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Semiconductor Manufacturing

Eliminating Security Red Flags of a Semiconductor Manufacturing Company

A semiconductor manufacturer, sister company to one of our longest-standing clients, brought us in to red team its entire infrastructure, its web, network, servers, cloud, and its people. We chained a SQL injection, an arbitrary file upload, an SMTP open relay, and a successful phishing campaign into full internal network and email compromise.

Red Team Assessment

At a glance

INDUSTRY

Semiconductor Manufacturing

CLIENT PROFILE

A semiconductor manufacturer, sister concern of one of Payatu's long- standing returning clients

SERVICES

Red Team Assessment

ENGAGEMENT

Full-infrastructure red team assessment covering web, network, servers, cloud, and social engineering

Key Takeaways

Client – A semiconductor manufacturer and sister company of one of Payatu's long-standing, returning clients.

Problem – The client wanted a red team assessment of its full infrastructure, web applications, network, servers, cloud assets, and its employees, to understand real-world gaps before an attacker found them.

What Payatu did – We simulated a real adversary by enumerating the internal network, compromising an internal server, phishing employees, exploiting web vulnerabilities, and escalating to a database server holding user information.

Outcome – We identified 8 exploitable issues, from SQL injection and an SMTP open relay to privilege escalation and MFA-bypassing phishing, and the client came away with a clear view of its posture and signed on for recurring red team assessments.

the challenge

Why the client called us in

Our client, a semiconductor manufacturer connected to one of our most trusted returning customers, wanted an honest, adversarial test of its infrastructure rather than a checklist audit. Leadership wanted the gaps across its web applications, network, servers, cloud assets, and its own employees identified and prioritized before an outside attacker found them first. That meant testing not just systems but people, since social engineering is often the easiest way in.

Identify and exploit real gaps across web, network, server, and cloud assets
Test employees against phishing and other social engineering attacks
Get a prioritized, actionable list of fixes rather than a generic checklist

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scope of engagement

What was in scope

Web servers and applications
Mobile application
Network
Servers
Cloud assets
Social engineering attacks (phishing, impersonation) against employees

Our Approach

How Payatu ran the engagement

01

Reconnaissance and Network Enumeration

Enumerated the client's internal network to map out targets.

02

Internal Compromise

Compromised an internal server and exploited identified web vulnerabilities to gain a foothold.

03

Phishing and Email Access

Sent phishing emails to the client's SMTP server, then logged into employee email accounts and internal portals with the credentials obtained.

04

Lateral Movement and Data Access

Compromised a database server containing user information and accessed employee credentials and active sessions.

05

Persistence and Social Engineering

Ran malware email campaigns to deliver infected links and used social engineering to identify the VPN used to reach the client's servers.

Key findings

What we found

Web Application Security

SQL injection exposed the organization's user data, and a separate arbitrary file upload flaw let the team upload a PHP web shell and run code on the server.

Host Exploitation

A host-level flaw let the team escalate from an initial foothold to root access.

Social Engineering

Phished credentials were used to log into the client's Microsoft O365 environment, bypassing multi-factor authentication.

the outcome

Results and Impact

The assessment gave the client's SOC team an adversary's-eye view of its external attack surface, from SQL injection and open mail relays to phishing resilience, and a prioritized set of fixes to close each gap. The client valued the findings enough to move from a one-off engagement to a standing red team relationship with Payatu.

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