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Penetration testing
External penetration testing

External penetration testing that finds what you forgot you expose

We map your whole internet-facing footprint, then show which exposed services, leaked credentials and misconfigurations an outside attacker can actually use.

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What an external test covers

01 · What we test

Everything an outsider can reach

An external test starts where an attacker starts: with your public footprint. We find what you expose — including what you forgot about — and what it lets an attacker do.

Attack-surface discovery

Domains, subdomains, cloud buckets, forgotten hosts and shadow IT

Internet-facing services

Web apps, VPNs, mail, remote access and exposed admin panels

Credential exposure

Leaked and breached credentials, and whether they still work

Perimeter configuration

Missing patches, weak TLS, default credentials and dangerous defaults

Discover your attack surface

02 · Why it matters

You can only defend what you know you expose

Most breaches start with something the organisation didn’t know was internet-facing. The first value of an external test is the inventory.

What you think

What we usually find

Exposed hosts

A handful of known servers

Forgotten staging sites, old VPN gateways and test boxes still online

Credentials

Rotated after the last breach

Breached passwords that still work on a remote-access portal

Admin interfaces

Behind the firewall

A management console reachable from the public internet

Cloud storage

Private by default

A misconfigured bucket serving internal documents

See what you expose

03 · A sample finding

What an external finding looks like

Redacted from a real engagement. Proof, impact and a fix for each issue.

Attack-surface inventoryA full map of what you expose, including the assets you didn’t know about.
Prioritised findingsRanked by what an attacker could actually reach, not by raw CVSS.
Free retestWe re-test fixed findings and attest to closure, included.

Want the full sample report? Ask for it in the form and we’ll send it.

EXT-02Sample finding · redacted

Breached credentials still valid on the VPN, no MFA

SeverityCritical

CVSS8.8

StandardOWASP A07

Evidence

VPN portal → login : → accepted
MFA prompt: none → internal network reached

Business impact

A password from a public breach gave direct access to the internal network, with no second factor to stop it.

Fix

Enforce multi-factor authentication on all remote access, block known-breached passwords at reset, and monitor VPN logins for impossible travel.

Confirmed with client permission on a test account.Retest: fixed

See what you’d get

Starting from€3,000

Priced on the size of your external footprint

An external penetration test starts here. Add internal testing to see what happens after an attacker gets in. See penetration testing pricing.

Get a fixed quote

05 · Questions

External penetration testing FAQ

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More in our guide to choosing an external testing provider.

What is external penetration testing?

It’s a test of everything your organisation exposes to the internet — websites, VPNs, mail, remote access and cloud services — carried out the way an external attacker would, with no inside access.

How is it different from a vulnerability scan?

A scan lists known issues on hosts you point it at. An external test first discovers what you actually expose, then validates by hand which issues an attacker can exploit and what they reach.

Do you need a list of our IP addresses?

It helps, but it’s not required. Attack-surface discovery is part of the test: give us your main domain and we’ll find the rest, then confirm the scope with you before testing.

How long does an external test take?

Usually about one to two weeks of testing depending on the size of your footprint, plus reporting. We agree the window once we’ve scoped the attack surface.

What do we get at the end?

A two-layer report: an attack-surface inventory, findings ranked by real-world impact, clear remediation steps, and a free retest of the fixes with an attestation letter.