TA0006 · CREDENTIAL ACCESS
Golden Ticket
Adversaries who have the KRBTGT account password hash may forge Kerberos ticket-granting tickets (TGT), also known as a golden ticket. Golden tickets enable adversaries to generate authentication material for any account in Active Directory.
Detect it with
Monitor for anomalous Kerberos activity, such as malformed or blank fields in Windows logon/logoff events (Event ID 4624, 4672, 4634), RC4 encryption within TGTs, and TGS requests without preceding TGT requests.
Why it matters on shift
Golden Ticket is one of the concrete ways adversaries achieve credential access. Recognising it in telemetry lets you name the technique in your ticket and pivot to what came before and after.
What to look for next
After credential access, the next tactic is usually Discovery. Search your telemetry for the transition before closing the ticket.
Kill-chain context