Introducing the CYBERDUDEBIVASH Ghost SPN Auditor – The Essential Tool for 2026 Identity Hardening

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Published: January 20, 2026 Author: CYBERDUDEBIVASH CYBERDUDEBIVASH Ecosystem – Global Authority in Enterprise Cybersecurity & AI-Driven Threat Intelligence BHUBANESWAR, India

As organizations worldwide accelerate their shift to pure Kerberos authentication—disabling NTLM entirely to eliminate legacy relay risks—the security community has uncovered a sobering reality: Kerberos itself harbors persistent, under-the-radar weaknesses that allow sophisticated attackers to achieve credential relay, impersonation, and privilege escalation even in fully hardened environments.

The latest evolution of this threat landscape centers on DNS CNAME abuse in Kerberos service ticket requests (publicly detailed in January 2026 research from Cymulate and others, associated with CVE-2026-20929) combined with Ghost Service Principal Names (Ghost SPNs)—a technique that has roots in earlier 2025 disclosures (e.g., CVE-2025-58726 from Semperis research on SMB privilege elevation via reflection).

Today marks a major milestone in proactive defense: the official release of the CYBERDUDEBIVASH Ghost SPN Auditor v1.1 — a production-grade, secure PowerShell tool now live on GitHub. This tool empowers Active Directory and hybrid Entra ID administrators to detect and remediate these hidden attack surfaces before they become the next entry point for ransomware, APTs, or insider threats.

The Persistent Threat: CNAME Relay + Ghost SPNs in Modern Kerberos Attacks

Kerberos is the gold standard for Windows authentication in Active Directory environments. It relies on Service Principal Names (SPNs) to uniquely identify services and route Ticket-Granting Service (TGS) requests correctly.

However, Windows Kerberos clients exhibit a critical behavior: they follow DNS CNAME records when constructing the SPN for a TGS request. If an attacker achieves a man-in-the-middle (MitM) position on DNS traffic (common in local networks via spoofing, LLMNR/NBNS poisoning, or compromised internal DNS), they can:

Intercept a legitimate DNS query (e.g., for fileserver.contoso.com).
Respond with a malicious CNAME alias pointing to an attacker-controlled hostname.
Force the victim client to request a TGS ticket using the attacker-chosen SPN (e.g., http/malicious.contoso.com).
Relay the captured ticket to the real service, impersonating the victim user.

This technique bypasses many existing mitigations:

NTLM disablement is irrelevant (pure Kerberos).
PAC hardening (CVE-2022-37967) and prior SMB client fixes do not address the client-side CNAME trust.
Microsoft’s January 2026 patches (CVE-2026-20929) enforced Channel Binding Tokens (CBT) for HTTP.sys, protecting HTTP-based relays—but SMB, LDAP, WMI, and other protocols remain exposed unless explicitly hardened with signing, EPA, or CBT.

Compounding the risk are Ghost SPNs — legitimate or legacy SPNs registered on computer accounts where the associated hostname fails to resolve in DNS (e.g., decommissioned servers, typos, hybrid misconfigs). Attackers can:

Register DNS records for these “ghost” hostnames (default AD permissions often allow domain users to update DNS zones).
Coerce authentication to the ghost SPN (using tools like PrinterBug or PetitPotam).
Reflect/relay the resulting ticket back to the target machine, mapping to SYSTEM privileges on SMB shares.

Industry reports indicate Ghost SPNs exist in ~70% of audited environments, making this a widespread blind spot.

Introducing CYBERDUDEBIVASH Ghost SPN Auditor v1.1 – Production-Grade Secure Edition

The CYBERDUDEBIVASH Ghost SPN Auditor is a purpose-built, enterprise-ready PowerShell script that systematically uncovers these vulnerabilities. Released under full CYBERDUDEBIVASH authority, this tool combines precision scanning with professional reporting to deliver actionable intelligence.

Core Capabilities:

Targeted LDAP Filtering — Scans only computer accounts (objectClass=computer) with registered SPNs, eliminating irrelevant noise from user or service accounts.
Ghost SPN Detection — Identifies unresolved hostnames in SPNs (HOST/, CIFS/, HTTP/, etc.) using real-time DNS resolution checks.
CNAME & Reflection Risk Indicators — Flags suspicious patterns, misconfigurations, and potential relay vectors.
Hybrid Entra ID Integration — Securely connects to Microsoft Graph (via OAuth device code or app registration) to audit synced service principals for cloud-side Ghost SPNs and hybrid sync risks.
Dual Professional Outputs — Executive-ready HTML report (branded with CYBERDUDEBIVASH styling) + machine-readable CSV export for SIEM integration or bulk analysis.
Secure-by-Design — Input validation, verbose logging, try-catch error handling, and no hard-coded credentials.
Premium Unlock Mechanism — Free mode limits scans (e.g., 100 SPNs); enterprise license removes limits and enables scheduled monitoring, cloud dashboard integration, and custom remediation playbooks.

Technical Requirements:

PowerShell 7+ on a domain-joined Windows machine
ActiveDirectory module (RSAT)
Microsoft.Graph module (for hybrid checks)
Read access to AD (domain admin recommended for full visibility)

Sample Execution (Enterprise Mode):

PowerShell

			
.\GhostSPNAuditor.ps1 `
  -Domain "contoso.com" `
  -OutputPath "C:\Reports\GhostSPN_Report_20260120.html" `
  -OutputCSV "C:\Reports\GhostSPN_Report_20260120.csv" `
  -EntraAppId "your-app-id" `
  -EntraTenantId "your-tenant-id" `
  -PremiumApiKey "your-cdb-unlock-key" `
  -Verbose

		

The generated HTML report includes:

Executive summary with total issues count
Detailed tables with SPN, object, DN, risk level, details, and remediation guidance
CYBERDUDEBIVASH branding and premium service calls-to-action

Why This Tool Matters for 2026 Enterprise Security

In a post-NTLM world, attackers are shifting to pure Kerberos vectors. The combination of CNAME trust + Ghost SPNs creates a low-privilege, high-impact attack chain that evades many traditional defenses. Organizations face mounting pressure from:

NIS2 Directive & EU AI Act requirements for identity governance
GDPR data protection obligations in hybrid environments
Rising ransomware campaigns targeting AD for initial access and lateral movement

The Ghost SPN Auditor closes this gap proactively—turning a theoretical risk into quantifiable, remediable intelligence.

Licensing & Commercial Availability

Free/Evaluation Mode — Limited scans (max 100 SPNs) for testing and education (MIT-style evaluation license).
Commercial/Enterprise License — Unlimited scans, premium API key unlock, priority support, custom modules, scheduled scans, and integration with CYBERDUDEBIVASH cloud platform.
- Starting at $99 (single organization)
- Enterprise tiers from $499+ (multi-domain, consulting bundle)
- Contact: iambivash@cyberdudebivash.com

Next Steps: Secure Your Kerberos Environment Today

Clone the repository: https://github.com/cyberdudebivash/CYBERDUDEBIVASH-Ghost-SPN-Auditor.git
Run your first scan in a lab or read-only mode.
Review the HTML/CSV report and prioritize remediation (start with enforcing SMB/LDAP signing, restricting DNS updates, and auditing legacy SPNs).
For production environments, upgrade to a commercial license for full capability and ongoing support.

At CYBERDUDEBIVASH, we believe proactive auditing beats reactive patching. Ghost SPNs and CNAME relay risks are not hypothetical – they are actively exploitable in 2026. Don’t wait for the next breach to discover yours.

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