Credential Assessment: Mapping Privilege Escalation at Scale

Credential Assessment: Mapping Privilege Escalation at Scale

In countless intrusions from large retail giants to oil companies, attackers have progressed from initial access to complete network compromise. In the aftermath, much ink is spilt and products are sold on how the attackers first got a shell and how the malware they used could or could not have been detected, while little attention is given to the credentials they found that turned their access on a single- system into thousands more. This process, while critical for offensive operations, is often complex, involving many links in the escalation chain composed of obtaining credentials on system A that grant access to system B and credentials later used on system B that grant further access, etc. We’ll show how to identify and combat such credential exposure at scale with the framework we developed. We comprehensively identify exposed credentials and automatically construct the compromise chains to identify maximal access and privileges gained, useful for either offensive or defensive purposes.

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