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AI-Driven Black Box Active Directory Penetration Testing
Fully Automated AD Discovery and Exploitation with Cursor AI and HexStrike-ai MCP. From IP to Full dump.
Abstract
This article documents a groundbreaking black box penetration test orchestrated entirely by Cursor AI (an advanced AI coding assistant) integrated with HexStrike-ai MCP (Model Context Protocol) tools. Unlike traditional manual or scripted penetration tests, this assessment demonstrates how artificial intelligence can autonomously discover, analyze, and exploit an unknown target environment, making real-time decisions and self-correcting when encountering issues.
Critical Context: This was a true black box assessment — the only information provided was a single IP address (192.168.56.10). Cursor AI had no prior knowledge of:
- Whether the target was a Domain Controller
- If Active Directory was present
- What services were running
- What operating system was in use
- Any credentials or domain information
The entire penetration test was initiated with a single human language prompt and executed completely autonomously, with Cursor AI discovering the environment…
