-Gaining local administrative access to a Windows machine that is part of a domain is typically the first step in gaining domain admin privileges during a penetration test. In many cases, the Windows Server Update Service (WSUS) is configured to deploy updates to clients over the local network using HTTP. Without the security of HTTPS, an attacker can mount a machine-in-the-middle attack to serve an update to the client, which will then execute with SYSTEM privileges. Any Microsoft signed executable can be served as an update, including a custom command with which the executable is executed. Should an attacker be able to obtain a TLS-certificate for the WSUS server, the attack can be performed over HTTPS as well (see [ESC17](https://github.com/NeffIsBack/esc17-wiki/blob/master/06-%E2%80%90-Privilege-Escalation.md#esc17-enrollee-supplied-subject-for-server-authentication) and our [blog post](https://blog.digitrace.de/2026/01/using-adcs-to-attack-https-enabled-wsus-clients/)).
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