The Fundamentals of Hacking Active Directory — Part 1 | OSINT & Initial Access

17 hours ago
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Active Directory is the backbone of most corporate networks — and when AD goes down, the entire organization goes down with it. In this video, I break down how real-world attackers gain their first foothold inside a Windows domain without ever having a username or password.

We walk through how OSINT + internal network recon reveal domain names, hostnames, controllers, users, and NTLM hashes that can later be cracked for valid credentials. This is Phase 1 of the Active Directory Kill Chain: going from zero access → valid domain user.

👉 Topics Covered
• What Active Directory actually controls
• Why AD is the #1 target for Red Teams & threat actors
• Three-phase AD Kill Chain (initial → privilege → domain takeover)
• How to get credentials WITHOUT authentication
• LLMNR / NBNS spoofing and passive hash capture
• Why “one unprivileged account” can lead to full domain compromise

This series teaches the attacker mindset so defenders can better protect their network.
🔔 Subscribe to follow along — Part 2 (Privilege Escalation) drops next.

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