1200KM / simulation
Adversaries may attempt to subvert Kerberos authentication by stealing or forging Kerberos tickets to enable Pass the Ticket. Kerberos is an authentication protocol widely used in modern Windows domain environments. In Kerberos environments, referred to as “realms”, there are three basic participants: client, service, and Key Distribution Center (KDC). Clients request access to a service and through the exchange of Kerberos tickets, originating…
Adversaries may attempt to subvert Kerberos authentication by stealing or forging Kerberos tickets to enable Pass the Ticket. Kerberos is an authentication protocol widely used in modern Windows domain environments. In Kerberos environments, referred to as “realms”, there are three basic participants: client, service, and Key Distribution Center (KDC).[ADSecurity Kerberos Ring Decoder] Clients request access to a service and through the exchange of Kerberos tickets, originating from KDC, they are granted access after having successfully authenticated. The KDC is responsible for both authentication and ticket granting. Adversaries may attempt to abuse Kerberos by stealing tickets or forging tickets to enable unauthorized access.
On Windows, the built-in <code>klist</code> utility can be used to list and analyze cached Kerberos tickets.[Microsoft Klist]
Official technique definition · Open in the interactive matrix
Related pages are navigation context. Their tools, rules and lab results are not automatically inherited.
These contracts are selected through exact technique-to-data-component relationships or explicitly labelled planning overrides. Configure a collector at the relevant observation point; a telemetry name alone is not coverage.
DC0084 collection page — Enable the relevant Account Logon subcategories on DCs, including Kerberos Authentication Service and Service Ticket Operations; preserve service/account, encryption and result.
Required normalized fields: account, service_principal, request_type, result.
Project-normalized synthetic JSON, not a native provider log, captured event, attack verdict or validated detection. A parser/adapter is required for a real SIEM. Example names, IPs and values are fictional.
{
"schema": "1200km.telemetry.example.v1",
"synthetic": true,
"timestamp": "2026-09-27T12:00:00Z",
"telemetry_id": "DC0084",
"collector": "illustrative-lab-collector",
"observation": {
"account": "lab-user",
"service_principal": "cifs/lab-server.example.test",
"request_type": "service_ticket",
"result": "success"
}
}Visibility limits: A policy checkbox alone does not guarantee an event. Host role, SACL, success/failure selection and audit policy precedence matter. Directory changes may arrive as multiple records.
DC0055 collection page — Enable Audit File System plus a narrow SACL on a lab directory; on Linux select path/syscall rules and join associated Audit records.
Required normalized fields: path, access, actor, result.
Project-normalized synthetic JSON, not a native provider log, captured event, attack verdict or validated detection. A parser/adapter is required for a real SIEM. Example names, IPs and values are fictional.
{
"schema": "1200km.telemetry.example.v1",
"synthetic": true,
"timestamp": "2026-09-27T12:00:00Z",
"telemetry_id": "DC0055",
"collector": "illustrative-lab-collector",
"observation": {
"path": "C:\\Lab\\demo.txt",
"access": "read",
"actor": "LAB\\analyst",
"result": "success"
}
}Visibility limits: A policy checkbox alone does not guarantee an event. Host role, SACL, success/failure selection and audit policy precedence matter. Directory changes may arrive as multiple records.
DC0088 collection page — Collect supported session inventory and correlate session IDs with authentication, logon and logoff events.
Required normalized fields: session_id, account, host, session_type.
Project-normalized synthetic JSON, not a native provider log, captured event, attack verdict or validated detection. A parser/adapter is required for a real SIEM. Example names, IPs and values are fictional.
{
"schema": "1200km.telemetry.example.v1",
"synthetic": true,
"timestamp": "2026-09-27T12:00:00Z",
"telemetry_id": "DC0088",
"collector": "illustrative-lab-collector",
"observation": {
"session_id": "lab-session-1",
"account": "LAB\\analyst",
"host": "lab-host-1",
"session_type": "interactive"
}
}Visibility limits: Snapshots miss short-lived objects and do not identify who caused a change. A generic inventory agent is not guaranteed to expose firmware or kernel-level details.
DC0035 collection page — Scope Sysmon ProcessAccess (10) to the selected source/target processes and access rights; retain call-trace fields where emitted.
Required normalized fields: source_process_id, target_process_id, granted_access, action.
Project-normalized synthetic JSON, not a native provider log, captured event, attack verdict or validated detection. A parser/adapter is required for a real SIEM. Example names, IPs and values are fictional.
{
"schema": "1200km.telemetry.example.v1",
"synthetic": true,
"timestamp": "2026-09-27T12:00:00Z",
"telemetry_id": "DC0035",
"collector": "illustrative-lab-collector",
"observation": {
"source_process_id": 4200,
"target_process_id": 4300,
"granted_access": "0x1000",
"action": "open_process"
}
}Visibility limits: Event filtering and sensor versions change coverage. High-volume image-load and process-access collection needs tuning; endpoint events alone do not establish intent.
Open the dedicated detection workspace · Existing query engineering
Detects anomalous Kerberos activity such as forged or stolen tickets by correlating malformed fields in logon events, RC4-encrypted TGTs, or TGS requests without corresponding TGT requests. Also detects suspicious processes accessing LSASS memory for ticket extraction.
Platforms: Windows.
Detects suspicious access to SSSD secrets database and Kerberos key material indicating ticket theft or replay attempts. Correlates anomalous file access with unusual Kerberos service ticket requests.
Platforms: Linux.
Detects attempts to forge or replay Kerberos tickets by monitoring Unified Logs for anomalous kinit/klist activity and correlating unusual authentication sequences.
Platforms: macOS.
5 exact-tagged source rules. A source tag is a discovery aid, not a relevance verdict. Check the observation point and actual condition of each rule.
No exact technique-specific Atlas model is present for T1558 in the selected source snapshot. The following is a design worksheet, not a newly validated model.
Start from the exact analytic above. The collection-specific lenses below are analyst recommendations; they do not assert that an arbitrary statistical deviation detects this technique.
Anomaly Detection Atlas · Baseline, validation and blind spots
No reviewed lab-tool association is selected for this exact technique. This is a curation gap, not a statement that no tool can implement the behavior.
Atomic evidence: no compatible candidate in this snapshot. Live lab status: not run for these imported procedures.
Use disposable lab hosts and test accounts, explicit target allowlists, a clean snapshot, bounded egress and a restore plan. Review every candidate and dependency before any execution.
No compatible Atomic procedure is present in this pinned evidence set. Technical feasibility has not been ruled out. A custom procedure must define the behavior, target, collection point, success observable and rollback before execution.
Download synthetic collection fixture (JSON) · Download the complete engineering workbook
This fixture exercises the listed collection fields. It does not reproduce Steal or Forge Kerberos Tickets, label its example events as malicious, or measure detection effectiveness. Use the exact analytic and selected procedure to build an independently labelled behavior-positive dataset.
Not run in this browser. No network scan or attack command is executed by this control.
All-page audit and evidence inventory · This page’s machine-readable workbook
Pinned MITRE STIX source · SHA-256 81113ba98afa2928f3dcff62022539f7ce30c315c32e14422f11ff95ce534352. Definition and procedure context are reproduced from this snapshot, not independently re-investigated incidents.
For containing the impact of a previously generated golden ticket, reset the built-in KRBTGT account password twice, which will invalidate any existing golden tickets that have been created with the KRBTGT hash and other Kerberos tickets derived from it. For each domain, change the KRBTGT account password once, force replication, and then change the password a second time. Consider rotating the KRBTGT account password every 180 days.[STIG krbtgt reset]
Limit domain admin account permissions to domain controllers and limited servers. Delegate other admin functions to separate accounts.
Limit service accounts to minimal required privileges, including membership in privileged groups such as Domain Administrators.[AdSecurity Cracking Kerberos Dec 2015]
Ensure strong password length (ideally 25+ characters) and complexity for service accounts and that these passwords periodically expire.[AdSecurity Cracking Kerberos Dec 2015] Also consider using Group Managed Service Accounts or another third party product such as password vaulting.[AdSecurity Cracking Kerberos Dec 2015]
Enable AES Kerberos encryption (or another stronger encryption algorithm), rather than RC4, where possible.[AdSecurity Cracking Kerberos Dec 2015]
On Linux systems, protect resources with Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) by defining entry points, process types, and file labels.[Brining MimiKatz to Unix]
Perform audits or scans of systems, permissions, insecure software, insecure configurations, etc. to identify potential weaknesses.
No reviewed association in this snapshot.
These are explicit actor-to-technique associations in the existing Threat Matrix snapshot, not attribution of an event or proof that a detector identifies the actor. No tool-to-actor relationship is inferred.
Pinned research references. No browser attack runner or production-validated detector is asserted. Imported procedures remain unvalidated; any bounded lab evidence has its own scope. ATT&CK / Atomic provenance · Detection provenance.