Mastering Advanced Red Teaming with CRTS V2: From Initial Access to Domain Dominance

The Certified Red Team Specialist (CRTS) V2 is an advanced and updated training course by CyberWarFare Labs. It’s designed to reflect real-world adversary techniques and modern red teaming tradecraft. During the webinar, they introduced the new syllabus, lab infrastructure, and explained how the course focuses on stealthy, goal-oriented red team operations.

Key Technical Areas Covered#

1. Initial Access#

Techniques like phishing with Office macros, OneNote payloads, HTA, ISO, and LNK files.
Exploiting browser vulnerabilities and abusing trusted file types.

2. Persistence#

Using Registry Run keys, WMI events, and Scheduled Tasks.
DLL side-loading, AppInit_DLLs abuse, and COM Hijacking.

3. Command & Control (C2)#

C2 tools include: SharpC2, Mythic, Covenant, and Sliver.
Techniques: DNS-over-HTTPS, domain fronting, and AES-encrypted payloads.

4. Defense Evasion#

AMSI bypass using patching and reflection.
ETW patching, in-memory payload execution, and abusing LOLBins.
Signature mismatches and timestomping techniques.

5. Privilege Escalation#

Token impersonation, exploiting unquoted service paths.
Dumping credentials using LSASS, comsvcs.dll, and tools like Mimikatz.

6. Lateral Movement#

Techniques like SMB Relay, PsExec, WinRM, and WMIExec.
Kerberos attacks: Pass-the-Ticket (PTT), AS-REP Roasting, and Kerberoasting.

7. Infrastructure Setup#

Building redirectors using NGINX or Caddy.
Deploying secure TLS/SSL C2 servers on platforms like DigitalOcean, AWS, and Vultr.

8. Active Directory Attacks#

Using tools like BloodHound and Rubeus.
Performing ACL abuse, Golden and Silver Ticket attacks, and GPO abuse using SharpGPOAbuse.

Lab Environment#

Fully simulated enterprise Active Directory network.
Red team scenarios built for stealth and realism.
Includes blue team detections (AV, EDR, Sysmon) to improve evasion techniques.

What You’ll Learn#

How to plan and carry out full red team operations.
Develop custom malware and build secure C2 infrastructure.
Evade detection by AV/EDR/AMSI systems.
Emulate real-world adversary behavior using MITRE ATT&CK mapping.

Who This Course is For#

Red Teamers looking for realistic simulations.
Security consultants involved in threat emulation.
Offensive security professionals wanting to upskill in stealth operations.

💬 If you’re ready to move beyond just using tools and start thinking like a real adversary – CRTS V2 is for you.

Tools Used in the Course#

Cobalt Strike
Mythic
BloodHound
Impacket
Mimikatz
SharpHound
Seatbelt
Rubeus
PowerView
PEASS-ng / WinPEAS
Sliver
Donut
Empire