Group Policy Discovery
Adversaries may gather information on Group Policy settings to identify paths for privilege escalation, security measures applied within a domain, and to discover patterns in domain objects that can be manipulated or used to blend in the environment. Group Policy allows for centralized management of user and computer settings in Active Directory (AD). Group policy objects (GPOs) are containers for group policy settings made up of files stored within a predictable network path `\gpresult
or various publicly available PowerShell functions, such as Get-DomainGPO
and Get-DomainGPOLocalGroup
, to gather information on Group Policy settings.(Citation: Microsoft gpresult)(Citation: Github PowerShell Empire) Adversaries may use this information to shape follow-on behaviors, including determining potential attack paths within the target network as well as opportunities to manipulate Group Policy settings (i.e. Domain or Tenant Policy Modification) for their benefit.
Procedure Examples |
|
Name | Description |
---|---|
BloodHound |
BloodHound has the ability to collect local admin information via GPO.(Citation: GitHub Bloodhound) |
Emissary |
Emissary has the capability to execute |
DUSTTRAP |
DUSTTRAP can identify victim environment Group Policy information.(Citation: Google Cloud APT41 2024) |
Empire |
Empire includes various modules for enumerating Group Policy.(Citation: Github PowerShell Empire) |
LunarWeb |
LunarWeb can capture information on group policy settings(Citation: ESET Turla Lunar toolset May 2024) |
Turla |
Turla surveys a system upon check-in to discover Group Policy details using the |
Detection
System and network discovery techniques normally occur throughout an operation as an adversary learns the environment. Data and events should not be viewed in isolation, but as part of a chain of behavior that could lead to other activities based on the information obtained.
Monitor for suspicious use of gpresult
. Monitor for the use of PowerShell functions such as Get-DomainGPO
and Get-DomainGPOLocalGroup
and processes spawning with command-line arguments containing GPOLocalGroup
.
Monitor for abnormal LDAP queries with filters for groupPolicyContainer
and high volumes of LDAP traffic to domain controllers. Windows Event ID 4661 can also be used to detect when a directory service has been accessed.
References
- Schroeder, W., Warner, J., Nelson, M. (n.d.). Github PowerShellEmpire. Retrieved April 28, 2016.
- Microsoft. (2017, October 16). gpresult. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
- Faou, M. (2020, May). From Agent.btz to ComRAT v4: A ten-year journey. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
- Mike Stokkel et al. (2024, July 18). APT41 Has Arisen From the DUST. Retrieved September 16, 2024.
- Robbins, A., Vazarkar, R., and Schroeder, W. (2016, April 17). Bloodhound: Six Degrees of Domain Admin. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
- Falcone, R. and Miller-Osborn, J. (2016, February 3). Emissary Trojan Changelog: Did Operation Lotus Blossom Cause It to Evolve?. Retrieved February 15, 2016.
- Metcalf, S. (2016, March 14). Sneaky Active Directory Persistence #17: Group Policy. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
- CISA et al. (2024, July 8). People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ministry of State Security APT40 Tradecraft in Action. Retrieved February 3, 2025.
- Jurčacko, F. (2024, May 15). To the Moon and back(doors): Lunar landing in diplomatic missions. Retrieved June 26, 2024.
- srachui. (2012, February 13). Group Policy Basics – Part 1: Understanding the Structure of a Group Policy Object. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
Каталоги
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