Category: ActiveDirectorySecurity

ADSecurity.org’s Unofficial Guide to Mimikatz & Command Reference Updated for Mimikatz v2.1 alpha 20160229

ADSecurity.org’s Unofficial Guide to Mimikatz & Command Reference page is updated for the new modules/features in Mimikatz v2.1 alpha 20160229. According to Mimikatz author, Benjamin Delpy, the following updates are included in the most recent Mimikatz version(s): Mimikatz Release Date: 2/29/2016 2.1 alpha 20160229 (oe.eo) edition System Environment Variables & other stuff [new] System Environment …

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Building an Effective Active Directory Lab Environment for Testing

This post is not meant to describe the ultimate lab configuration. Instead the focus is on a lab environment that can be stood up quickly and easily as a learning tool. The best way to learn about computer networking and security is to have a home lab. The great thing is that a home lab …

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Detecting Offensive PowerShell Attack Tools

At DerbyCon V (2015), I presented on Active Directory Attack & Defense and part of this included how to detect & defend against PowerShell attacks. Update: I presented at BSides Charm (Baltimore) on PowerShell attack & defense in April 2016. More information on PowerShell Security: PowerShell Security: PowerShell Attack Tools, Mitigation, & Detection The most …

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Active Directory Recon Without Admin Rights

A fact that is often forgotten (or misunderstood), is that most objects and their attributes can be viewed (read) by authenticated users (most often, domain users). The challenge is that admins may think that since this data is most easily accessible via admin tools such as “Active Directory User and Computers” (dsa.msc) or “Active Directory …

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ADSecurity.org in the Press!

IT World Canada reached out to me recently to help with an article on Active Directory attack & defense. Read the article: “IT not doing enough to secure Active Directory, says expert.” IIT World Canada also requested comments for a second story titled: “22 tips for preventing ransomware attacks“.

Mimikatz Update Fixes Forged Kerberos Ticket Domain Field Anomaly – Golden Ticket Invalid Domain Field Event Detection No Longer Works

In late 2014, I discovered that the domain field in many events in the Windows security event log are not properly populated when forged Kerberos tickets are used. The key indicator is that the domain field is blank or contains the FQDN instead of the short (netbios) name and depending on the tool used to …

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How Attackers Dump Active Directory Database Credentials

I previously posted some information on dumping AD database credentials before in a couple of posts: “How Attackers Pull the Active Directory Database (NTDS.dit) from a Domain Controller” and “Attack Methods for Gaining Domain Admin Rights in Active Directory“. This post covers many different ways that an attacker can dump credentials from Active Directory, both …

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Attack Methods for Gaining Domain Admin Rights in Active Directory

There are many ways an attacker can gain Domain Admin rights in Active Directory. This post is meant to describe some of the more popular ones in current use. The techniques described here “assume breach” where an attacker already has a foothold on an internal system and has gained domain user credentials (aka post-exploitation). The …

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Cracking Kerberos TGS Tickets Using Kerberoast – Exploiting Kerberos to Compromise the Active Directory Domain

Microsoft’s Kerberos implementation in Active Directory has been targeted over the past couple of years by security researchers and attackers alike. The issues are primarily related to the legacy support in Kerberos when Active Directory was released in the year 2000 with Windows Server 2000. This legacy support is enabled when using Kerberos RC4 encryption …

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Real-World Example of How Active Directory Can Be Compromised (RSA Conference Presentation)

At the RSA Conference in Abu Dhabi earlier this month, Stefano Maccaglia (Incident Response Consultant with RSA) presented “Evolving Threats: dissection of a Cyber-Espionage attack.” The slides for this talk are available on the RSA Conference site (UPDATE: RSA removed the slides from their site, Presentation Slides on Yumpu). This post covers and adds some …

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