Advancements in cybersecurity enable threat monitoring systems to detect the unusual activities of criminals. To beat these tools, intruders now exploit the legitimate status and access privileges of authorized users for malicious purposes.
A hacker can have unlimited access to your data without raising any dust by launching a golden ticket attack. In doing so, they practically have the same access rights as you. It’s too risky for attackers to have such power, don’t you think? Here’s how to stop them.
What Is a Golden Ticket Attack?
In this context, a golden ticket means unlimited access. A criminal with the ticket can interact with all your account components including your data, applications, files, etc. A golden ticket attack is the unrestricted access an attacker obtains to compromise your network. There’s no limit to what they can do.
How Does a Golden Ticket Attack Work?
Active Directory (AD) is an initiative by Microsoft to manage domain networks. It has a designated Kerberos key distribution center (KDC), an authentication protocol for verifying users' legitimacy. The KDC secures the AD by generating and distributing a unique ticket granting ticket (TGT) to authorized users. This encrypted ticket restricts users from performing harmful activities on the network and limits their browsing session to a specific time, usually not more than 10 hours.
When you create a domain in the AD, you get a KRBTGT account automatically. Perpetrators of golden ticket attacks compromise your account data to manipulate the AD’s domain controller in the following ways.
Gather Information
The golden ticker attacker begins by gathering information about your account, especially its fully qualified domain name (FQDN), security identifier, and password hash. They coulduse phishing techniques to collect your data, or better still, infect your device with malware and retrieve it themselves. They may opt for brute force in the information-gathering process.
Forge Tickets
The threat actor may be able to see your active directory data when they enter your account with your login credentials, but they can’t perform activities at this point. They need to generate tickets that are legit to your domain controller. The KDC encrypts all the tickets it generates with its KRBTGT password hash, so the impostor must do the same either by stealing the NTDS.DIT file, pulling off a DCSync attack, or leveraging vulnerabilities in the endpoints.
Retain Long Term Access
Since obtaining the KRBTGT password hash gives the criminal unlimited access to your system, they use it to the maximum. They aren’t in a hurry to leave but stay in the background, compromising your data. They can even impersonate users with the highest access privileges without raising suspicion.
5 Ways to Prevent a Golden Ticket Attack
Golden ticket attacks rank among the most dangerous cyberattacks due to the intruder’s freedom to perform various activities. You can reduce their occurrence to the barest minimum with the following cybersecurity measures.
1. Keep Admin Credentials Private
Like most other attacks, a golden ticket attack depends on the criminal’s ability to retrieve sensitive account credentials. Secure key data by limiting the number of people that can access it.
The most valuable credentials are on admin users' accounts. As a network administrator, you need to restrict your access privileges to the very least. Your system is at a higher risk when more people have access to admin privileges.
2. Identify and Resist Phishing Attempts
Securing admin privileges is one of theways to prevent credential theft. If you block that window, hackers will resort to other methods such as phishing attacks. Phishing is more psychological than technical, so you need to be mentally prepared ahead of time to detect it.
Acquaint yourself with different phishing techniques and scenarios. Most importantly, be wary of messages from strangers seeking personally identifiable information about you or your account. Some criminals won’t request your credentials directly but send you infected emails, links, or attachments. If you can’t vouch for any content, don’t open it.
3. Secure Active Directories With Zero Trust Security
The important information hackers need to execute golden ticket attacks is in your active directories. Unfortunately, vulnerabilities may arise in your endpoints at any time and linger before you notice them. But the existence of vulnerabilities doesn’t necessarily harm your system. They become harmful when intruders identify and exploit them.
you’re able to’t vouch for users to not indulge in activities that will compromise your data.Implement zero trust securityto manage the security risks of people who visit your network regardless of their position or status. Consider each person as a threat as their actions can endanger your data.
4. Change Your KRBTGT Account Password Regularly
Your KRBTGT account password is the attacker’s golden ticket to your network. Securing your password creates a barrier between them and your account. Let’s say a criminal has already entered your system after retrieving your password hash. Their lifespan depends on the validity of the password. If you change it, they won’t be able to operate.
There’s a tendency for you to be unaware of golden threat attackers' presence in your system. Cultivate a habit of changing your password regularly even when you have no suspicion of an attack. This single act revokes the access privileges of unauthorized users who already have access to your account.
Microsoft specifically advises users to change their KRBTGT account passwords regularly to ward off criminals with unauthorized access.
5. Adopt Human Threat Monitoring
Actively looking for threats in your system is one of the most effective ways to detect and contain golden ticket attacks. These attacks are non-invasive and run in the background, so you may not be aware of a breach as things may look normal on the surface.
The success of golden ticket attacks lies in the criminal’s ability to act like an authorized user, leveraging their access privilege. This means that automated threat monitoring devices may not detect their activities because they aren’t unusual. You need human threat monitoring skills to detect them. And that’s because humans have the sixth sense to identify suspicious activities even when the intruder claims to be legit.
Secure Sensitive Credentials Against Golden Ticket Attacks
Cybercriminals wouldn’t have unlimited access to your account in a golden ticket attack without lapses on your part. In as much as unforeseen vulnerabilities arise, you can instill measures in place to mitigate them ahead of time.
Securing your essential credentials, especially your KRBTGT account password hash, leaves intruders with very limited options to hack your account. You have control over your network by default. Attackers rely on your security negligence to thrive. Don’t give them the opportunity.
