BloodHound is an open-source security tool designed to analyze and visualize relationships and permissions within Microsoft Active Directory (AD) environments. It leverages graph theory to map out complex connections between users, computers, groups, and other AD objects, making it possible to identify hidden attack paths and security misconfigurations that could be exploited by attackers or red teamers.
Key Features and Purpose
- Attack Path Discovery: BloodHound reveals potential attack paths—chains of permissions and relationships—that could allow an attacker to move laterally and escalate privileges within an AD environment.
- Dual Use: The tool is used by both security professionals (defenders/blue teams) to audit and remediate AD security issues, and by penetration testers or adversaries (attackers/red teams) to plan and execute attacks.
- Visualization: BloodHound provides a graphical interface that displays AD objects as nodes in a graph database (Neo4j), allowing users to run queries and visually explore relationships, such as which users have admin rights on which computers or which groups can control sensitive accounts.
- Data Collection: BloodHound relies on ingestors like SharpHound (for on-prem AD) and AzureHound (for Azure environments) to collect data about permissions, group memberships, sessions, trusts, and more.
How BloodHound Works
- Data Collection: Tools such as SharpHound gather data from the AD environment, including user and group memberships, session information, permissions, and trust relationships.
- Data Ingestion: The collected data (usually in JSON format) is uploaded into the BloodHound application, which stores it in a graph database.
- Analysis and Visualization: Users interact with a web interface to query and visualize attack paths, misconfigurations, and privileged relationships. Pre-built queries help quickly identify paths to high-value targets like Domain Admins or abusable permissions.