Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 includes a new feature called LSA Protection which involves enabling [LSASS as a protected process on Windows Server 2012 R2](https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn408187.aspx) (Mimikatz can bypass with a driver, but that should make some noise in the event logs):
_The LSA, which includes the Local Security Authority Server Service (LSASS) process, validates users for local and remote sign-ins and enforces local security policies. The Windows 8.1 operating system provides additional protection for the LSA to prevent reading memory and code injection by non-protected processes. This provides added security for the credentials that the LSA stores and manages._
1. Open the Registry Editor (RegEdit.exe), and navigate to the registry key that is located at: HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa and Set the value of the registry key to: “RunAsPPL”=dword:00000001.
2. Create a new GPO and browse to Computer Configuration, Preferences, Windows Settings. Right-click Registry, point to New, and then click Registry Item. The New Registry Properties dialog box appears. In the Hive list, click HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE. In the Key Path list, browse to SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa. In the Value name box, type RunAsPPL. In the Value type box, click the REG\_DWORD. In the Value data box, type 00000001.Click OK.
Run privilege::debug then event::drop to patch the event log. Then run Event::Clear to clear the event log without any log cleared event (1102) being logged.
A Golden Ticket (GT) can be created to impersonate any user (real or imagined) in the domain as a member of any group in the domain (providing a virtually unlimited amount of rights) to any and every resource in the domain.
The Mimikatz command to create a golden ticket is “kerberos::golden”
* /domain – the fully qualified domain name. In this example: “lab.adsecurity.org”.
* /sid – the SID of the domain. In this example: “S-1-5-21-1473643419-774954089-2222329127”.
* /sids – Additional SIDs for accounts/groups in the AD forest with rights you want the ticket to spoof. Typically, this will be the Enterprise Admins group for the root domain “S-1-5-21-1473643419-774954089-5872329127-519”. T[his parameter adds the provided SIDs to the SID History parameter.](https://adsecurity.org/?p=1640)
* /groups (optional) – group RIDs the user is a member of (the first is the primary group).\
Add user or computer account RIDs to receive the same access.\
Default Groups: 513,512,520,518,519 for the well-known Administrator’s groups (listed below).
* /krbtgt – NTLM password hash for the domain KDC service account (KRBTGT). Used to encrypt and sign the TGT.
* /ticket (optional) – provide a path and name for saving the Golden Ticket file to for later use or use /ptt to immediately inject the golden ticket into memory for use.
* /id (optional) – user RID. Mimikatz default is 500 (the default Administrator account RID).
* /startoffset (optional) – the start offset when the ticket is available (generally set to –10 or 0 if this option is used). Mimikatz Default value is 0.
* /endin (optional) – ticket lifetime. Mimikatz Default value is 10 years (\~5,262,480 minutes). Active Directory default Kerberos policy setting is 10 hours (600 minutes).
* /renewmax (optional) – maximum ticket lifetime with renewal. Mimikatz Default value is 10 years (\~5,262,480 minutes). Active Directory default Kerberos policy setting is 7 days (10,080 minutes).
* /sids (optional) – set to be the SID of the Enterprise Admins group in the AD forest (\[ADRootDomainSID]-519) to spoof Enterprise Admin rights throughout the AD forest (AD admin in every domain in the AD Forest).
* Enterprise Admins SID: S-1-5-21\<DOMAINID>-519 (this is only effective when the forged ticket is created in the Forest root domain, though add using /sids parameter for AD forest admin rights)
* Group Policy Creator Owners SID: S-1-5-21\<DOMAINID>-520
A Silver Ticket is a TGS (similar to TGT in format) using the target service account’s (identified by SPN mapping) NTLM password hash to encrypt and sign.
The following Mimikatz command creates a Silver Ticket for the CIFS service on the server adsmswin2k8r2.lab.adsecurity.org. In order for this Silver Ticket to be successfully created, the AD computer account password hash for adsmswin2k8r2.lab.adsecurity.org needs to be discovered, either from an AD domain dump or by running Mimikatz on the local system as shown above (_Mimikatz “privilege::debug” “sekurlsa::logonpasswords” exit_). The NTLM password hash is used with the /rc4 paramteer. The service SPN type also needs to be identified in the /service parameter. Finally, the target computer’s fully-qualified domain name needs to be provided in the /target parameter. Don’t forget the domain SID in the /sid parameter.
Once the Active Directory Trust password hash is determined, a trust ticket can be generated. The trust tickets are created using the shared password between 2 Domains that trust each other.\
Forge the trust ticket which states the ticket holder is an Enterprise Admin in the AD Forest (leveraging SIDHistory, “sids”, across trusts in Mimikatz, my “contribution” to Mimikatz). This enables full administrative access from a child domain to the parent domain. Note that this account doesn’t have to exist anywhere as it is effectively a Golden Ticket across the trust.
* **/**ticket – provide a path and name for saving the forged ticket file to for later use or use /ptt to immediately inject the golden ticket into memory for use.
**KERBEROS::List** – List all user tickets (TGT and TGS) in user memory. No special privileges required since it only displays the current user’s tickets.\
\*Nix systems like Mac OS, Linux,BSD, Unix, etc cache Kerberos credentials. This cached data can be copied off and passed using Mimikatz. Also useful for injecting Kerberos tickets in ccache files.
A good example of Mimikatz’s kerberos::ptc is when [exploiting MS14-068 with PyKEK](https://adsecurity.org/?p=676). PyKEK generates a ccache file which can be injected with Mimikatz using kerberos::ptc.
After a [Kerberos ticket is found](https://adsecurity.org/?p=1667), it can be copied to another system and passed into the current session effectively simulating a logon without any communication with the Domain Controller. No special rights required.\
* Updates the SPN of the computer used to include “GC” (Global Catalog) and “E3514235-4B06-11D1-AB04-00C04FC2DCD2” (AD Replication). More info on Kerberos Service Principal Names in the [ADSecurity SPN section](https://adsecurity.org/?page\_id=183).
[Requires membership in Domain Administrator, domain Administrators, or custom delegation.](https://adsecurity.org/?p=1729)
A major feature added to Mimkatz in August 2015 is “DCSync” which effectively “impersonates” a Domain Controller and requests account password data from the targeted Domain Controller.
**DCSync Options:**
* /all – DCSync pull data for the entire domain.
* /user – user id or SID of the user you want to pull the data for.
* /domain (optional) – FQDN of the Active Directory domain. Mimikatz will discover a DC in the domain to connect to. If this parameter is not provided, Mimikatz defaults to the current domain.
**LSADUMP::LSA** – Ask LSA Server to retrieve SAM/AD enterprise (normal, patch on the fly or inject). Use /patch for a subset of data, use /inject for everything. _Requires System or Debug rights._
Often service accounts are members of Domain Admins (or equivalent) or a Domain Admin was recently logged on to the computer an attacker dump credentials from. Using these credentials, an attacker can gain access to a Domain Controller and get all domain credentials, including the KRBTGT account NTLM hash which is used to create Kerberos Golden Tickets.
NetSync provides a simple way to use a DC computer account password data to impersonate a Domain Controller via a Silver Ticket and DCSync the target account’s information including the password data_._
**LSADUMP::SAM** – get the SysKey to decrypt SAM entries (from registry or hive). The SAM option connects to the local Security Account Manager (SAM) database and dumps credentials for local accounts.
* Dumps password data in LSASS for currently logged on (or recently logged on) accounts as well as services running under the context of user credentials.
* Account passwords are stored in memory in a reversible manner. If they are in memory (prior to Windows 8.1/Windows Server 2012 R2 they were), they are displayed. Windows 8.1/Windows Server 2012 R2 doesn’t store the account password in this manner in most cases. KB2871997 “back-ports” this security capability to Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008R2, and Windows Server 2012, though the computer needs additional configuration after applying KB2871997.
* Requires administrator access (with debug rights) or Local SYSTEM rights
_Mimikatz can perform the well-known operation ‘Pass-The-Hash’ to run a process under another credentials with NTLM hash of the user’s password, instead of its real password. For this, it starts a process with a fake identity, then replaces fake information (NTLM hash of the fake password) with real information (NTLM hash of the real password)._
**SEKURLSA::Tickets** – Lists all available Kerberos tickets for all recently authenticated users, including services running under the context of a user account and the local computer’s AD computer account.\
Unlike kerberos::list, sekurlsa uses memory reading and is not subject to key export restrictions. sekurlsa can access tickets of others sessions (users).
Similar to credential dumping from LSASS, using the sekurlsa module, an attacker can get all Kerberos ticket data in memory on a system, including those belonging to an admin or service.\
This is extremely useful if an attacker has compromised a web server configured for Kerberos delegation that users access with a backend SQL server. This enables an attacker to capture and reuse all user tickets in memory on that server.
The “kerberos::tickets” mimikatz command dumps the current logged-on user’s Kerberos tickets and does not require elevated rights. Leveraging the sekurlsa module’s capability to read from protected memory (LSASS), all Kerberos tickets on the system can be dumped.
**TOKEN::Elevate** – impersonate a token. Used to elevate permissions to SYSTEM (default) or find a domain admin token on the box using the Windows API.\
