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New Certighost PoC exploit lets attackers hijack Windows domains

Published:

27 July 2026 at 23:00:25

Alert date:

28 July 2026 at 00:00:55

Source:

bleepingcomputer.com

Click to open the original link from this advisory

Operating Systems, Zero-Day Vulnerabilities, Identity & Access

A proof-of-concept exploit dubbed 'Certighost' has been released targeting a vulnerability in Windows Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS). The exploit allows authenticated attackers to potentially compromise and hijack an entire Windows domain. The release of a public PoC significantly lowers the barrier for threat actors to exploit the vulnerability. AD CS vulnerabilities are considered high-value targets as they can enable full domain compromise. Organizations running Windows domains with AD CS are advised to patch and monitor for exploitation attempts. The vulnerability follows a pattern of similar AD CS attack techniques that have been increasingly targeted in recent years.

Technical details

Mitigation steps:

Affected products:

Windows Active Directory Certificate Services
Windows Active Directory

Related links:

Related CVE's:

Related threat actors:

IOC's:

certighost.py proof-of-concept tool (github.com/aniqfakhrul/CVE-2026-54121), Kerberos .ccache credential files generated via PKINIT authentication as domain controller, DCSync activity targeting krbtgt account credentials, Rogue SMB, LSA, and LDAP services on non-domain-controller hosts, Certificate requests containing attacker-controlled 'cdc' and 'rmd' attributes directed to non-legitimate domain controllers, Machine account creation via ms-DS-MachineAccountQuota by low-privileged users prior to certificate abuse

This article was created with the assistance of AI technology by Perceptive.

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