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Kerberos Attacks: Golden Ticket, Silver Ticket, and Pass-the-Hash

Golden Ticket and Silver Ticket attacks forge Kerberos tickets; Pass-the-Hash reuses NTLM hash-derived credentials. Compare their scope, detection clues, and defenses.
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Golden Ticket and Silver Ticket attacks forge Kerberos tickets; Pass-the-Hash reuses an NTLM password hash or a related credential to authenticate. The techniques rely on different secrets, affect different parts of an Active Directory environment, and leave different clues for defenders. Knowing which is which helps teams choose the right containment and detection measures.

How the three attacks differ

Technique Credential material or action Typical scope Visibility implication
Golden Ticket An attacker uses the KRBTGT account hash to forge a ticket-granting ticket (TGT). Potentially broad access across the Active Directory domain, depending on ticket claims and the resources’ authorization rules. Look for ticket anomalies, unexpected accounts, encryption downgrades, and authentication chains that lack expected activity.
Silver Ticket An attacker uses a target service account’s hash to forge a Kerberos service ticket (TGS). The service or resource associated with that account, and its host. A forged ticket may not require contact with the domain controller (DC), so service-side and endpoint evidence matters as well as DC logs.
Pass-the-Hash An attacker uses an NTLM password hash or a credential derivative to authenticate to a remote server or service. Access depends on the account’s privileges and which systems accept the authentication. Unusual NTLM network logons, sessions, source hosts, processes, and network activity can help reveal misuse.

These are related credential attacks, not interchangeable names for the same method. Golden and Silver Tickets involve Kerberos ticket forgery; Pass-the-Hash involves using hash-derived credential material for authentication. Overpass-the-hash is a related technique that uses a hash to obtain a Kerberos ticket, combining hash use with ticket creation.

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What Golden Ticket and Silver Ticket attacks target

Golden Ticket: the domain’s ticket-granting secret

The KRBTGT account is used by the Kerberos Key Distribution Center in Active Directory to protect ticket-granting tickets. An attacker who obtains its hash can forge TGTs for accounts. This creates the potential for broad domain access, but it does not make every resource automatically accessible: the ticket’s claims and each resource’s authorization rules still matter. MITRE ATT&CK describes the KRBTGT hash as the key material behind this technique.

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Defenders should watch for anomalous ticket properties, unexpected account use, encryption downgrades, and authentication activity that does not fit the expected chain. Microsoft Defender for Identity documents alerts for suspected Golden Ticket use, including ticket anomalies and encryption downgrade. Microsoft specifies a five-day learning period for the encryption-downgrade alert. That is a property of that alert, not a guarantee that every Golden Ticket will be detected.

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Silver Ticket: a service-specific secret

A Silver Ticket is a forged service ticket made using the hash for a target service account. Its usual scope is narrower than a Golden Ticket: it concerns the service and host associated with that account, rather than potential ticket-granting access across the domain. Because this forgery may avoid contacting a DC, the absence of a corresponding KDC ticket-validation event can be a useful clue—but it is not conclusive on its own. MITRE ATT&CK recommends investigating unusual service-ticket behavior alongside service and endpoint context.

What Pass-the-Hash does—and does not do

In a Pass-the-Hash attack, an adversary uses an NTLM password hash or a derivative of it to authenticate to a remote system or service. The attacker is reusing credential material rather than forging a Kerberos TGT or service ticket. The reachable systems and actions depend on the account’s rights and the environment’s authentication configuration.

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This distinction matters during investigation. A suspicious NTLM network logon points to possible hash-based authentication; a forged ticket points to Kerberos abuse. An event or alert should be interpreted in context, not treated as proof of one specific technique without corroborating evidence.

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How to detect these attacks

MITRE ATT&CK’s detection guidance emphasizes correlation: compare authentication and ticket activity with logons, host relationships, process behavior, and network activity. Establish normal account-to-host and service-to-host patterns first, then investigate deviations. A single event rarely establishes that a ticket was forged or a hash was reused.

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Useful Windows telemetry

  • NTLM and logons: MITRE’s Pass-the-Hash analytics call out unusual NTLM Logon Type 3 activity and Windows Security events 4624 (successful logon) and 4648 (logon using explicit credentials).
  • Kerberos requests: Events 4768 and 4769 record Kerberos ticket-granting and service-ticket request activity. Compare them with related logons and expected account and host behavior. A Silver Ticket may lack the expected KDC interaction, so investigate that gap alongside service-side evidence.
  • Endpoint context: MITRE’s analytics also reference process and network activity, process access, and module loading, including Sysmon telemetry. For suspected Silver Ticket use, review LSASS access and whether a service account is being used unexpectedly to reach a resource.
  • Golden Ticket indicators: Review unusual ticket fields, encryption downgrades, unexpected account activity, and authentication chains that do not match the environment’s normal patterns.

These are investigation leads, not universal signatures. Logging availability and normal behavior differ between environments, so tune detections to local baselines and correlate events across the relevant time window. MITRE’s named detection strategies for Pass the Hash (DET0409), Pass the Ticket (DET0352), and Silver Ticket (DET0241) are version 1.0; each is listed as created October 21, 2025, and last modified May 12, 2026.

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Reduce the risk and respond carefully

Protect credential material and limit reuse

Microsoft describes Credential Guard as using virtualization-based security (VBS) to isolate NTLM hashes and Kerberos TGTs. Microsoft’s overview says it “prevents credential theft attacks by protecting NTLM password hashes, Kerberos Ticket Granting Tickets (TGTs), and credentials stored by applications as domain credentials.” Its protections depend on hardware, software, licensing, and configuration requirements; it is one layer of defense, not a guarantee against every persistence technique. Check device eligibility and deployment requirements before rollout.

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Reduce reuse of privileged credentials across systems, and restrict administrators’ credentials to the machines where they are needed. Protected Users and authentication policies can further restrict credential use, but their effects on NTLM, credential caching, delegation, and compatibility depend on Windows and domain configuration. Validate the requirements and test the impact before applying restrictions broadly.

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Harden service accounts

For Silver Ticket risk, MITRE recommends strong service-account passwords that are changed periodically, AES or stronger Kerberos encryption where possible, and least privilege. Managed service accounts or password vaulting are options for improving service-account password management. Review which hosts and services actually need each account’s permissions.

Contain a suspected Golden Ticket compromise

MITRE’s containment guidance is to reset the built-in KRBTGT password twice in each affected domain, allowing replication to complete between resets. Coordinate both resets with incident response and domain operations; the timing and replication state matter. This guidance is not a complete recovery runbook, so a suspected compromise requires a broader, environment-specific response plan.

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