach for your Spot Swarm penetration test.
Keep your defenses under constant pressure. Explore Constant Cyber Attack™
Don’t just test.
Attack.
Follow the weakness. Prove the impact.
A vulnerability is the starting point. We connect weaknesses and pursue attack paths within your agreed scope, showing what an attacker could reach, what’s at stake and where to act first.
Meet the requirement. Demand more.
A compliance requirement may trigger your test. It shouldn’t limit its ambition. We shape the engagement around your testing obligations and deliver evidence of exploitable risk, with clear remediation priorities.
Our team. Not a marketplace.
Your engagement is delivered by CovertSwarm’s own ethical hackers. They bring shared knowledge and experience from real-world adversarial engagements, applying that expertise to the systems and objectives that matter to you.
Human ingenuity. Machine precision.
Automation accelerates the groundwork. Our operators bring the judgment: challenging assumptions, connecting weaknesses and adapting when a route closes. Technology supports the attack. Human expertise drives it.
What a SPOT SWARM Finding Looks Like
Example: Active Directory Certificate Services (ESC8)
Critical
Finding
AD CS Web Enrollment was exposed over HTTP, enabling ESC8. CovertSwarm coerced the SQLService machine account via PetitPotam, relayed its NTLM authentication to the CA, and obtained a certificate for the account.
Impact
The certificate enabled PKINIT authentication as SQLService, granting local admin on the SQL Server host. From there, cached privileged domain credentials were extracted, escalating to full domain compromise.
Remediation
Disable AD CS Web Enrollment where unneeded and enforce HTTPS with EPA. Restrict NTLM, enforce SMB signing, and apply least privilege to certificate templates. Patch and harden exposed RPC services on all servers, and keep privileged credentials off reachable hosts.
Board impact
A single misconfigured certificate service let an attacker impersonate a server account and seize full control of the Windows domain, the system underpinning every employee login, file access, and data protection control.
Technical impact
The attack chain combined authentication coercion (PetitPotam), NTLM relay to AD CS Web Enrollment (ESC8), and PKINIT-based Kerberos authentication, escalating from network access to full domain compromise via cached credential extraction.
Want the full picture?
The full range of offensive security the Swarm runs: every discipline, how they connect, and what each one tests.
No form fill required.
How it works
Your penetration test starts with clear objectives and an agreed scope, focused on the systems you need to assess and the risks you need to understand.
We agree access, timing and safety controls before testing, then turn validated findings into evidence and practical remediation priorities.
1
Define
Agree the systems in scope, testing objectives, access, timeframe and rules of engagement, including safeguards and escalation contacts.
2
Research and plan
Explore the agreed environment, identify potential weaknesses and plan realistic attack paths against the systems in scope.
3
Execute the attack
Validate exploitable weaknesses and connect them where relevant to demonstrate impact, working within the agreed scope and safety controls.
4
Debrief
Explain what was tested, what was proven and what needs fixing. Deliver clear evidence, business impact and prioritized remediation guidance. Agree any follow-up or retesting separately.
PRICING
Looking for something unique or specialized?
From $2,395 per day
Per engagement, custom-scoped
Custom scope
Personalized reporting
CovertSwarm portal access
Regulatory-aligned testing
What affects your quote
- Attack-surface size: we flex the quote to your applications and endpoints
- Environments & locations: single environment or multiple sites or regions.
- Reporting depth: standard findings report through to board-level output
- Timeline & urgency: standard scheduling or an accelerated start
Constant Cyber Attack™
We become the threat. You get the proof.
You don’t outpace attackers by waiting for your next test. You do it by facing an adversary that thinks, acts and strikes like they do.
Constant Cyber Attack gives you a dedicated Swarm of ethical hackers, putting your whole organization under relentless offensive pressure across digital, physical and social vectors. One simple subscription. Clear proof of what’s exposed and what to fix.
Digital. Social. Physical.
Your Swarm attacks across digital, physical and social vectors, chaining weaknesses to prove what a real attacker could achieve.
Constant pressure.
Your Swarm keeps attacking as your business evolves, adapting to changing systems, people and risks. Constant pressure, not a one-off test.
One simple subscription.
One subscription is all you need. Combine continuous offensive security, penetration testing, red teaming, bug bounty and more in one simple subscription.
Sharper, battle-tested SOC
Improve detection times
Fewer false positives
Prove ROI of security tooling
Frequently Asked Questions
Penetration testing is a controlled, approved attack on your systems by ethical hackers, carried out to find and exploit weaknesses before a real attacker does. A good pen test goes beyond listing vulnerabilities. It shows what an attacker could achieve by combining them, what that means for your business and what to fix first.
A vulnerability scan is automated. It checks your systems against known issues and produces a list of potential weaknesses. A penetration test is carried out by people, who confirm which weaknesses are real, chain them together and test business logic that scanners miss. The result is evidence of what an attacker could actually do, not just what might be exposed.
Most penetration tests take from a few days to a few weeks of active testing, depending on the number and complexity of systems in scope. Planning, access setup and reporting add time either side. CovertSwarm agrees dates and timing with you before testing begins.
SOC 2 doesn’t explicitly require a penetration test, but many auditors expect one as evidence that your controls work, and enterprise customers often ask for it during security reviews. A CovertSwarm pen test report gives you validated findings and remediation evidence you can share with your auditor and customers.
PCI DSS and NYDFS Part 500 both explicitly require regular penetration testing. Other frameworks, including HIPAA and ISO 27001, expect you to assess how well your security controls work, and a pen test is one of the most common ways to show it.
Spot Swarm is CovertSwarm’s one-off penetration testing service. It applies the same adversarial approach as our Constant Cyber Attack subscription to a focused, agreed scope. Our operators connect weaknesses to show real business impact, then turn validated findings into evidence and practical remediation priorities.
Looking for something specific?
Talk to us. We’d love to hear from you.
Stop testing.
Start knowing.
You’ll know exactly where you stand, and you’ll be able to prove it. To your board, your regulator, and yourself.
Transform to a proactive, continuous offensive security program
Your budget is aimed at the risk that matters, not the one you were handed
You show the board what security prevented, not a request for more
Security clears the way for the business to move faster
You enter the boardroom in command
It starts with a 30-minute Attack Discovery call.
No access to your systems required.