Active Directory penetration testing in Chennai
Chennai's manufacturers, banks and IT exporters run Active Directory across head offices, plants and branches, often with domains inherited from acquisitions. BERRY9 maps the paths from an ordinary account to domain administrator, remotely from Hyderabad, our only office, and shows each step so your team can break the chain.
- Typical duration
- 5 to 10 working days
- Testing
- Manual, by engineers
- Report
- Executive + engineering
- Delivery
- Remote from Hyderabad, visits by arrangement
Last reviewed
01 / Local need
Why Chennai companies test Active Directory
Many sites and many years leave a directory with many exceptions.
A manufacturing group with several plants and a head office has often grown by acquisition, so its directory holds domains and trusts that were merged in a hurry. A bank has branch domains and service accounts for core systems, some with passwords older than the staff who manage them. An IT exporter keeps project accounts for clients long after the work ends. None of this is unusual, and all of it is what an intruder with a stolen password looks for first.
Plan for the directory to change while you test. Plants add accounts for new shifts and contractors, and acquisitions bring new domains, so we record which version of the directory each finding was seen in. That makes the retest meaningful: a path is closed only if it stays closed after the next batch of changes, which is why many Chennai groups retest a few months later as well as straight after the fixes. Our service page on Active Directory penetration testing explains the approach; for Chennai buyers, see VAPT services in Chennai.
02 / Scope
Directory estates we test most often in Chennai
Six kinds of environment make up most of the Active Directory work we scope for the city.
Groups with plants and acquisitions
Domains and trusts left from acquisitions. We map every trust, test what crosses it and find the administrators nobody remembers.
Plant and branch domains
Separate domains for plants or branches. We test whether a plant account can climb to the head office and whether the head office reaches plant servers more than it should.
Service accounts for core systems
Accounts that run banking, ERP and billing systems. We test how they are protected, which rights they hold and whether their tickets can be cracked offline.
IT exporters' project accounts
Accounts for clients and finished projects. We test which stale ones still work and what they can reach, and how contractors are removed.
Administrators doing everyday work
Domain-level accounts used for routine email and browsing. We check where privileged sessions happen and what an infected laptop would expose.
Directory logging and alerts
We keep a record of our actions and ask which your auditing noticed, because detection is part of the same chain.
03 / From our guide
From our guide: why the directory is the target, and certificate services
Two questions come up in most Chennai scoping calls: why Active Directory, and what certificate services have to do with it. This is how our guide answers them.
Why Active Directory is still the target
A domain controller holds every account, every group and the keys that prove who a user is. An attacker who reaches it can read email, open file servers, reset passwords and disable security tools. CrowdStrike's 2026 Global Threat Report puts the average time between initial access and lateral movement for criminal groups at 29 minutes, so the path from a first foothold to administrator access has to be short for defenders to stop it.
Active Directory Certificate Services
Many organizations run a certificate authority and forget it. Certificate templates that allow a requester to name any subject, weak permissions on templates or the authority itself, and enrollment endpoints that accept relayed authentication have all led to domain compromise. A certificate also stays valid after a password reset, so a stolen one can outlast a clean-up. Testers check templates, enrollment permissions and the authority's own settings, and the fix is usually configuration, not software.
Certificate services are tested only where you run them, and the report says so plainly when you do not. The other attack paths and the hardening list are in our complete Active Directory guide.
04 / What we find
Patterns we keep seeing in Chennai directories
Multi-plant groups and banks have recurring patterns of their own.
Show details for Patterns we keep seeing in Chennai directories
- Trusts nobody documented. A two-way trust to a domain acquired years ago that lets that domain's accounts reach head-office servers.
- Plant administrators with head-office rights. A local IT account added to a powerful group to simplify support, and never removed.
- Core-system accounts with old passwords. Service logins whose password dates from the system's installation.
- Shared accounts on shop-floor machines. Generic logins that cannot be traced to a person and that never expire.
- Accounts of people who left. Exporters' and contractors' logins from finished projects that still authenticate.
- Weak segmentation of domain controllers. Controllers reachable from every plant LAN on every management port.
The report separates quick fixes, such as removing stale accounts, from structural ones, such as redesigning trusts, so the team can start the first group the same week. Findings that need a decision from plant management, such as retiring a shared shop-floor login, are flagged separately with the operational reason, so the discussion can happen before the change, not after a line stops.
Groups with several plants often fix the head office first and the plants never, because the plants run to a different schedule. The report therefore lists the fixes plant by plant, so each plant's IT lead sees only what applies to their site, and the group can track closure across all of them.
05 / Rules and customers
What drives Active Directory testing for Chennai companies
Audits, regulators and large customers each look at identity.
Show details for What drives Active Directory testing for Chennai companies
Auditors working with ISO 27001 ask how privileged access is controlled and tested. A bank or a firm serving one follows the directions of its regulator, which decide what testing is expected, and large customers of manufacturers ask suppliers about identity controls in their security reviews. Where card data is reachable through the directory, PCI DSS is relevant too.
Palo Alto Networks' 2026 incident response research traced identity weaknesses to nearly nine in ten of the cases it handled; our 2026 threats article lists what to test first.
06 / How it runs
How a directory test fits a Chennai multi-plant estate
The starting position is arranged once, and everything after is done remotely.
Show details for How a directory test fits a Chennai multi-plant estate
Before day 1
Scope and starting point
We list the domains, trusts and sites, agree what stays off limits and decide whether to begin from a VPN login or from a device a colleague connects at the head office.
Day 1
Account and safeguards
You set up a basic user account and let our testing addresses through. We decide beforehand what may be done with administrator rights if we reach them, and how to show that without using it.
Days 2 to 7
Mapping and chaining
We map accounts, groups, trusts and permissions across sites, then link the weak points into a route toward domain administrator and phone you when something serious appears.
OutputEach attack path, step by step, with proof
07 / Questions to ask
What a multi-site group should ask a directory tester
Groups with many sites and acquisitions should put these to any tester.
Show details for What a multi-site group should ask a directory tester
- Will you map every trust, including ones we do not know about?
- How will you test whether a plant account can climb to the head office?
- Will you check which old project and contractor accounts still work?
- What will you do with administrator rights if you reach them, and what is off limits?
- Will the report separate quick fixes from structural changes?
08 / Delivery
Delivery of directory tests for Chennai groups
Where the work happens
Testing is run from our office in Yellareddyguda, Hyderabad, which is our only office. Outside Hyderabad nothing about these tests needs us in your building; if a customer or a site rule asks for someone present, we come by arrangement and write the travel cost into the proposal.
What you receive
One report is written for management, customers and auditors, and a second, more technical one for the engineers who make the fixes. A walkthrough call covers both, and after your fixes we retest and mark each finding closed or open. Every inquiry gets a reply: we respond within 24 hours.
How to prepare
Test accounts, a staging address, our testing addresses allowed through your firewall and a named contact are what we ask for. The preparation article explains each item, and the one-page checklist (PDF) is a printable version.
09 / Price
Budgeting directory testing in Chennai
Directory testing is outside the small-scope band and begins from INR 27,000 + 18% GST, moving with domains, sites and estate size. It is often scoped together with an internal network test in one proposal. The VAPT cost guide explains the factors.
The starting price for small scopes includes one free retest. For larger scopes, the retest terms are written into the proposal before work starts.
10 / FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Short answers about scope, price and how testing works. For anything else, call +91 86868 92922.
Can you test domains and trusts left over from acquisitions?
Yes. We map every trust, test what can cross it and find the old administrators and accounts, with your permission for each domain. See the section on Directory estates we test most often in Chennai above.
Do you test plant and branch domains separately?
Yes. We test whether a plant or branch account can climb to the head office and whether the head office reaches plant servers more than it should. See the section on Directory estates we test most often in Chennai above.
Will anyone have to visit our Chennai site?
Rarely. We can begin from a VPN login, or from a device that someone on your team connects. See the section on How a directory test fits a Chennai multi-plant estate above.
Will you change anything in our directory?
Changes are avoided. If proving a path needs one, it is agreed in advance, recorded and undone, and live data stays untouched. See the section on What a multi-site group should ask a directory tester above.
Do you test certificate services?
Yes, if you run a certificate authority: we review its templates, who may enroll and how the authority itself is set up, since mistakes there have led to full domain takeover. See the section on From our guide: why the directory is the target, and certificate services above.
What should we budget?
Budget from INR 27,000 + 18% GST, rising with domains, sites and estate size. See the section on Budgeting directory testing in Chennai above.
Plan your next security test
Tell us what needs testing and when you need it done, and we will propose a scope and timeline. We respond within 24 hours. If you would rather talk first, call or write to us.
- +91 86868 92922
- contact@berry9.com
- H.No: 8-3-945/A/12 & 13, Sri Venkata Sai Nest Apartments, Nagarjuna Nagar Colony, Yellareddyguda, Hyderabad 500073, Telangana