How bad is NTLM?

No Mutual Authentication

Unlike Kerberos, when a client authenticates to a server using NTLM, it cannot validate the identity of the server. This means that a malicious actor with man-in-the-middle capabilities could send the client fake/malicious data while impersonating the server.

Why is NTLM bad?

In an NTLM relay attack, the attacker can intercept the server-client connection and run a man-in-the-middle attack. The attacker will impersonate by intercepting the challenge before getting to the client and then grabbing the responses and forwarding them to the server.

Is NTLM authentication safe?

Is NTLM secure? NTLM is generally considered insecure because it uses outdated cryptography that is vulnerable to several modes of attacks. NTLM is also vulnerable to the pass-the-hash attack and brute-force attacks.

Is NTLM outdated?

NTLM is considered an outdated protocol. As such, its benefits — when compared to a more modern solution, such as Kerberos — are limited.

Should NTLM be used?

Current applications

NTLM authentication is still supported and must be used for Windows authentication with systems configured as a member of a workgroup. NTLM authentication is also used for local logon authentication on non-domain controllers.

What is NTLM ? How does NTLM authentication work ? NTLM protocol: pros and cons of this method ?

Why you should disable NTLM?

Should I disable NTLM?

The main risk of disabling NTLM is the potential usage of legacy or incorrectly configured applications that can still use NTLM authentication. In this case, you will have to update or configure them in a special way to switch to Kerberos.

Why is Kerberos more secure than NTLM?

– While both the authentication protocols are secure, NTLM is not as secure as Kerberos because it requires a point-to-point connection between the Web browser and server in order to function properly. Kerberos is more secure because it never transmits passwords over the network in the clear.

What is the weakness of the NTLM authentication protocol?

NTLM is a rather veteran authentication protocol and quite vulnerable for relatively easy to initiate attacks. The fact that it is not secure, doesn't make it easier to move to a better protocol (such as Kerberos), since many functions are dependent on it.

Is NTLM traffic encrypted?

NTLM uses an encrypted challenge/response protocol to authenticate a user without sending the user's password over the wire. Instead, the system requesting authentication must perform a calculation that proves it has access to the secured NTLM credentials.

Does Windows 10 use NTLMv2?

Windows 8. x and later and Windows Server use NTLMv2 authentication by default, but in rare instances, this setting may become incorrect, even if the NTLM setting was previously correct.

Are NTLM hashes salted?

To answer your question: NTLM is unsalted, and NTLMv2 adds a salt, which is exchanged in the messaging. In this case the salt is applied a bit differently -- MD5(MD5(password), salt) -- because the salt is randomly generated each time, and what's stored in the authentication database is just MD5(password).

Why is SMB so vulnerable?

SMB vulnerabilities have been around for 20+ years. In general, most cyber-attacks involving SMB do not occur because an enterprise failed to procure an expensive tool or application, but rather because there was a failure to implement best practices surrounding SMB.

Does NTLM use SSL?

Yes, you can use SSL with NTLM.

Does SMB use Kerberos or NTLM?

Kerberos is the default authentication mechanism for SMB access, while NTLMv2 is supported as a failover authentication scenario, as in Windows SMB servers.

Does NTLM use Kerberos?

NTLM is an authentication protocol. It was the default protocol used in old windows versions, but it's still used today. If for any reason Kerberos fails, NTLM will be used instead.

Is Kerberos faster than NTLM?

Kerberos performance and security is far better than NTLMv1 or NTLMv2. It's not even up for debate. Every third packet needs to be sent to the domain controller for challenge/response when using NTLM.

What will replace Kerberos?

There are no real competitors to replace Kerberos so far. Most of the advancements in security are to protect your password or provide a different method of validating who you are to Kerberos. Kerberos is still the back-end technology.

Is NTLMv2 deprecated?

Following this end of availability, on October 24, 2019, the NTLM protocol-based authentication will be deprecated and will no longer be available in VMware Identity Manager.

How do I know if NTLM is being used?

To find applications that use NTLMv1, enable Logon Success Auditing on the domain controller, and then look for Success auditing Event 4624, which contains information about the version of NTLM.

Does Active Directory use NTLM?

NTLM is still used for computers that are members of a workgroup as well as local authentication. In an Active Directory domain environment, however, Kerberos authentication is preferable. For backward compatibility reasons, Microsoft still supports NTLM.

Is NTLM the same as Windows authentication?

NTLM is the proprietary Microsoft authentication protocol.

Does NTLM use LDAP?

The solution uses UnboundID Java LDAP SDK and for the NTLM Handling it uses samba.

How do I know if Windows 10 has NTLM?

Click down to “Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options. Find the policy “Network Security: LAN Manager authentication level”. Right click on this policy and choose “Properties”. Choose “Send NTLMv2 response only/refuse LM & NTLM”.

How did WannaCry exploit SMB?

The malware randomly generates internal and external IP addresses and attempts to initiate communications. If a host is found with open NetBIOS ports, three NetBIOS session setup packets are sent. The malware sends SMB packets containing the exploit shell code and an encrypted payload.