Exam PT0-002 topic 1 question 325 discussion

The technique described is LOLBin, Living-off-the-land binary. If the pentester was just executing the fgdump.exe then yes it would be privilege escalation, but all they are doing is downloading the file in this command.

This command is using certutil to download a file (in this case, fgdump.exe) from a specified URL to the local machine. certutil is a built-in Windows utility, often used for certificate management, but it can also be used to download files. This technique leverages legitimate system utilities to perform potentially malicious activities, making it harder for traditional security defenses to detect. Therefore, the technique being described is: D. Living-off-the-land This term refers to the use of legitimate software and functions already available in the operating system to carry out malicious actions.

certutil is native, but fgdump is not. This is trying to crack passwords to get more privileges.

Living-off-the-land (LotL) techniques involve the use of native tools available on the system to conduct operations typically performed by attackers. This can include moving laterally through a network, executing files, or exfiltrating data, all while potentially evading detection.

Yeti87 is wrong

This command downloads the fgdump.exe tool from the specified URL and saves it locally as fgdump.exe. fgdump.exe is a popular tool used for privilege escalation on Windows systems. It is often used to dump password hashes from the SAM (Security Accounts Manager) database, which can then be cracked offline to obtain plaintext passwords. Therefore, this technique is associated with privilege escalation as it aims to obtain sensitive information (password hashes) that could potentially lead to escalated privileges within the system.