Active Directory Domain Services Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability (CVE-2025-21293)
In September of 2024 while on a customer assigment I encountered the “Network Configuration Operators” group, a so called builtin group of Active Directory (default). As I had never heard of or encountered this group membership before, it sprung to eye immediately. Initially I tried to look up if it had any security implications, like its more known colleagues DNS Admins and Backup Operators, but to no avail. Surpisingly little came up about the group but I couldn’t help myself from probing further. This led me down the rabbithole of Registry Database access control lists and possibilities of weaponization, culminating with the discovery of CVE-2025-21293. Before we move along to the body of work, I have to give out a special thanks to Clément Labro, who initially did the heavy lifting of finding a way to weaponize performancecounters. (This will hopefully make more sense by the end of the article) and my colleagues at ReTest Security ApS, who have provided me with knowledge in the field and the oppertunity to put it to use.