In this lesson, we're going to cover
enumerating for lateral movement.
We'll discuss five key areas: service discovery,
network traffic discovery, credential capturing,
credential dumping, and string searches,
including protocol IDs.
Each of these areas plays an important role
in identifying opportunities for lateral movement
within a network.
First, let's talk about service discovery.
This process involves identifying active services running
on networked devices.
By discovering services,
you can understand which applications
and services are available for potential exploitation.
Tools like NMAP are commonly used for this purpose.
For example, you might use NMAP to scan a target
and discover services running on specific ports
such as HTTP on Port 80, SMB on Port 445,
or RDP on Port 3389.
Knowing which services are running,
helps you identify potential entry points
and vulnerabilities that can be exploited
from moving laterally.
Next, we have network traffic discovery.
This involves analyzing the flow of data within a network
to identify communication patterns
and potential targets for a lateral movement.
Tools like Wireshark and tcpdump are useful for capturing
and analyzing network traffic.
By examining the traffic, you can identify active hosts,
open ports, and the types of protocols in use.
For instance, you might notice frequent SMB traffic
between certain hosts, indicating potential targets
for an SMB relay attack.
Understanding the network traffic helps you map out
the network and identify key systems
for further investigation.
Credential capturing is another important area.
This involves intercepting
and capturing authentication credentials
as they are transmitted over the network.
Techniques like man-in-the-middle or on-path attacks
and phishing can be used to capture these credentials.
Tools like Responder and Ettercap
can help with this process.
Responder can be used to poison LLMNR
and NBT-NS requests, capturing NTLMv2 hashes
that can be cracked to reveal plaintext passwords.
Capturing credentials allows you to gain access
to additional systems and move laterally within the network.
Credential dumping takes credential capturing a step further
by extracting stored credentials from compromised systems.
Once you have access to a system,
you can use tools like Mimikatz
to dump credentials from memory,
or the Security Account Manager (SAM) Database.
For example, Mimikatz can extract plaintext passwords,
password hashes, and Kerberos tickets
from compromised Windows machines.
Dumping credentials provides you
with the necessary information
to authenticate to other systems.
Lastly, string searches and protocol IDs are useful
for identifying sensitive information
and potential attack vectors with captured data.
String searches involve searching through files, logs,
and memory dumps for specific patterns, such as passwords,
API keys, or configuration details.
Tools like grep and strings can be used
for this purpose in Linux.
Protocol IDs help you identify
and analyze specific ports in use, such as HTTP, SMB,
and LDAP, by examining their unique identifiers
within network traffic.
Understanding these protocols
and their identifiers helps you craft targeted attacks
and identify additional opportunities for lateral movement.
So remember, enumerating for lateral movement involves
a combination of service discovery,
network traffic discovery, credential capturing,
credential dumping, and string searches.
By mastering these techniques,
you can effectively identify opportunities
for moving laterally within a network,
enhancing your ability to assess
and secure complex network environments.