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Introduction:
The HackTheBox machine “Voleur” represents a sophisticated assumed-breach Active Directory scenario that tests multiple advanced attack vectors. This complex engagement demonstrates how attackers can chain together vulnerabilities in password management, DPAPI exploitation, and Kerberos attacks to compromise entire Windows domains.
Learning Objectives:
- Master techniques for recovering deleted user accounts and associated credentials
- Understand DPAPI exploitation for credential extraction from registry hives
- Learn advanced Kerberoasting attacks with targeted user enumeration
You Should Know:
1. Recovering Deleted Active Directory Users
Get-ADUser -Filter {DisplayName -like “DeletedUser”} -IncludeDeletedObjects -Properties
Step-by-step guide: This PowerShell command queries Active Directory for deleted user objects that match a specific naming pattern. The -IncludeDeletedObjects parameter reveals users that have been soft-deleted but remain in the AD recycle bin, while -Properties extracts all associated attributes including potentially cached credentials.
2. DPAPI Master Key Extraction from Registry Hives
reg save HKLM\SECURITY SECURITY.hiv
reg save HKLM\SYSTEM SYSTEM.hiv
python3 dpapick.py -s SYSTEM.hiv -S SECURITY.hiv -k
Step-by-step guide: These commands dump critical registry hives containing DPAPI master keys. The dpapick tool then extracts usable credentials by combining system boot keys from the SYSTEM hive with encrypted master keys from the SECURITY hive, enabling decryption of protected user data.
3. Targeted Kerberoasting with Service Principal Name Filtering
Get-ADUser -Filter {ServicePrincipalName -like “”} -Properties ServicePrincipalName, DisplayName | Select-Object DisplayName, ServicePrincipalName
Step-by-step guide: This PowerShell command identifies all user accounts with Service Principal Names (SPNs), which are vulnerable to Kerberoasting attacks. The output provides targeting information for requesting Kerberos service tickets that can be cracked offline.
4. Registry Hive Password Hash Extraction
reg save HKLM\SAM SAM.hiv
reg save HKLM\SYSTEM SYSTEM.hiv
secretsdump.py -sam SAM.hiv -system SYSTEM.hiv LOCAL
Step-by-step guide: This methodology extracts password hashes from offline registry hives. The secretsdump.py tool from Impacket parses the Security Account Manager (SAM) database using the system boot key to decrypt stored NTLM and LM hashes for all local accounts.
5. DPAPI User State Decryption
python3 dpapi.py -u [bash] -p [bash] -f [bash]
Step-by-step guide: This command decrypts DPAPI-protected files using extracted user credentials. The tool uses the user’s password-derived key to decrypt the master key, which then decrypts the protected credential files, revealing stored passwords and tokens.
6. Advanced Kerberoasting Attack Chain
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.IdentityModel
New-Object System.IdentityModel.Tokens.KerberosRequestorSecurityToken -ArgumentList “MSSQLSvc/dbserver.domain.com”
Step-by-step guide: This PowerShell command requests a Kerberos service ticket for a specific SPN. The resulting ticket can be exported using mimikatz or Rubeus and cracked offline using tools like hashcat with wordlists to recover the service account password.
7. Registry-Based Credential Mining
reg query “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings” /s | findstr “Password”
reg query “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client” /s
Step-by-step guide: These commands search the Windows registry for stored credentials across multiple applications. The recursive queries (/s) combined with password filtering can reveal cached authentication data that users have chosen to save in various applications.
What Undercode Say:
- The Voleur machine demonstrates that assumed-breach scenarios require comprehensive credential hunting across multiple system repositories
- DPAPI exploitation remains a critical attack vector that many organizations overlook in their security posture
- Targeted Kerberoasting represents a significant threat to service accounts with weak passwords
- Registry hive analysis provides a treasure trove of credentials that persist even after user deletion
The Voleur engagement reveals critical gaps in enterprise security monitoring, particularly around credential storage and service account management. Organizations consistently underestimate the persistence of credentials across system components and fail to monitor for the specific registry access patterns that these attacks require. The chaining of these techniques demonstrates how attackers can maintain persistence even when initial access points are secured.
Prediction:
The techniques demonstrated in Voleur will evolve into automated attack frameworks that continuously harvest credentials across hybrid environments. As organizations improve their detection capabilities for traditional Kerberoasting, attackers will shift toward more sophisticated DPAPI exploitation and registry-based credential mining. The future will see AI-assisted credential correlation tools that automatically identify and exploit relationships between discovered credentials across on-premises and cloud environments, making assumed-breach scenarios increasingly difficult to contain.
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IT/Security Reporter URL:
Reported By: 0xdf Htb – Hackers Feeds
Extra Hub: Undercode MoN
Basic Verification: Pass ✅
