CAPEC Definitions / CAPEC-652
CAPEC-652: Use of Known Kerberos Credentials
An adversary obtains (i.e. steals or purchases) legitimate Kerberos credentials (e.g. Kerberos service account userID/password or Kerberos Tickets) with the goal of achieving authenticated access to additional systems, applications, or services within the domain.
Extended Description
Kerberos is the default authentication method for Windows domains and is also used across many operating systems. Attacks leveraging trusted Kerberos credentials can result in numerous consequences, depending on what Kerberos credential is stolen. For example, Kerberos service accounts are typically used to run services or scheduled tasks pertaining to authentication. However, these credentials are often weak and never expire, in addition to possessing local or domain administrator privileges. If an adversary is able to acquire these credentials, it could result in lateral movement within the domain or access to any resources the service account is privileged to access, among other things. Ultimately, successful spoofing and impersonation of trusted Kerberos credentials can lead to an adversary breaking authentication, authorization, and audit controls with the target system or application.
Mitigations
Create a strong password policy and ensure that your system enforces this policy for Kerberos service accounts.
Ensure Kerberos service accounts are not reusing username/password combinations for multiple systems, applications, or services.
Do not reuse Kerberos service account credentials across systems.
Deny remote use of Kerberos service account credentials to log into domain systems.
Do not allow Kerberos service accounts to be a local administrator on more than one system.
Enable at least AES Kerberos encryption for tickets.
Monitor system and domain logs for abnormal credential access.
Relationships with other CAPECs
Prerequisites
The system/application leverages Kerberos authentication.
The system/application uses one factor password-based authentication, SSO, and/or cloud-based authentication for Kerberos service accounts.
The system/application does not have a sound password policy that is being enforced for Kerberos service accounts.
The system/application does not implement an effective password throttling mechanism for authenticating to Kerberos service accounts.
The targeted network allows for network sniffing attacks to succeed.
Related Weaknesses
CWE-522: Insufficiently Protected Credentials
CWE-307: Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts
CWE-308: Use of Single-factor Authentication
CWE-309: Use of Password System for Primary Authentication
CWE-262: Not Using Password Aging
CWE-263: Password Aging with Long Expiration
CWE-654: Reliance on a Single Factor in a Security Decision
CWE-294: Authentication Bypass by Capture-replay
CWE-836: Use of Password Hash Instead of Password for Authentication
