Domain Controller Attacks
Regardless of the source of the attack or the point of intrusion attackers are always looking to escalate privileges.
Domain controller attacks. Attacks on active directory database and log files stored in the default location. Were an attacker to gain privileged access to a dc they will have complete control over the other ad user accounts and services on the domain and the chances are they won t stop there. On january 24 2018 benjamin delpy and vincent le toux released during the microsoft bluehat in israel a new mimikatz module that implements the dcshadow attack.
Ad attack kill chain. Limit the groups accounts that have rights to logon to domain controllers. Rodcs that cache passwords should be better protected than rodcs with the default configuration that don t cache passwords.
Because domain controllers can read from and write to anything in the ad ds database compromise of a domain controller means that your active directory forest can never be considered trustworthy again unless you are able to recover using a known good backup and to close the gaps that allowed the compromise in the process. If the rodc is configured to cache any account password consider protecting the rodc. Attackers utilize various methods to gain access to privileged accounts including common credential theft tools like mimikatz and lazagne.
Interference with directory replication. The dcsync attack is where an attacker impersonates an active directory domain controller to obtain authentication credentials from other domain controllers. Deploying the august 11 2020 security update or later release to every domain controller is the most critical first step toward addressing this vulnerability.
By simply sending a number of netlogon messages in which various fields are filled with zeroes an attacker can change the computer password of the domain controller that is stored in the ad. For example an attacker can elevate privilege and gain administrative access to the entire domain. Denial of service attacks against a domain controller resulting in unavailability.
If the original guidance is not applied the vulnerability could allow an attacker to spoof a domain controller account that could be used to steal domain credentials and take over the domain. And the highest level of access in ad is access to a domain controller dc because then attackers gain instant administrative access to every critical resource in the network. The success of attacks relies on whether campaign operators manage to gain control over domain accounts with elevated privileges after establishing initial access.