Cross-Domain Escalation: Child-to-Forest Compromise via SID History and Golden Tickets
In complex enterprise networks, Active Directory is typically deployed as a multi-domain forest. An organization begins with a forest root domain (e.g., UNIXAWY.CORP) and branches into child domains for geographic regions, business units, or acquisitions (e.g., operators.unixawy.corp). A common security misconception is that a child domain functions as a security boundary. In an Active Directory forest, the forest is the only true security boundary—the domain is simply an administrative boundary. ...