- Do you work in a **cybersecurity company**? Do you want to see your **company advertised in HackTricks**? or do you want to have access to the **latest version of the PEASS or download HackTricks in PDF**? Check the [**SUBSCRIPTION PLANS**](https://github.com/sponsors/carlospolop)!
- **Join the** [**💬**](https://emojipedia.org/speech-balloon/) [**Discord group**](https://discord.gg/hRep4RUj7f) or the [**telegram group**](https://t.me/peass) or **follow** me on **Twitter** [**🐦**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks/tree/7af18b62b3bdc423e11444677a6a73d4043511e9/\[https:/emojipedia.org/bird/README.md)[**@carlospolopm**](https://twitter.com/hacktricks_live)**.**
- **Share your hacking tricks by submitting PRs to the [hacktricks repo](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks) and [hacktricks-cloud repo](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks-cloud)**.
There are several methods for compromising Active Directory accounts that attackers can use to elevate privileges and create persistence once they have established themselves in your domain. The Skeleton Key is a particularly scary piece of malware targeted at Active Directory domains to make it alarmingly easy to hijack any account. This malware **injects itself into LSASS and creates a master password that will work for any account in the domain**. Existing passwords will also continue to work, so it is very difficult to know this attack has taken place unless you know what to look for.
Not surprisingly, this is one of the many attacks that is packaged and very easy to perform using [Mimikatz](https://github.com/gentilkiwi/mimikatz). Let’s take a look at how it works.
In order to perpetrate this attack, **the attacker must have Domain Admin rights**. This attack must be **performed on each and every domain controller for complete compromise, but even targeting a single domain controller can be effective**. **Rebooting** a domain controller **will remove this malware** and it will have to be redeployed by the attacker.
Performing the attack is very straightforward to do. It only requires the following **command to be run on each domain controller**: `misc::skeleton`. After that, you can authenticate as any user with the default password of Mimikatz.
Note: If you do get a message saying, “System error 86 has occurred. The specified network password is not correct”, just try using the domain\account format for the username and it should work.
- Do you work in a **cybersecurity company**? Do you want to see your **company advertised in HackTricks**? or do you want to have access to the **latest version of the PEASS or download HackTricks in PDF**? Check the [**SUBSCRIPTION PLANS**](https://github.com/sponsors/carlospolop)!
- **Join the** [**💬**](https://emojipedia.org/speech-balloon/) [**Discord group**](https://discord.gg/hRep4RUj7f) or the [**telegram group**](https://t.me/peass) or **follow** me on **Twitter** [**🐦**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks/tree/7af18b62b3bdc423e11444677a6a73d4043511e9/\[https:/emojipedia.org/bird/README.md)[**@carlospolopm**](https://twitter.com/hacktricks_live)**.**
- **Share your hacking tricks by submitting PRs to the [hacktricks repo](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks) and [hacktricks-cloud repo](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks-cloud)**.
