How to Pentest Your Own Network: A 7-Step Guide For IT Pros

Penetration testing, or “pentesting,” is the process of simulating a cyber-attack on your own network to identify weaknesses before malicious actors can exploit them. It’s an essential skill set for IT professionals to develop and an advantageous practice for anyone who manages IT infrastructure or handles sensitive data. Proactively testing your network’s defenses by learning how to pentest your own network or using third-party pentesting consulting firms will greatly reduce your network’s overall attack surface and ensure you find security gaps before a hacker does. That is why it’s one of our Top Cybersecurity Controls for 2025.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to pentest your own network. Let’s dive in!

Why Should You Pentest Your Own Network?

Before we explain how to pentest your own network, it is important to understand why you should pentest your network:

1. Identify Vulnerabilities Early: Pentesting your network will enable you to discover and identify security flaws and misconfigurations that may go undetected by proprietary or open-source vulnerability scanners. Watch our short video on the important differences between a vulnerability scan and a pentest.
2. Improve Your Security Posture and Protect Sensitive Data: Pentesting will enable you to find and fix weaknesses that could be exploited and used to exfiltrate your data.
3. Comply with Regulations: Many industries require regular security assessments and/or penetration tests to comply with data protection laws.
4. Simulate Real-world Attacks: Skilled pentesters can string together multiple small vulnerabilities to find security gaps automated scans miss. This provides a real-world simulation of how an attacker will likely approach your network so you can close any security gaps.

Whether you pentest your own network or outsource this function, pentesting is a critical cybersecurity control. So why should your IT professionals learn pentesting skills? Not only will they become a more valuable and knowledgeable asset to your organization’s vulnerability management program, but their expertise will also enable deeper, risk-based analysis of vulnerabilities—clarifying real-world impacts and the likelihood of exploitation.

Now that you understand why pentesting is essential, let’s look at how to get started.

How to Pentest Your Own Network

As we dive into how to pentest your own network, let’s quickly review the pros and cons. On the plus side, your internal team benefits from detailed knowledge about your network, its assets, history, and previously identified weaknesses. However, your team may overlook vulnerabilities due to internal biases, typically has less experience than third-party pentesters, and might miss vulnerabilities that hackers can easily exploit.

Step 1: Plan Your Pentest

Pentesting can be overwhelming without a clear strategy, so begin by defining the scope and objectives of your test. This includes:

• Scope: Which systems, devices, or networks will be tested? This could include your web servers, local networks, email systems, or even specific applications.
• Objectives: What are you trying to achieve with this test? Are you looking for vulnerabilities in your network perimeter, or your internal systems? Make sure to outline measurable goals, such as “test the external firewall” or “check for outdated software vulnerabilities.” This will define what you will be actively looking to assess during the engagement. For more advice, read our checklist for planning your annual pentest.

Step 2: Information Gathering

The first phase of a penetration test is known as reconnaissance or information gathering. This phase involves collecting as much information as possible about your network and systems to identify potential vulnerabilities. Some techniques used in this phase include:

• Network Scanning: Use tools like Nmap to scan your network for open ports and active devices. This will give you a map of your network and provide insight into the services running on each system.
• Domain and DNS Analysis: Look up domain names, IP addresses, and DNS records to understand the structure of your network and any potential weaknesses.
• Banner Grabbing: Some services display information about themselves in their banners. Tools like Netcat or Nmap can help you extract version numbers of software that could be outdated or vulnerable.
• Social Engineering: This involves interacting with employees or other network users to find information (though be careful, as this can go too far).

Tools you might use:

• Nmap
• Whois
• Shodan (check out our video on how to use Shodan to understand your attack surface)
• DNSDumpster

Step 3: Vulnerability Scanning

Once you have gathered enough information, the next step is to perform a vulnerability scan. Vulnerability scanners help you identify known weaknesses in the systems and applications on your network. Additionally, you may already have knowledge from your organization’s vulnerability management program, which can be leveraged to perform more isolated, targeted, and efficient scans. While savvy companies often use continuous vulnerability management tools, pentesters often rely on slightly different tools including:

• Nessus: A popular and comprehensive vulnerability scanner that can help identify security issues like missing patches or insecure configurations.
• OpenVAS: A free alternative to Nessus that scans for vulnerabilities and security misconfigurations.
• Qualys: Another well-known tool for scanning vulnerabilities, which includes cloud-based options.
• Nmap’s Scripting Engine (NSE): A free and comprehensive vulnerability scanner that contains 14 different script categories, like “Safe”, “Discovery”, or “Vulns”, that can target specific services or protocols.

During this phase, you’ll be looking for things like:

• Unpatched software or systems
• Weak/default passwords
• Misconfigured firewalls
• Unintentionally exposed/open ports
• Vulnerable third-party applications

Step 4: Exploitation

Once you’ve identified vulnerabilities, it’s time to test how an attacker might exploit them. This step is where you actively try to take advantage of the weaknesses you discovered to see what kind of access you can gain. This is where our guide on how to pentest your own network becomes more dangerously “hands-on,” and you should always be cautious not to cause any damage to your organization’s network or data.

Some tools you might use for this phase include:

• Metasploit: A powerful exploit framework that can automate the exploitation of various vulnerabilities.
• Hydra/Medusa: Two tools used for brute-forcing passwords, especially useful when you’re testing weak password policies.
• SQLMap: A tool that can automatically detect and exploit SQL injection vulnerabilities.

Important: Always ensure you have a backup before you attempt any exploitation, as this step could inadvertently disrupt your network!

Step 5: Post-Exploitation

If you successfully exploit a vulnerability, it’s time to perform post-exploitation (PE) activities. This phase involves assessing the depth of your access and exploring what sensitive data or systems could be compromised. It may also involve “pivoting,” which means using your current access point to move further into the network.

Important: Strictly adhere to the defined scope. Certain PE activities may be forbidden or may require a formal approval process before proceeding.

Key actions include:

• Privilege Escalation: Try to gain elevated permissions to access more sensitive areas of the network.
• Data Exfiltration: Test how easily data could be extracted or stolen.
• Lateral Movement: Attempt to traverse through the network using your initial access point.

Step 6: Reporting and Recommendations

After completing the pentest, it’s time to document your findings. While writing your report, it is critically important to keep the intended audience in mind and tailor it accordingly. A detailed report should include:

• Executive Summary: A high-level summary for your stakeholders, explaining the most critical issues found.
• Detailed Findings: A section outlining each vulnerability discovered, how it was exploited, and the potential impact.
• Recommendations: Provide actionable steps to address each vulnerability, such as patching software, tightening firewall configurations, or enforcing stronger password policies.

Be sure to classify each issue based on its severity and potential risk, so you can prioritize fixing the most critical problems first.

Step 7: Remediation and Retesting

The most important phase of any pentest is taking appropriate and timely remediation action. Address the vulnerabilities identified in your report and document all actions. After remediation, it’s crucial to retest the findings and validate that the fixes were applied correctly and that no new vulnerabilities were introduced.

Final Thoughts

Whether you perform your own penetration testing or bring in an expert, third-party penetration testing team, pentesting is a powerful method for identifying and fixing weaknesses in your network. It’s not just about discovering flaws but also about continuously improving the security of your digital infrastructure.

We hope you found this guide on how to pentest your own network helpful! Whether you’re a small business owner, IT professional, or just someone passionate about cybersecurity, pentesting should be a regular part of your network security routine. Please contact us if you’d like our expert pentest team to conduct testing for you. For formal training, check out our comprehensive Penetration Testing For IT Pros course designed to teach IT professionals the skills necessary to pentest their own networks.