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CTD-000181

AD user with identical password

Critical
Active Directory
Credential Access Initial Access Lateral Movement
v11

Signature Identity

CTD-000181
Threat ID
11
Version
IOA-IOC-IOE
Indicator Type

Threat Description

When multiple accounts share the same password, it significantly increases the risk of lateral movement in the event of a compromise. If a single account is breached, identical passwords allow attackers to access other accounts without additional effort.

Cayosoft analyzes password hashes, and when identical hashes are detected across accounts, it flags them as duplicate passwords to encourage the use of unique, strong credentials for each account.

Duplicate password detection operates across all managed domains in Guardian. We do not expose the specific user accounts with duplicate passwords to further protect sensitive information.

Cayosoft Guardian is designed with strict security principles to protect sensitive credential data within customer environments.

Cayosoft Guardian does not store or transmit password hashes. All password-related comparison operations are executed locally on your domain controllers, ensuring that password hashes remain within your secure environment and are never sent to the internet or external systems.

This architecture ensures that password hashes are not collected, exported, or exposed outside your Active Directory domain controllers during backup, recovery, or change monitoring operations.

MITRE ATT&CK: Attack Tactics

Credential Access Initial Access Lateral Movement

D3FEND: Defend Tactics

D3-PR (Password Rotation)

Remediation

  1. Enforce complexity requirements, length, and expiration settings through Group Policy to enhance security.
  2. Use Active Directory Users and Computers to locate active and inactive accounts.
  3. Reset passwords for compromised or inactive accounts and disable or remove unnecessary accounts to reduce security risks.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does AD user with identical password mean?

AD user with identical password means that one or more Active Directory user accounts have the same password hash. This sharing of a single password across multiple accounts allows an attacker to use the compromised credentials to authenticate to other accounts, increasing the attack surface.

AD user with identical password is rated critical because it enables attackers to bypass additional authentication factors and access multiple accounts using a single set of compromised credentials. This increases the difficulty for administrators to detect and respond to security incidents.

When AD user with identical password is present, an attacker who compromises one account's password hash can use those credentials to authenticate to other accounts sharing the same password hash. This allows them to access sensitive resources and data without additional effort, supporting later attacker activity such as lateral movement and privilege escalation.

Cayosoft Guardian detects AD user with identical password by continuously monitoring Active Directory for duplicate password hashes. When identical hashes are detected across accounts, Guardian flags them as a security issue so administrators can take action to reset or change the affected passwords.

Cayosoft Guardian helps reduce the risk of AD user with identical password by providing visibility into duplicate passwords and alerting administrators to take action. This limits the attack surface, making it easier for administrators to detect and respond to security incidents.

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Classification
Systems
Active Directory
Themes
Account protection
Attack Tactics
Credential Access Initial Access Lateral Movement
Defend Tactics
D3-PR (Password Rotation)
Indicator Types
IOA IOC IOE
Related Threats
CTD-000139
Kerberos Constrained Delegation: krbtgt Risks
Critical
CTD-000122
Active Directory Schema Update Permission Risks
Critical