Performing Active Directory Penetration Test
Overview
Active Directory (AD) penetration testing targets the central identity and access management system used by over 95% of Fortune 500 companies. The test identifies misconfigurations, weak credentials, dangerous delegation settings, vulnerable certificate templates, and attack paths that enable an attacker to escalate from a standard domain user to Domain Admin or Enterprise Admin.
When to Use
- When conducting security assessments that involve performing active directory penetration test
- When following incident response procedures for related security events
- When performing scheduled security testing or auditing activities
- When validating security controls through hands-on testing
Prerequisites
- Standard domain user credentials (minimum starting point)
- Network access to domain controllers (LDAP/389, Kerberos/88, SMB/445, DNS/53)
- Tools: BloodHound, Impacket, Certipy, Rubeus, NetExec, Mimikatz
- Kali Linux or Windows attack machine with domain access
Phase 1 — AD Enumeration
Domain Information Gathering
# Basic domain enumeration
netexec smb 10.0.0.5 -u 'testuser' -p 'Password123' -d c…
