In May 2022 Microsoft has fixed a vulnerability related to certificate logon to Active Directory. As a non-privileged user you could escalate privileges by impersonating a Domain Controller, as you can join machines to the domain and thus control the dnsHostName attribute. Microsoft fixed this in an indirect way: Since last May, Windows Certification Authority…
Tag: PKI
Defused That SAN Flag!
In May, Microsoft has fixed a bug that allowed normal users to impersonate Domain Controllers. This bug allowed non-privileged users to obtain a logon certificate issued to a domain controller, because users can write to the Active Directory attribute dnsHostNameof a computer they have joined to the domain. If a machine can enroll for a…
How to Add a Subject Alternative Name Safely
I am writing about that PKI stuff again. I am running out of ideas for catchy introductions. So, here is a new post with old code! In Active Directory a UPN is mapped to a user automatically if it matches a user’s LDAP attribute userPrincipalName (and a DNS SAN is mapped to dnsHostName). A Windows…
Rogue Certificate Challenge: No Hardware Tokens, No Linux, Just a Web Server with Certificate Mapping.
I am back to my favorite security research: How to abuse certificates in a Windows / Active Directory environment! If an Active Directory integrated certification authority sign a certificate with a custom Subject Alternative Name of your choosing, you can impersonate any administrator in an AD forest. I’ve published two blog posts about how to…
Looking Back: Hacking and Defending Windows Public Key Infrastructure (ADCS)
I live at the fringes of the cybersecurity community. I have never attended infosec conferences. There will be a talk on PKI hacking at Blackhat 2021 soon: Top AD offensive security gurus are presenting comprehensive research on abusing ADCS (Active Directory Certificate Services). I only know about that, because I noticed backlinks from their article…
Impersonating a Windows Enterprise Admin with a Certificate: Kerberos PKINIT from Linux
This is about a serious misconfiguration of a Windows Public Key Infrastructure integrated with Active Directory: If you can edit certificate templates, you can impersonate the Active Directory Forests’s Enterprise Administrator by logging on with a client certificate. You have a persistent credential that will also survive the reset of this admin’s password. In the…
Sizzle @ hackthebox – Unintended: Getting a Logon Smartcard for the Domain Admin!
My writeup – how to pwn my favorite box on hackthebox.eu, using a (supposedly) unintended path. Sizzle – created by @mrb3n813 and @lkys37en – was the first box on HTB that had my favorite Windows Server Role – the Windows Public Key Infrastructure / Certification Authority. This CA allows a low-privileged user – amanda –…
Ethereal @ hackthebox: Certificate-Related Rabbit Holes
This post is related to the ‘insanely’ difficult hackthebox machine Ethereal (created by egre55 and MinatoTW) that was recently retired. Beware – It is not at all a full comprehensive write-up! I zoom in on openssl, X.509 certificates, signing stuff, and related unnecessary rabbit holes that were particularly interesting to me – as somebody who…
Certificates and PKI. The Prequel.
Some public key infrastructures run quietly in the background since years. They are half forgotten until the life of a signed file has come to an end – but then everything is on fire. In contrast to other seemingly important deadlines (Management needs this until XY or the world will come to an end!) this…
Automatic Mapping of Logon Certificates to Users in Active Directory
This post has originally been published to my other / ‘archive’ website in 2014, first as a PDF, later converted to a HTML article. I am publishing it here on my WordPress blog in April 2022, using its original publication date – as it predates most of the other articles in my PKI UPN AD…
Diffusion of iTechnology in Corporations (or: Certificates for iPhones)
[Jump to technical stuff] Some clichés are true. One I found confirmed often is about how technologies are adopted within organizations: One manager meets another manager at a conference / business meeting / CIO event. Manager X show off the latest gadget and/or brags about presents a case-study of successful implementation of Y. Another manager…
The Strange World of Public Key Infrastructure and Certificates
An e-mail discussion related to my recent post on IT security has motivated me to ponder about issues with Public Key Infrastructure once more. So I attempt – most likely in vain – to merge a pop-sci introduction to certificates with sort of an attachment to said e-mail discussion. So this post might be opaque…
What I Never Wanted to Know about Security but Found Extremely Entertaining to Read
This is in praise of Peter Gutmann‘s book draft Engineering Security, and the title is inspired by his talk Everything You Never Wanted to Know about PKI but were Forced to Find Out. Chances are high that any non-geek reader is already intimidated by the acronym PKI – sharing the links above on LinkedIn I have been…
elkemental Force 