DnsAdmin
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Users who are members of the group 'DnsAdmins' have the ability to abuse a feature in the Microsoft DNS management protocol to make the DNS server load any specified DLL. The service which in turn, executes the DLL is performed in the context of SYSTEM and could be used on a Domain Controller (Where DNS is usually running from) to gain Domain Administrator privileges.
This attack scenario takes places on a Windows Server 2019 Domain Controller where, an adversary has access to the user, Moe's credentials and is connected over WinRM from Kali Linux. Moe has been discovered to be a member of the DnsAdmins group.
msfvenom can then be used to create a malicious DLL that, when executed by DNS will connect back to the attackers machine in the context of SYSTEM on the Domain Controller.
Once the malicious DLL has been uploaded to the target the following command can be used to register the DLL.
Over on the attackers system a netcat listener is set to listen in, on the port specified in the msfvenom command earlier.
From here stopping the DNS service and starting it again will spawn a SYSTEM shell to the netcat listener.
The netcat shell should now connect as SYSTEM.
From here Domain Administrator persistence can be achieved. A new user can be created with Domain Administrator privileges.
Ensure only admin accounts are members of the DNSAdmins group and ensure they only administer DNS from admin systems. Include DNSAdmins in the list of groups that membership is carefully scrutinized.
Regularly review the DNS server object permissions for any group/account that shouldn’t have privileged access.
Restrict RPC communication to DCs to only admin subnets.
Monitor for changes to HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\DNS\Parameters\ServerLevelPluginDll on DNS Servers
Monitor for child processes spawned under DNS.exe on DNS servers.
Audit ACL for write privilege to DNS server object and membership of DNSAdmins group
Monitor event logs for ID 150 [Failure] and ID 770 [Success]
[General]
[Offensive]
[Detection]
