DACL abuse

Theory

Access privileges for resources in Active Directory Domain Services are usually granted through the use of an Access Control Entry (ACE). Access Control Entries describe the allowed and denied permissions for a principal (e.g. user, computer account) in Active Directory against a securable object (user, group, computer, container, organizational unit (OU), GPO and so on)

DACLs (Active Directory Discretionary Access Control Lists) are lists made of ACEs (Access Control Entries) that identify the users and groups that are allowed or denied access on an object. SACLs (Systems Access Control Lists) define the audit and monitoring rules over a securable object.

When misconfigured, ACEs can be abused to operate lateral movement or privilege escalation within an AD domain.

Practice

If an object's (called objectA) DACL features an ACE stating that another object (called objectB) has a specific right (e.g. GenericAll) over it (i.e. over objectA), attackers need to be in control of objectB to take control of objectA. The following abuses can only be carried out when running commands as the user mentioned in the ACE (objectB) (see impersonation techniques).

Recon

DACL abuse potential paths can be identified by BloodHound from UNIX-like (using the Python ingestor bloodhound.py) and Windows (using the SharpHound ingestor) systems.

Other tools like, Get-DomainObjectAcl and Add-DomainObjectAcl from Powersploit's Powerview, Get-Acl and Set-Acl official Powershell cmdlets, or Impacket's dacledit.py script (Python) can be used in order to manually inspect an object's DACL. ⚠️ At the time of writing, the Pull Request (#1291) offering that dacledit is still being reviewed and in active development. It has the following command-line arguments.

Abuse

In order to navigate the notes, testers can use the mindmap below.

All of the aforementioned attacks (red blocks) are detailed in the child notes, except:

• SPN-jacking: very specific scenario, requires lots of access: see ADDS > Movement > Kerberos > SPN-jacking
• Shadow Credentials: see ADDS > Movement > Kerberos > Shadow Credentials
• Kerberos RBCD: see ADDS > Movement > Kerberos > Kerberos Delegations > RBCD
• GPO abuses: see ADDS > Movement > GPOs
• DCSync : see ADDS > Movement > Credential > Dumping > DCSync

Self-attacks

• User and computers objects can conduct a Kerberos RCD attack on themselves.
• Computer objects can conduct a Shadow Credentials attack on themselves.

ACE inheritance

If attacker can write an ACE (WriteDacl) for a container or organisational unit (OU), if inheritance flags are added (0x01+ 0x02) to the ACE, and inheritance is enabled for an object in that container/OU, the ACE will be applied to it. By default, all the objects with AdminCount=0 will inherit ACEs from their parent container/OU.

Impacket's dacledit (Python) can be used with the -inheritance flag for that purpose (PR#1291).

adminCount=1

In April 2024, Synacktiv explained that if GenericAll, GenericWrite or Manage Group Policy Links privileges are available against an Organisational Unit (OU), then it's possible to compromise its child users and computers with adminCount=1 through "gPLink spoofing".

This can be performed with OUned.py.

With enough permissions (GenericAll, GenericWrite) over a disabled object, it is possible to enable it again (e.g. set-aduser "user" -enabled 1)

BloodHound ACE edges

BloodHound has the ability to map abuse paths, with some that rely on DACL abuse. The following edges are not includes in the mindmap above:

• AddKeyCredentialLink, a write permission on an object's Key-Credential-Link attribute, for Shadow Credentials attacks
• WriteSPN, a write permission on an object's Service-Principal-Name attribute, for targeted Kerberoasting and SPN jacking attacks
• AddSelf, similar to AddMember. While AddMember is WriteProperty access right on the target's Member attribute, AddSelf is a Self access right on the target's Member attribute, allowing the attacker to add itself to the target group, instead of adding arbitrary principals.
• AddAllowedToAct, a write permission on an object's msDS-Allowed-To-Act-On-Behalf-Of-Other-Identity attribute, for Kerberos RBCD attacks
• SyncLAPSPassword, both DS-GetChanges and DS-GetChangesInFilteredSet, for synchronizing LAPS password domain-wise
• WriteAccountRestrictions, which refers to the User-Account-Restrictions property set, which contains enough permissions to modify the msDS-Allowed-To-Act-On-Behalf-Of-Other-Identity attribute of the target objects, for Kerberos RBCD attacks

Permisssions index

The following table should help for better understanding of the ACE types and what they allow.

Common name	Permission value / GUID	Permission type	Description
WriteDacl	ADS_RIGHT_WRITE_DAC	Access Right	Edit the object's DACL (i.e. "inbound" permissions).
GenericAll	ADS_RIGHT_GENERIC_ALL	Access Right	Combination of almost all other rights.
GenericWrite	ADS_RIGHT_GENERIC_WRITE	Access Right	Combination of write permissions (Self, WriteProperty) among other things.
WriteProperty	ADS_RIGHT_DS_WRITE_PROP	Access Right	Edit one of the object's attributes. The attribute is referenced by an "ObjectType GUID".
WriteOwner	ADS_RIGHT_WRITE_OWNER	Access Right	Assume the ownership of the object (i.e. new owner of the victim = attacker, cannot be set to another user). With the "SeRestorePrivilege" right it is possible to specify an arbitrary owner.
Self	ADS_RIGHT_DS_SELF	Access Right	Perform "Validated writes" (i.e. edit an attribute's value and have that value verified and validate by AD). The "Validated writes" is referenced by an "ObjectType GUID".
AllExtendedRights	ADS_RIGHT_DS_CONTROL_ACCESS	Access Right	Peform "Extended rights". "AllExtendedRights" refers to that permission being unrestricted. This right can be restricted by specifying the extended right in the "ObjectType GUID".
User-Force-Change-Password	00299570-246d-11d0-a768-00aa006e0529	Control Access Right (extended right)	Change the password of the object without having to know the previous one.
DS-Replication-Get-Changes	1131f6aa-9c07-11d1-f79f-00c04fc2dcd2	Control Access Right (extended right)	One of the two extended rights needed to operate a DCSync.
DS-Replication-Get-Changes-All	1131f6ad-9c07-11d1-f79f-00c04fc2dcd2	Control Access Right (extended right)	One of the two extended rights needed to operate a DCSync.
Self-Membership	bf9679c0-0de6-11d0-a285-00aa003049e2	Validate Write	Edit the "member" attribute of the object.
Validated-SPN	f3a64788-5306-11d1-a9c5-0000f80367c1	Validate Write	Edit the "servicePrincipalName" attribute of the object.

Talk 🎤

Resources

[MS-ADTS]: Access Rightsdocsmsft

ActiveDirectoryRights Enum (System.DirectoryServices)docsmsft

Abusing Active Directory ACLs/ACEsRed Teaming Experiments

SelfADSI : Active Directory Permissions : Security Descriptors

Scanning for Active Directory Privileges & Privileged AccountsActive Directory Security

BloodHound releases

https://medium.com/@_wald0/bloodhound-1-3-the-acl-attack-path-update-74aa56c5eb3a

https://blog.cptjesus.com/posts/bloodhound20/

https://posts.specterops.io/introducing-bloodhound-3-0-c00e77ff0aa6

https://posts.specterops.io/introducing-bloodhound-4-0-the-azure-update-9b2b26c5e350

https://posts.specterops.io/introducing-bloodhound-4-1-the-three-headed-hound-be3c4a808146

https://posts.specterops.io/introducing-bloodhound-4-2-the-azure-refactor-1cff734938bd