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Hackers Steal Active Directory Password Hashes Without Attacking Domain Controllers Directly
Attackers use the DCSync technique to impersonate domain controllers and harvest AD password hashes and Kerberos keys without directly compromising domain controllers, Trellix warns.
Per Trellix, threat actors increasingly abuse Active Directory replication via DCSync, using privileged credentials to invoke DRSGetNCChanges and retrieve NTLM password hashes and Kerberos key material without running code on domain controllers. Capturing the krbtgt account hash enables forging Golden Tickets for persistent, highly privileged domain access. Because malicious replication traffic mimics legitimate DRS/RPC activity, defenders should monitor Windows Security Event ID 4662, restrict replication permissions, and investigate replication requests from non-domain-controller systems.
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CISA Warns Hackers Exploit 17 Active Directory Techniques to Gain Control of Enterprise Networks
CISA and Five Eyes agencies issued joint guidance detailing 17 Active Directory attack techniques like Kerberoasting and DCSync, with hardening and detection advice.
CISA, the NSA, and cyber agencies from Australia, Canada, the UK, and New Zealand released joint guidance on September 15 covering 17 techniques attackers use to compromise Active Directory, including AD CS, Certificate Services, and Federation Services attacks. Named techniques include Kerberoasting, AS-REP roasting, password spraying, DCSync, NTDS.dit dumping, Golden and Silver Tickets, Golden SAML, and Skeleton Key. Recommendations include minimizing SPN accounts, enforcing AES encryption, disabling NTLM, account lockout thresholds of five attempts, phishing-resistant MFA, and Tier 0 prioritization. The guide also lists Windows event IDs 4769, 4768, 4625, 4771, and 2889 for detecting Kerberoasting and password spraying on domain controllers.
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Windows 11 KB5124008 Update Breaks Active Directory Domain Trust and Blocks User Logins
Microsoft's September Windows 11 cumulative update KB5124008 breaks Active Directory domain trust on domain-joined machines, blocking logins despite valid credentials.
Microsoft is investigating community reports that KB5124008, the September 8, 2026 cumulative update for Windows 11 24H2/25H2 (builds 26100.9445/26200.9445), breaks the AD secure channel, causing 'The user name or password is incorrect' errors on interactive logon. Admins reproduced the failure consistently and observed nltest error 1786 (ERROR_NO_TRUST_LSA_SECRET) plus domain controller Event 4625 with status 0xC000006D over NTLM. The problem is suspected in Machine Identity Isolation, a Credential Guard capability that moves machine-account secrets into virtualization-based security, and disabling it via registry value, Group Policy, or Intune baseline restored trust. The September 14 out-of-band update KB5129195 does not address the domain trust issue, and Microsoft's release notes do not list it as a known problem.
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