Moving Laterally with NetExec

Moving Laterally with NetExec

Authorized Use Only: This skill is for authorized penetration testing, red-team engagements, and educational labs only. NetExec authenticates to, executes code on, and extracts credentials from remote hosts. Running it against systems you do not own or lack explicit written authorization to test is illegal under computer-misuse laws (e.g. the US CFAA, UK Computer Misuse Act). Confirm scope and rules of engagement before use.

Overview

NetExec (nxc) is the actively maintained successor to CrackMapExec, a network-service swiss-army knife for assessing and exploiting Windows/Active Directory and Linux environments. It wraps Impacket and other libraries behind a unified CLI so an operator can authenticate against many hosts at once, validate harvested credentials, spray passwords, enumerate shares/users/policies, execute commands, and dump credentials — all while logging cleanly for reporting.

NetExec is protocol-oriented: every invocation starts with a protocol module. As of the 2025 releases it supports smb, winrm, mssql, ldap, ssh, ftp, wmi, rdp, vnc, and nfs. Command execution (-x/-X) is available on SMB, WINRM, SSH, MSSQL, WMI and (since summer 2025) RDP. A built-in module system (-M) adds capabilities such as LAPS retrieval, LSASS dumping via lsassy, BloodHound collection, and share spidering.

For lateral movement specifically, NetExec maps directly to MITRE ATT&CK T1021.002 (Remote Services: SMB/Windows Admin Shares): it authenticates over SMB (port 445), reaches ADMIN$/C$, and uses named-pipe or task-scheduler execution to run code on remote machines. The (Pwn3d!) marker in output signals that the supplied principal has local-admin code-execution rights on a host — the green light for lateral movement.

When to Use

• During an internal network penetration test after obtaining one or more valid credentials/hashes, to identify every host where those credentials grant admin access.
• To perform controlled password spraying against a domain while respecting lockout thresholds.
• To enumerate SMB shares, domain users, password policy, and loggedon sessions across a subnet in one sweep.
• To execute commands or dump SAM/LSA/NTDS credentials on authorized targets during post-exploitation.
• To collect BloodHound data or LAPS passwords using NetExec modules instead of separate tooling.

Prerequisites

• A Linux operator host (Kali/Parrot/Ubuntu). Install via pipx (recommended):

  sudo apt install -y pipx git
  pipx ensurepath
  pipx install git+https://github.com/Pennyw0rth/NetExec
  # verify
  nxc --version
  nxc smb --help
  

• Docker alternative:

  git clone https://github.com/Pennyw0rth/NetExec
  cd NetExec
  docker build -t netexec .
  docker run --rm -it netexec smb --help
  

• Network reachability to target ports (445/SMB, 5985-5986/WinRM, 389-636/LDAP, 1433/MSSQL).
• Valid credentials, NT hashes, or Kerberos tickets within an authorized scope.