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Episode 175 – NetTools: The Free Active Directory Swiss Army Knife for IT Admins and Pen Testers

NetTools is one of those rare tools that replaces half your Active Directory toolkit.

In this episode, Spencer and Tyler walk through how they use NetTools during internal penetration tests to manage AD, uncover misconfigurations, and move faster without fighting EDR.

After years of relying on AD Explorer — and even manually obfuscating binaries to avoid detection — they switched to NetTools for a simpler, more flexible approach. No installation, no dependencies, and works even from non-domain-joined machines.
🔧 What you’ll see in this episode:
• Group Policy enumeration and permission analysis
• LDAP search and AD object exploration
• Assigned Trustees and Permissions Reporter
• Tracking changes and identifying risky configurations
• Targeted password validation without spraying

🌐 Tool: NetTools (free) — nettools.net
Created by Gary Reynolds

🎙️ Hosts: Spencer & Tyler Whether you’re a pentester or an IT admin responsible for Active Directory, this is a tool worth having in your workflow.