Individual skill

detecting-golden-ticket-attacks-in-kerberos-logs

Detect Golden Ticket attacks in Active Directory by analyzing Kerberos TGT anomalies including mismatched encryption types, impossible ticket lifetimes, non-existent accounts, and forged PAC signatures in domain controller event logs.

internal/tools/skills/data/threat-hunting/detecting-golden-ticket-attacks-in-kerberos-logs/SKILL.md

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Last checked: Nov 9, 2026

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Repository stars (not skill ratings): 1,313
Repository last updated: Nov 8, 2026
License: Apache-2.0

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cybersecurity Repository topic
security Repository topic
bug-bounty Repository topic
automation Repository topic
autonomous-pentesting Repository topic
ai-agent Repository topic
ai-security Repository topic
ethical-hacking Repository topic
golang Repository topic
penetration-testing Repository topic
threat-hunting Declared skill tag
golden-ticket Declared skill tag
kerberos Declared skill tag
active-directory Declared skill tag
mitre-t1558-001 Declared skill tag
credential-abuse Declared skill tag
security Derived category

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# Detecting Golden Ticket Attacks in Kerberos Logs

## When to Use

- When KRBTGT account hash may have been compromised via DCSync or NTDS.dit extraction
- When hunting for forged Kerberos tickets used for persistent domain access
- After incident response reveals credential theft at the domain level
- When investigating impossible logon patterns (users logging in from multiple locations simultaneously)
- During post-breach assessment to determine if Golden Tickets are in use

## Detection Gaps & Validation

- **Modern forgeries beat the classic heuristics.** Diamond and sapphire tickets forge realistic 10-hour lifetimes with AES (0x12/0x11), so the "RC4 (0x17) + impossible lifetime" rule misses them. A diamond ticket modifies a *real* TGT, so a matching 4768 **does** exist — the "4769 without prior 4768" heuristic fails there too.
- **PAC validation must be enforced.** Forged PACs are only rejected with KB5008380/KB5037754 enforcement enabled. Verify the patch level and the `PacRequestorEnforcement` registry state; otherwise forged tickets sail through.