I improve security for enterprises around the world working for TrustedSec & I am @PyroTek3 on Twitter. Read the About page (top left) for information about me. :) https://adsecurity.org/?page_id=8
Sean Metcalf
Author's posts
Nov 18 2014
MS14-068: Vulnerability in (Active Directory) Kerberos Could Allow Elevation of Privilege
Active Directory leverages the Kerberos protocol for authentication. The vulnerability patches an issue with how the Domain Controller validates group membership in Kerberos tickets (hint: the ticket is always validated by the DC if the checksum is set to certain values). Microsoft KB3011780 patches this issue. According to Microsoft: “When this security bulletin was issued, …
Nov 17 2014
PowerShell: Discover Active Directory Forest Domain Controllers
Recently I needed to find all Domain Controllers in a large Active Directory forest (and see the AD Domain Functional Level for each domain). Here’s the PowerShell code which leverages the Active Directory PowerShell module cmdlets. import-module ActiveDirectory $ADForestInfo = Get-ADForest $ADForestInfoName = $ADForestInfo.Name $ADForestInfoDomains = $ADForestInfo.Domains $ADForestInfoForestMode = $ADForestInfo.ForestMode $AllDCs = $Null ForEach …
Nov 17 2014
PowerShell Encoding & Decoding (Base64)
PowerShell provides an easy method for Base64 encoding and decoding. Encoding: $Text = ‘This is a secret and should be hidden’ $Bytes = [System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetBytes($Text) $EncodedText =[Convert]::ToBase64String($Bytes) $EncodedText The result is this base64 encoded text: VABoAGkAcwAgAGkAcwAgAGEAIABzAGUAYwByAGUAdAAgAGEAbgBkACAAcwBoAG8AdQBsAGQAIABiAGUAIABoAGkAZABlAG4A Decoding: Decoding the base64 encoded blob using PowerShell is simple. $EncodedText = “VABoAGkAcwAgAGkAcwAgAGEAIABzAGUAYwByAGUAdAAgAGEAbgBkACAAcwBoAG8AdQBsAGQAIABiAGUAIABoAGkAZABlAG4A” $DecodedText = [System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetString([System.Convert]::FromBase64String($EncodedText)) $DecodedText
Nov 16 2014
PowerShell: Find All Users in Active Directory the Optimal Way
Today I Learned (TIL) that the best way to find all users in Active Directory via LDAP query is to search for: (samAccountType=805306368) and NOT: (&(objectClass=user)(objectCategory=person)) Reference: http://www.selfadsi.org/extended-ad/search-user-accounts.htm
Nov 16 2014
PowerShell 101: Easy Script Timing
There are times when you want to know how long it takes for a script to run. One of the Measure-* cmdlets can be useful, but there is a simpler way to time how long it takes to run a script (or piece of code). The StopWatch .NET method is an ideal method for script …
Nov 15 2014
Owning Networks and Evading Incident Response with PowerShell
PowerShell provides an easy method to bypass antivirus and other protection methods: Up until several months ago, I was a member of a penetration test team tasked with compromising data centers and evading detection. Industry standard tools such as Metasploit (an attack toolkit that includes a backdoor named Meterpreter) and Mimikatz (a password dumper) …
Nov 15 2014
Active Directory Replication Overview & USN Rollback: What It Is & How It Happens
If you have experienced event id #2095, then you understand how a USN Rollback can negatively affect AD consistency. What is a USN? The USN (Update Sequence Number) is an Active Directory database instance counter that increments every time a single change is committed to the AD database on a Domain Controller. The USN is …
Nov 14 2014
Group Policy Settings Reference Guide for Windows 8.1 | 7 | Server
The Group Policy is an integral part of the Windows operating system, on which many a IT Pro, Beginners and Tweak enthusiasts count on to customize and enforce settings on their computers. The Group Policy Editor (Gpedit.msc) is one of the most useful tools for administering policy on Windows. The Group Policy Editor, however …
Nov 13 2014
EMET v5.1 Released
This week, Microsoft released version 5.1 of their Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET). EMET 5.1 can be download from the Microsoft EMET website. Microsoft Security Research and Defense Blog describes the update: Today, we’re releasing the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) 5.1 which will continue to improve your security posture by providing increased application compatibility …
Nov 12 2014
Microsoft’s HeartBleed: The Schannel SSL/TLS vulnerability (MS14-066)
Earlier this year, Unix/Linux/*nix systems dealt with the “Hearbleed” OpenSSL vulnerability which affected a large portion of the web. There is a major vulnerability in Microsoft’s Schannel which was recently patched in MS14-066 (KB2992611). What is SChannel? The Secure Channel (Schannel) security package is a Security Support Provider (SSP) that implements the Secure Sockets Layer …
Recent Comments