A single delegated Windows right, SeTakeOwnershipPrivilege, can be abused to take ownership of protected System32 binaries on a Domain Controller and escalate a standard domain user to SYSTEM. The article shows two paths—hijacking Utilman.exe to reset the built-in Administrator password and replacing osk.exe with a reverse shell payload—then outlines mitigation and detection steps. #SeTakeOwnershipPrivilege #Utilman.exe #osk.exe #DomainController #winlogon.exe
Keypoints
- SeTakeOwnershipPrivilege lets a user seize ownership of securable objects, including protected system files.
- A misconfigured Group Policy granted the right to the domain user raaz.
- takeown, icacls, and copy were used to overwrite Utilman.exe with cmd.exe.
- Replacing osk.exe with a payload produced a reverse shell back to the attacker.
- The article recommends restricting the privilege, monitoring System32 changes, and enforcing NLA and WDAC.
Read More: https://www.hackingarticles.in/windows-privilege-escalation-setakeownershipprivilege/