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Justin Elze

CTO, Director of Research

EXPERIENCE
Justin Elze is currently serving as Chief Technology Officer at TrustedSec. Over his 8 years with the company as an InfoSec expert, Justin has used his vast expertise in enterprise penetration testing, network security, social engineering, and red teaming to identify clients’ vulnerabilities and ultimately, protect their technology infrastructure. Prior to becoming CTO, Justin held the roles of Director of Innovation, Research, and Advanced Testing and Principal Security Consultant for TrustedSec.

With more than a decade of experience in the IT industry, Justin’s expertise is increasingly sought out by others in the field. He has taught at Black Hat and spoken at DerbyCon, where he also served on the CFP Review Board, and is also featured as an industry leader in the published books Tribe of Hackers: Cybersecurity Advice from the Best Hackers in the World and Tribe of Hackers Red Team: Tribal Knowledge from the Best in Offensive Cybersecurity.

Prior to joining TrustedSec, Justin was a Senior Penetration Tester for Accuvant LABS, Optiv, Dell SecureWorks, and Redspin, where he led numerous red team engagements and penetration tests. He has worked across a variety of industries, including roles for ISPs, hosting companies, Department of Defense contracting companies, and consulting companies. Today, he leans on what he learned throughout his roles in various capacities to inform his choices as CTO and further his thought leadership in the industry.

Outside of his work experience and “ethical hacker” persona, Justin is passionate about building, tuning, and racing cars (and, yes, occasionally hacking them) and spending time with his 3 dogs. You can find his latest musings—security-related and otherwise—on his Twitter account, @HackingLZ.

Featured Blogs And Resources

Discover the blogs, analysis, webinars, and podcasts by this team member.

Blog May 18 2023

Walking the Tightrope: Maximizing Information Gathering while Avoiding Detection for Red Teams

Understanding network reconnaissance without detection is crucial in commercial testing, leveraging tools like BloodHound and scripts to gather valuable…

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Blog March 17 2023

Critical Outlook Vulnerability: In-Depth Technical Analysis and Recommendations (CVE-2023-23397)

Protect your organization from the Microsoft Outlook CVE-2023-23397 vulnerability with expert guidance and a simple remediation script.

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Webinars March 15 2023

Ask Me Anything: Penetration Testing Innovations and Insights

Join David Kennedy & Justin Elze for a live Q&A on penetration testing, tackling the ever-changing tactics used by attackers, and get answers to your burning…

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Webinars December 14 2021

Log4j: Live Update Webcast

Learn how to detect and respond to the Log4j vulnerability with experts from TrustedSec & Binary Defense, including David Kennedy, during our live webcast.

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Blog June 05 2025

Full Disclosure, GraphGhost: Are You Afraid of Failed Logins?

Another year, another vuln…It's that time again.Last year I disclosed the existence of GraphNinja - a (now fixed) vulnerability in Azure where you could…

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Blog June 03 2025

Teaching a New Dog Old Tricks - Phishing With MCP

As AI evolves with MCP, can a new “dog” learn old tricks? In this blog, we test Claude AI’s ability to craft phishing pretexts—and just how much effort it…

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Blog May 29 2025

Apples, Pears, and Oranges: Not All Pentest Firms Are the Same

Penetration testing is not a commodity service. If you are a procurer of penetration tests and have ever received wildly different quotes for the "same"…

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Blog May 22 2025

AppSec Cheat Sheet: Session Management

Session Management Testing - CookiesThe Cheat Sheet section is for quick reference and to make sure steps don’t get missed.The Learn section is for those who…

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Blog May 20 2025

Red Team Gold: Extracting Credentials from MDT Shares

When it comes to targeting enterprise deployment infrastructure during a Red Team engagement, SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager) tends to get all the…

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Blog May 15 2025

Purpling Your Ops

How does one Purple Team? TAC Practice Lead Megan Nilsen shares open-source tools, techniques, and tips for security practitioners exploring Purple Teaming,…

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