SharpHound Enterprise Local Configuration

This article applies to BHE


The local configuration of SharpHound Enterprise occurs within two files: settings.json and auth.json, their file paths can be found in the table below. Note that %AppData% is the directory of the service account: "C:\Users\SERVICE_ACCOUNT$\AppData\Roaming".

SharpHound File

Default Path (v2.5.8+)

Default Path (<v2.5.8)

Configuration File

%AppData%\AppData\Roaming\BloodHoundEnterprise\settings.json

C:\Program Files (x86)\SHService\settings.json

Authentication File

%AppData%\AppData\Roaming\BloodHoundEnterprise\auth.json

C:\Program Files (x86)\SHService\auth.json

Active Logs

%AppData%\BloodHoundEnterprise\*.log

%AppData%\Roaming\BloodHound Enterprise\*.log

Archived Logs

%AppData%\Roaming\BloodHoundEnterprise\log_archive\*.zip

%AppData%\Roaming\BloodHound Enterprise\log_archive\*.zip

 

Modifying SharpHound Settings

To modify any settings below on your SharpHound configuration, you must stop the SharpHound service. The process to modify SharpHound's settings files is as follows:

  1. Stop the SharpHound Enterprise service: "SharpHound Delegator"
  2. Edit and save the desired settings file. You may need to open the file as a local Administrator to save it.
  3. Start the SharpHound Enterprise service: "SharpHound Delegator"

 

Settings Files

settings.json

Plaintext JSON file that defines information about how the service behaves, such as settings for connecting to the BloodHound Enterprise tenant, connecting to Active Directory, and writing logs.

An example of the file:

{
"RestEndpoint": "CODENAME.bloodhoundenterprise.io",
"RestPort": 443,
"SSL": tdrue,
"CurrentJob": null,
"LogLevel": "Information",
"EnumerationLogLevel": "Information",
"TempDirectory": "C:\\Users\\gmsa_SHS$\\AppData\\Roaming\\BloodHoundEnterprise",
"Proxy": null,
"ComputerPasswordResetWindow": 60,
"ForceLDAPKerberosAuth": true,
"PortCheckTimeout": 10000,
"LDAPSSLPort": 636,
"LDAPPort": 389,
"ForceLDAPSSL": false,
"NumWorkers": 50,
"PartitionLDAPQueries": true,
"Version": "2.5.9.0"
}

The following table outlines supported fields and their default values:

Field Type Description Default value Example value
RestEndpoint String

Your tenant domain, as provided by your account team

This field should contain a domain only; do not include URI information such as "https://"

 "CODENAME.bloodhoundenterprise.io" "demo.bloodhoundenterprise.io"
RestPort Integer TCP port which BloodHound Enterprise API runs on. 443 443
SSL Boolean Is the API SSL enabled True True
CurrentJob Array

SharpHound utilizes this field to track the currently running task. It will be null when no task is running.

 Do not modify this value. Do not modify this value.
LogLevel String

Logging verbosity level for the service itself. These logs appear in service.log within the configured TempDirectory location.

The following levels are supported from most to least verbose (most typically used options are underlined):

  • Trace
  • Debug
  • Information
  • Warning
  • Error
  • Critical
  • None
 "Information" "Trace"
EnumerationLogLevel String

Logging verbosity level used during collection jobs. 

The following levels are supported from most to least verbose (most typically used options are underlined):

  • Trace
  • Debug
  • Information
  • Warning
  • Error
  • Critical
  • None
 "Information" "Trace"
TempDirectory String

Directory in which logs and temporary files are stored. Upon service start, if this value is null, the service will default to the "%APPDATA%\Roaming\BloodHound Enterprise\" directory belonging to the service user.

Logs are retained for 14 days.

Backslashes (\) must be escaped for proper JSON formatting, i.e. double backslashes are required.

 null "C:\\Users\\SERVICE_USER$\\ AppData\\Roaming\\BloodHound Enterprise\\"
Proxy String HTTP Proxy URL if needed. null "proxy.acme.com:8080"
ComputerPasswordResetWindow Integer

When performing local collections, any computer objects that have not rotated their password with the domain in this many days will be excluded. By default, computers in Active Directory rotated their passwords every 30 days.

Minimum value: 7

This Windows setting specifies how often the computer will rotate its password: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/security-policy-settings/domain-member-maximum-machine-account-password-age

It is possible to prevent a Windows computer from rotating its password completely with this setting: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/security-policy-settings/domain-member-disable-machine-account-password-changes

 60 365
ForceLDAPkerberosAuth Boolean

Enforce the use of Kerberos authentication when querying LDAP servers. Disabling this may be required to collect across an External trust type (see Cross-Trust Collection here).

Setting this value to False means that SharpHound will auto-negotiate authentication to domain controllers, preferring Kerberos if available.

 False True
PortCheckTimeout Integer

In milliseconds, SharpHound will wait for a response on port 445/TCP before considering the system unavailable.

Minimum value: 200

Requires SharpHound Enterprise v2.2.1+

 10000 15000
LDAPSSLPort Integer

TCP port utilized for collection on LDAP over SSL.

Requires SharpHound Enterprise v2.2.1+

 636 636
LDAPPort Integer

TCP port utilized for collection on LDAP.

 389 389
ForceLDAPSSL Boolean

Force the use of LDAP over SSL.

Setting this value to False means that SharpHound will attempt LDAP over SSL first, before falling back to signed and sealed LDAP.

Requires SharpHound Enterprise v2.2.1+

 False False
NumWorkers Integer

The number of concurrent threads performing privileged collection.

Minimum value: 10

Maximum value: 100

Requires SharpHound Enterprise v2.2.1+

 50 50
PartitionLDAPQueries Boolean

Whether SharpHound should split LDAP queries into multiple parts, used when querying very large domains.

 True True
Version String

The current version of SharpHound Enterprise.

 Do not modify this value. Do not modify this value.


auth.json

auth.json is a plaintext JSON file that defines the credentials the service will utilize to authenticate to the BloodHound Enterprise API. Creating a new client or rotating the credentials of an existing one will provide you with the complete JSON structure used for a SharpHound Enterprise client.

An example of the file:

{
"Token": "w4Tc+heVmaMTWgodlw0YlztaEGG53J/mwogiEZLvKE6WtylfYuoVEA==",
"TokenID": "0c6120ee-2fbe-478f-a864-2e264f9c16d2"
}

The following table outlines supported fields and their default values:

Field Type Description Default value Example value
Token String Used by SharpHound Enterprise to authenticate with the the BloodHound Enterprise tenant. null "w4Tc+heVmaMTWgodlw0YlztaEGG53J/mwogiEZLvKE6WtylfYuoVEA=="
TokenID String Unique identifier for the token. null "0c6120ee-2fbe-478f-a864-2e264f9c16d2"

 

Updated