Red Teaming, it the truest sense of it, it’s not static, like a good adversary, you have to adapt each time and remain fluid. Over the years, many people have tried, unsuccessfully, to create frameworks and checklists to “red team it”. But, as we’ve seen with pentesting, once you go this route, you become predictable. This is something a Red Teamer should avoid at all costs. Once you become predictable, you are no longer providing the right level of disruption that Red Teaming should bring to the world.
Once you follow a checklist, you are no longer mimicking attackers, you are just following and creating patterns. And patterns will make you fail. This doesn’t mean we, as Red Teamers, shouldn’t have a playbook, and use it to win. No. In fact, the more we can pre-game the game, the better we will perform, and the more successful we will be.
This is the reason behind the Four Elements of Red Teaming.