analyzing-active-directory-acl-abuse

1# Analyzing Active Directory ACL Abuse
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3## Overview
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5Active Directory Access Control Lists (ACLs) define permissions on AD objects through Discretionary Access Control Lists (DACLs) containing Access Control Entries (ACEs). Misconfigured ACEs can grant non-privileged users dangerous permissions such as GenericAll (full control), WriteDACL (modify permissions), WriteOwner (take ownership), and GenericWrite (modify attributes) on sensitive objects like Domain Admins groups, domain controllers, or GPOs.
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7This skill uses the ldap3 Python library to connect to a Domain Controller, query objects with their nTSecurityDescriptor attribute, parse the binary security descriptor into SDDL (Security Descriptor Definition Language) format, and identify ACEs that grant dangerous permissions to non-administrative principals. These misconfigurations are the basis for ACL-based attack paths discovered by tools like BloodHound.
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10## When to Use
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12- When investigating security incidents that require analyzing active directory acl abuse
13- When building detection rules or threat hunting queries for this domain
14- When SOC analysts need structured procedures for this analysis type
15- When validating security monitoring coverage for related attack techniques
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17## Prerequisites
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19- Python 3.9 or later with ldap3 library (`pip install ldap3`)
20- Domain user credentials with read access to AD objects
21- Network connectivity to Domain Controller on port 389 (LDAP) or 636 (LDAPS)
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