VMware vSphere Penetration Testing
Whoever controls vCenter controls every server you run. Ransomware crews worked this out years ago, which is why ESXi hosts are now a primary target rather than an afterthought. CREST-certified testers, fixed price from £3,470, scoped in 24 hours.
- Unlimited retesting
- No rescheduling or cancellation fees
- Fixed quote within 24 hours
“I would highly recommend EJN Labs to any organisation seeking reliable, detailed, and well-managed penetration testing services, particularly for government or enterprise-level projects.”
Imran SaghirProject Lead, SquareOne“There wasn’t another company we could find that could deliver what we needed in the timeframe we needed. The client loved it, and we got instant ROI from the engagement.”
Dan WilcocksonCo-Founder, CelloriEncrypting a hundred virtual machines individually is slow and noisy. Encrypting their datastores from the hypervisor is fast and quiet, which is why attacker tooling now targets ESXi directly and why vCenter compromise is treated as estate compromise.
Why the hypervisor is the ransomware target
vCenter and ESXi have also carried a series of critical, actively exploited vulnerabilities, several reachable without authentication. Version currency therefore matters more here than almost anywhere else, and management interfaces are frequently reachable from user networks because that was convenient.
The third thread is permissions. vSphere roles are granular and rarely reviewed, and a service account with more privilege than its integration requires, or an old administrator account still active, converts a small compromise into a large one.
ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS and Cyber Essentials Plus audits accept manual penetration test evidence. Scan-only evidence is generally insufficient.
vCENTER, ESXi + SEGREGATION
What we actually pen test on a vSphere estate
Manual pen testing across vCenter and ESXi exposure, known exploited vulnerabilities, roles and permissions, management network segregation and backup integration.
vCenter and ESXi exposure
What is reachable from user networks and from the internet, management interface separation, SSH and shell access on hosts, and service and port exposure on both vCenter and ESXi.
Known exploited vulnerabilities
vCenter and ESXi build numbers established and matched against known exploited vulnerabilities, with manual verification of anything reachable in your configuration.
Roles, permissions and accounts
Role assignment and inheritance across the inventory, service accounts and their privilege, local host accounts, SSO configuration and identity source trust, and dormant administrator accounts.
Management network segregation
Whether the management network is genuinely separated from user and server VLANs, vMotion and storage network exposure, and whether a compromised guest can reach the management plane.
Guest and datastore boundaries
Whether a guest virtual machine can reach the host or the datastore, VM tools and console access controls, snapshot and template handling, and encryption at rest where used.
Backup and integration accounts
Backup product integration accounts and their privilege, whether backups are reachable and deletable from the same credential that manages the estate, and monitoring integration access.
METHODOLOGY
VMware vSphere Penetration Testing: From Scope to Attestation
CREST-aligned methodology built on OWASP Web Security Testing Guide, OWASP ASVS, NIST SP 800-115, and PTES. Each finding maps to all four standards plus your specific compliance regime.
Reconnaissance
Application mapping, technology fingerprinting, content discovery, parameter enumeration, authentication-flow analysis, role-matrix construction.
Vulnerability Assessment
Authenticated and unauthenticated automated scanning across every user role, plus targeted manual checks for known weakness patterns.
Manual Exploitation
Hands-on testing by a CREST-certified pentester. Business-logic exploitation, chained vulnerabilities, privilege escalation, impact validation.
Reporting + Retest
Executive summary, technical report with CVSS scores and reproduction steps, walkthrough call, free retest after remediation, attestation letter.
CREDENTIALS
Verified Accreditations Auditors Accept
Every credential below is independently verifiable. UK procurement teams, FCA supervisors, ISO 27001 / SOC 2 auditors, and cyber insurance underwriters all recognise these standards.
GET YOUR QUOTE
Get a CREST VMware pen test quote in 24 hours
A fixed-price quote back in one business day, from a named CREST assessor. No sales pipeline, no chasing.
- CREST and IASME accredited. Testing your auditors and clients already recognise.
- Fast-track testing within 24 hours where required. Free retest of every fix included.
- Live findings via your client portal, not a four-week PDF.
- Fixed price from £3,500 for a single-role, single-app scope, agreed up front. Most engagements run £5,000 and up. No day-rate surprises.
Dan WilcocksonCo-Founder, CelloriUnder NDA Further named references available on a scoping call.
- We reply within one business day with a fixed-price quote from a named CREST assessor.
- You approve the scope and we book a start date, usually within 24 hours.
- Live findings land in your client portal as we test, with a free retest of every fix.
Get your fixed pen test quote in 24 hours
Quote request received
We will reply within one business day with your fixed-price quote from a named CREST assessor.
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COMPLIANCE READY
Reports Mapped to Every Framework
Findings are explicitly tagged to the relevant control reference. Your audit team submits the report directly without translation work.
ISO 27001:2022
Annex A.8.8 management of technical vulnerabilities plus A.5.15-5.18 and A.8.2-8.5 access control validation.
SOC 2 Type I & II
CC6 logical access, CC7 system operations, CC8 change management evidence.
PCI DSS
Requirement 11.4 application penetration testing across cardholder data environments, including ecommerce penetration testing for online retail platforms.
FCA SYSC
SYSC 4.1.1R, 6.1.1R, 13 mapped to each finding for FCA-regulated firms.
UK GDPR
Article 32 effectiveness testing, customer-data security controls, ICO-acceptable evidence.
Cyber Essentials Plus
Direct certification through our IASME body status, single-vendor delivery.
PRICING
Transparent VMware vSphere Penetration Testing Pricing
Pricing depends on app complexity, user-role count, business-logic depth, and integration surface. The day count flexes; the included deliverables stay the same across all engagements.
3 to 4 testing days
Single user role, basic CRUD application, marketing website with auth. Around 5 working days from kickoff to report.
Get a fixed quote4 to 6 testing days
Multi-role SaaS, business application with payment integration. Around 8 to 12 working days from kickoff to report.
Get a fixed quote6 to 8 testing days
Multi-tenant platform, complex authorisation matrix, integration-heavy applications. Around 15 to 20 working days from kickoff to report.
Get a fixed quotePart of Technologies We Pen Test. These are examples of the stacks we publish pages for, not a complete list. If yours is not here we still test it. Related pages:
BY SECTOR
VMware vSphere Penetration Testing for Your Sector
Sector-specialist scoping for UK businesses with sector-specific compliance regimes and threat models.
Fintech & FCA-Regulated
FCA SYSC, Open Banking FAPI 1.0, PSD2 SCA, payment-flow scrutiny, KYC/AML testing.
Fintech sector pageSaaS Companies
SOC 2 Type I & II evidence, multi-tenant boundaries, role escalation, customer-tenant isolation.
SaaS sector pageLaw Firms
SRA Cyber Standard, privileged data, conveyancing fraud defence, partner-tier procurement.
Law firm sector pageHealthcare
NHS DTAC, DSP Toolkit v6, UK GDPR Article 32, EHR systems, telehealth platforms.
Healthcare sector pageInsurance
FCA / PRA Operational Resilience, cyber underwriting, claims data, broker portals.
Insurance sector pagePublic Sector
CCS / G-Cloud framework, NCSC-aligned, citizen-facing services, PSN-compliance scrutiny.
Public sector pageWHY EJN LABS
What You Get From VMware vSphere Penetration Testing
Six concrete differentiators competitors don’t all match.
CREST-Certified Testers, Verifiable
Every test by a CREST-certified pen tester (CRT, CCT APP, CCT INF where applicable). Verify our company status at crest-approved.org.
24-Hour Startup, Where Required
From signed scope to active testing in a single business day for incident response, audit deadlines, or regulator-driven timelines.
Live Findings, Not 4-Week PDFs
Critical issues reported during testing through your client portal. Your team remediates while testing continues.
Audit-Ready Reports
Executive summary plus full technical report with CVSS scores and explicit framework mappings (ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS, FCA SYSC).
Free Retests, Standard
Verify remediation of every finding before close-out. Letter of attestation for audit submission included. Most competitors charge £1,500-£3,000 per retest.
UK-Based CREST Testers
Every engagement performed by vetted, UK-based CREST-certified testers, matched to your needs, security clearance, and compliance scope.
FAQ
Frequently Asked
Will testing affect running workloads?
No. We do not power off, snapshot, migrate or modify virtual machines. Testing establishes reachability, version and permission, none of which requires touching a workload.
Do you need administrator access?
We want to test from an unprivileged network position first, which is the realistic attacker view. Read-only vCenter access afterwards makes the permission review far more thorough, and we ask for it separately.
Is Veeam or our backup platform included?
We check the integration account privilege as part of this. Full testing of the backup platform itself is a separate scope we can price alongside, and it is worth doing because backup compromise and hypervisor compromise are the same attack.
What about Hyper-V or Proxmox?
Hyper-V has its own page. Proxmox and other hypervisors we test on the same basis and can scope on request, so tell us what you run.
Does this help with Cyber Essentials or ISO 27001?
Directly. Findings are mapped to both, and to the CIS VMware benchmark where relevant, with evidence written for an auditor.
20+ CREST-accredited testing services in one place
Web, mobile, API, cloud, AI, infrastructure, red team. Pick the test that fits your environment.
Get a fixed price for your vSphere estate
Tell us roughly how many hosts and vCenter instances, and whether internal testing from a user network position is in scope. Fixed-price quote within one business day.
