| name | executing-active-directory-attack-simulation |
| description | Executes authorized attack simulations against Active Directory environments to identify misconfigurations, weak credentials, dangerous privilege paths, and exploitable trust relationships that could lead to domain compromise. The tester uses BloodHound for attack path analysis, Mimikatz for credential extraction, and Impacket for protocol-level attacks including Kerberoasting, AS-REP Roasting, and delegation abuse. Activates for requests involving Active Directory pentest, AD attack simulation, domain compromise testing, or Kerberos attack assessment.
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| domain | cybersecurity |
| subdomain | penetration-testing |
| tags | ["Active-Directory","BloodHound","Mimikatz","Kerberoasting","domain-compromise"] |
| version | 1.0.0 |
| author | mahipal |
| license | Apache-2.0 |
Executing Active Directory Attack Simulation
When to Use
- Assessing the security of an Active Directory domain and forest against common and advanced attack techniques
- Identifying attack paths from low-privilege domain user to Domain Admin using privilege relationship analysis
- Validating that Kerberos security configurations, credential policies, and delegation settings resist known attacks
- Testing detection capabilities of the SOC and EDR tools against Active Directory-specific TTPs
- Evaluating the effectiveness of tiered administration models and privileged access workstations
Do not use without explicit written authorization from the domain owner, against production domain controllers during business hours unless approved, or for testing that could cause account lockouts affecting real users without prior coordination.
Prerequisites
- Written authorization specifying the target AD domain, testing constraints, and any off-limits accounts or systems
- Low-privilege domain user account (minimum starting point) to simulate realistic attacker position
- Testing workstation joined to the domain or network access to domain controllers on ports 88, 135, 139, 389, 445, 636, 3268, 3269
- BloodHound Community Edition or Enterprise with SharpHound/AzureHound collectors
- Impacket toolkit, Mimikatz (or pypykatz), Rubeus, and CrackMapExec installed on the attack platform
- Hashcat or John the Ripper with current wordlists (rockyou.txt, SecLists) for offline credential cracking
Workflow
Step 1: Active Directory Reconnaissance
Enumerate the AD environment from a low-privilege domain user position:
- Domain enumeration:
Get-ADDomain or crackmapexec smb <dc_ip> -u <user> -p <pass> --domains to identify domain name, functional level, domain controllers, and forest trusts
- User enumeration:
Get-ADUser -Filter * -Properties ServicePrincipalName,AdminCount,PasswordLastSet to identify service accounts, privileged accounts, and stale passwords
- Group enumeration: Map membership of high-value groups (Domain Admins, Enterprise Admins, Schema Admins, Account Operators, Backup Operators) using
net group "Domain Admins" /domain
- GPO enumeration:
Get-GPO -All | Get-GPOReport -ReportType XML to identify Group Policy configurations including password policies, audit settings, and software deployment
- Trust enumeration:
nltest /domain_trusts /all_trusts to map inter-domain and inter-forest trusts, noting trust direction and transitivity
