Trust Bank Breach: High Stakes in Red Team Simulation

In every breach, there’s a story. And behind every story, there’s a flaw waiting to be found.

Within the digital walls of Trust Bank, everything seemed routine until it wasn’t. Tasked with executing a sanctioned red team operation, our goal was to emulate a financially motivated Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) targeting a mid-sized financial institution. The mission was clear: infiltrate Trust Bank’s internal network, gain access to the Branch Manager’s mailbox, and exfiltrate sensitive financial records all without tripping a single alarm.

In this article, we’ll walk through the operation step-by-step from initial access to lateral movement and final exfiltration highlighting the techniques used, challenges faced, and the subtle vulnerabilities that paved the way.

The Mission Blueprint

• Primary Objective: Access the Branch Manager's email account without authorization

• Secondary Objective: Extract customer PII, transaction logs, and internal communications stealthily

• Target Environment: Trust Bank’s internal network.

• Attack Style: A prolonged, low-noise intrusion inspired by FIN7 and Carbanak

APT Attack Flow: Inside the Trust Bank Red Team Simulation

Phase 1: Breaching the First Line – Initial Access

Every breach starts with reconnaissance. We began by scanning the internal IP range of Trust Bank, carefully mapping the attack surface. That’s when we stumbled upon a legacy web interface, an admin panel for an internal application still protected by default credentials.

It was a classic oversight. And once we were in, the panel offered more than just settings. It had built-in command execution features.

That was our golden ticket. Without dropping any malware or custom binaries, we executed system-level commands directly through the web interface clean, quiet, and completely invisible to the bank’s EDR systems.

Tactic Used: T1190 – Exploit Public-Facing Application

Phase 2: Elevating Privileges – Privilege Escalation

With initial access secured, we turned our focus to privilege escalation.

During host enumeration, we discovered a cronjob running a script named backup.sh, owned by root. The kicker? The script had world-writable permissions and a textbook misconfiguration.

We injected our payload into the script and the next time the cronjob ran, it executed our code with root privileges.

No kernel exploits. No privilege escalation tools.Just pure abuse of a simple operational mistake.

Tactic Used: T1068 – Exploitation for Privilege Escalation

Phase 3: Traversing the Network – Lateral Movement

With root access on our first host, we had full visibility and we knew the next target was the internal mail server.

While scanning the system, we noticed something interesting: a shared SSH key was being used across multiple machines. It showed up in configuration files, logs, and even in memory.

Credential reuse an adversary’s best friend.

Using the key, we hopped into the mail server without resistance. No brute-forcing, no spraying just walking through an open door .

Inside, we navigated to the Branch Manager’s mailbox. The contents? Unencrypted emails, customer financial records and internal communications all ready for the taking.

Tactic Used: T1550.004 – Credential Reuse via SSH

Phase 4: Leaving with the Loot – Data Exfiltration

Getting the data was one thing. Getting it out undetected was another.

To evade DLP systems and avoid triggering alerts, we encrypted the data, compressed it, and exfiltrated it over HTTPS blending it with regular web traffic. As a backup channel, we also prepared DNS tunneling, in case our primary route was blocked or monitored.

There were no alarms. Just another secure-looking HTTPS session among thousands.

Tactic Used: T1048 – Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol T1071 – Application Layer Protocol

Post-Incident Analysis

• Default credentials on internal applications remain a critical entry vector.

• Privilege escalation resulted from script mismanagement not complex vulnerabilities.

• Lateral movement was enabled by poor key hygiene and insufficient segmentation.

• Mailbox contents, including sensitive memos and PII, were stored in plaintext.

• Encrypted exfiltration channels blended with normal network traffic.

Recommendations Moving Forward

• Enforce MFA on internal and email services.

• Audit and eliminate default or weak credentials.

• Enforce SSH key rotation policies and isolate access per user.

• Monitor application-layer traffic for exfiltration patterns.

Encrypt and secure sensitive internal communication.

Lessons from the Simulation

This red team engagement highlighted a familiar truth: advanced exploits aren’t always necessary when basic security controls are overlooked.

Default credentials, insecure scripts, and credential reuse enabled full compromise without triggering a single alert.

The key lesson for defenders: strengthen foundational security. Effective defense starts with fixing what’s already known, not chasing what’s rare.

Trust Bank was fortunate this breach was simulated. The next one might not be.

Ready to Think Like an Attacker?

At Infinity Playground, we train you to spot and exploit real-world misconfigurations. This challenge simulates actual APT behavior from log enumeration to privilege escalation.

LINK : Trust Bank Breach: High Stakes in Red Team Simulation — Break in Before They Lock You Out!

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