Pass the Ticket

Definitions

1. A Kerberos attack in which stolen ticket-granting material is reused to impersonate a valid user or service. It shows up in application security, identity, infrastructure, or incident response work depending on the environment. Teams use the concept to prevent abuse, detect adversary activity earlier, or define stronger control boundaries during engineering, testing, and operations.

   In plain English: Pass the Ticket is the practical security idea behind a control, weakness, or safeguard. It matters because it changes how attackers succeed or defenders reduce risk.

   Example: "During the review, the team focused on Pass the Ticket after telemetry and testing showed it was the fastest way to reduce exposure, tighten controls, and close a realistic attack path before the next production release."

Related Terms

• Rootkit
• Credential Stuffing
• Red Team
• Pass the Hash
• Flat Network
• Key Logger
• Micro-Segmentation
• PS Exec