Getting started with BloodHound Enterprise

This article applies to BHE

This article describes the step-by-step process of deploying and using BloodHound Enterprise, which is to be followed after being provided a BloodHound Enterprise instance.

Don’t have an instance? Request a demo and see why BloodHound Enterprise is awesome.

Information about the security of your BloodHound Enterprise instance is available in the article BloodHound Enterprise Security Overview.

Granting access

Your instance is pre-created with one or just a few administrative users. Granting your whole team access to BloodHound Enterprise with dedicated users and roles is recommended.

BloodHound Enterprise supports two authentication methods:

  • Built-in authentication via username and password, supports TOTP-based multi-factor authentication.
  • SAML 2.0-based Single-Sign-On as described in SAML in BloodHound Enterprise.

Your initial users will be configured with built-in authentication, thereafter you are free to configure SAML authentication, create users, and set user roles.

One of four access control roles can be granted to every user as described in the article User Roles.

We recommend enabling multi-factor authentication for all users no matter the authentication method and user role. If using SAML authentication, your connected identity provider will be responsible for multi-factor authentication.

Deploy Data Collectors

BloodHound Enterprise can analyze data collected by its two collector services, each collecting from a specific directory:

  • Active Directory, collected by SharpHound Enterprise
  • Entra ID and Azure, collected by AzureHound Enterprise

The two services may be run from the same Windows system, however AzureHound Enterprise also supports Docker and Kubernetes.

Deploy SharpHound Enterprise (Active Directory)

SharpHound Enterprise can collect multiple data types from Active Directory and its domain-joined systems. It is recommended that all types be collected to identify most risks and for BloodHound Enterprise to calculate an accurate risk assessment.

No matter the collection type, the SharpHound Enterprise collector service must be installed on a domain-joined Windows system, and the service must run as an Active Directory account. Follow the below step-by-step:

  1. SharpHound Enterprise System Requirements
  2. Deploy and maintain SharpHound: Install and Upgrade SharpHound Enterprise
  3. SharpHound Enterprise also supports Cross-Trust Collection.
    • To fully secure a domain, we recommend collecting data from all other domains with a trust relationship to it (in- and outgoing trust).

Deploy AzureHound Enterprise (Entra ID and Azure)

The AzureHound Enterprise collector service can be run on Windows, Docker, and Kubernetes. Follow the below step-by-step:

  1. AzureHound Enterprise System Requirements and Deployment Process
  2. Configure Azure: AzureHound Enterprise Azure Configuration
  3. Create your AzureHound configuration: AzureHound Enterprise Local Configuration
  4. Deploy and maintain AzureHound: Run and Upgrade AzureHound (Windows, Docker, or Kubernetes)

Verify data quality

After data has been collected, click on settings ⚙️ → Administration, select Data Quality and>

  1. Verify that the collectors have collected the expected amount of data/number of principal types in each directory.
  2. If using privileged collection, verify that the charts "Local Group Completeness Over Time" and "Session Completeness Over Time" both report higher than 0%. Bear in mind that obtaining 100% is not possible in most environments, e.g., due to workstations being offline during collection.

If seeing lower-than-expected data quality you must examine data collection logs. Please reach out to your SpecterOps representative for assistance in this task.

Scoping Tier Zero

BloodHound Enterprise will identify and prioritize attack paths, to get the most accurate assessment you should scope your Tier Zero objects, for this you should:

Explore and remediate attack paths

On the "Explore" page you can see identified attack paths, their prioritization, and recommended mitigations.

For advanced usage, read the following articles:

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