Veil-PowerView

Veil-PowerView is the Active Directory enumeration and situational awareness module within the Veil Framework. It provides security teams with the ability to map domain structures, identify privileged accounts, enumerate shares, and analyze group policies — all capabilities that defensive teams need to understand in order to detect AD reconnaissance.

Module Overview

PowerView operates through standard Windows APIs and LDAP queries. This is both its strength and the reason it is difficult to detect: it uses the same interfaces as legitimate administrative tools. There are no exploits involved — just queries that any domain-authenticated user can run.

For red teams, PowerView provides rapid situational awareness. For blue teams, understanding how it works is the foundation for detecting unauthorized reconnaissance in your environment.

Key Capabilities

• Domain and forest enumeration — Map trust relationships, domain controllers, and organizational structure
• Privileged account discovery — Identify domain admins, service accounts, and accounts with special privileges
• Share enumeration — Find accessible file shares across the network
• GPO analysis — Review group policy objects for security-relevant configurations
• Session tracking — Determine where specific users are currently logged in

Defensive Value

If you run a SOC or manage AD security, deploying PowerView in a lab and watching the resulting telemetry teaches you exactly what unauthorized enumeration looks like in your logs. This direct observation is far more valuable than reading theoretical descriptions of AD attacks.

Documentation

• Detailed PowerView Framework Documentation — Complete module reference with detection strategies
• PowerView Usage Guide — Practical usage reference
• PowerView Category — Related articles and research
• Hunting Users — Detecting user enumeration activity