SharpHound Enterprise Local Configuration

The local configuration of SharpHound Enterprise occurs within two files: settings.json and auth.json, their file paths can be found in the table below. Note that %AppData% is the directory of the service account: “C:\Users\SERVICE_ACCOUNT$\AppData\Roaming”.

SharpHound File	Default Path (v2.5.8+)	Default Path (\v2.5.8)
Configuration File	%AppData%\AppData\Roaming\BloodHoundEnterprise\settings.json	C:\Program Files (x86)\SHService\settings.json
Authentication File	%AppData%\AppData\Roaming\BloodHoundEnterprise\auth.json	C:\Program Files (x86)\SHService\auth.json
Active Logs	%AppData%\BloodHoundEnterprise\*.log	%AppData%\Roaming\BloodHound Enterprise\*.log
Archived Logs	%AppData%\Roaming\BloodHoundEnterprise\log_archive\*.zip	%AppData%\Roaming\BloodHound Enterprise\log_archive\*.zip

Modifying SharpHound Settings

To modify any settings below on your SharpHound configuration, you must stop the SharpHound service. The process to modify SharpHound’s settings files is as follows:

1. Stop the SharpHound Enterprise service: “SharpHound Delegator”
2. Edit and save the desired settings file. You may need to open the file as a local Administrator to save it.
3. Start the SharpHound Enterprise service: “SharpHound Delegator”

Settings Files

settings.json

Plaintext JSON file that defines information about how the service behaves, such as settings for connecting to the BloodHound Enterprise tenant, connecting to Active Directory, and writing logs.

An example of the file:

{
"RestEndpoint": "CODENAME.bloodhoundenterprise.io",
"RestPort": 443,
"SSL": true,
"CurrentJob": null,
"LogLevel": "Information",
"EnumerationLogLevel": "Information",
"TempDirectory": "C:\\\Users\\\gmsa_SHS$\\\AppData\\\Roaming\\\BloodHoundEnterprise",
"Proxy": null,
"ComputerPasswordResetWindow": 60,
"ForceLDAPKerberosAuth": true,
"PortCheckTimeout": 10000,
"LDAPSSLPort": 636,
"LDAPPort": 389,
"ForceLDAPSSL": false,
"NumWorkers": 50,
"PartitionLDAPQueries": true,
"Version": "2.5.9.0"
}

The following table outlines supported fields and their default values:

Field	Type	Description	Default value	Example value
RestEndpoint	String	Your tenant domain, as provided by your account team This field should contain a domain only; do not include URI information such as “https://"	"CODENAME.bloodhoundenterprise.io"	"demo.bloodhoundenterprise.io”
RestPort	Integer	TCP port which BloodHound Enterprise API runs on.	443	443
SSL	Boolean	Is the API SSL enabled	True	True
CurrentJob	Array	SharpHound utilizes this field to track the currently running task. It will be null when no task is running.	Do not modify this value.	Do not modify this value.
LogLevel	String	Logging verbosity level for the service itself. These logs appear in service.log within the configured TempDirectory location. The following levels are supported from most to least verbose (most typically used options are underlined): * Trace * Debug * Information * Warning * Error * Critical * None	”Information"	"Trace”
EnumerationLogLevel	String	Logging verbosity level used during collection jobs.  The following levels are supported from most to least verbose (most typically used options are underlined): * Trace * Debug * Information * Warning * Error * Critical * None	”Information"	"Trace”
TempDirectory	String	Directory in which logs and temporary files are stored. Upon service start, if this value is null, the service will default to the “%APPDATA%\Roaming\BloodHound Enterprise\” directory belonging to the service user. Logs are retained for 14 days. Backslashes (\) must be escaped for proper JSON formatting, i.e. double backslashes are required.	null	”C:\\Users\**SERVICE_USER$**\\ AppData\\Roaming\\BloodHound Enterprise\“
Proxy	String	HTTP Proxy URL if needed.	null	”proxy.acme.com:8080”
ComputerPasswordResetWindow	Integer	When performing local collections, any computer objects that have not rotated their password with the domain in this many days will be excluded. By default, computers in Active Directory rotated their passwords every 30 days. Minimum value: 7 This Windows setting specifies how often the computer will rotate its password: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/security-policy-settings/domain-member-maximum-machine-account-password-age It is possible to prevent a Windows computer from rotating its password completely with this setting: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/security-policy-settings/domain-member-disable-machine-account-password-changes	60	365
ForceLDAPKerberosAuth	Boolean	Enforce the use of Kerberos authentication when querying LDAP servers. Disabling this may be required to collect across an External trust type (see Cross-Trust Collection here). Setting this value to False means that SharpHound will auto-negotiate authentication to domain controllers, preferring Kerberos if available.	False	True
PortCheckTimeout	Integer	In milliseconds, SharpHound will wait for a response on port 445/TCP before considering the system unavailable. Minimum value: 200 Requires SharpHound Enterprise v2.2.1+	10000	15000
LDAPSSLPort	Integer	TCP port utilized for collection on LDAP over SSL. Requires SharpHound Enterprise v2.2.1+	636	636
LDAPPort	Integer	TCP port utilized for collection on LDAP.	389	389
ForceLDAPSSL	Boolean	Force the use of LDAP over SSL. Setting this value to False means that SharpHound will attempt LDAP over SSL first, before falling back to signed and sealed LDAP. Requires SharpHound Enterprise v2.2.1+	False	False
NumWorkers	Integer	The number of concurrent threads performing privileged collection. Minimum value: 10 Maximum value: 100 Requires SharpHound Enterprise v2.2.1+	50	50
PartitionLDAPQueries	Boolean	Whether SharpHound should split LDAP queries into multiple parts, used when querying very large domains.	True	True
Version	String	The current version of SharpHound Enterprise.	Do not modify this value.	Do not modify this value.

auth.json

auth.json is a plaintext JSON file that defines the credentials the service will utilize to authenticate to the BloodHound Enterprise API. Creating a new client or rotating the credentials of an existing one will provide you with the complete JSON structure used for a SharpHound Enterprise client.

An example of the file:

{
"Token": "w4Tc+heVmaMTWgodlw0YlztaEGG53J/mwogiEZLvKE6WtylfYuoVEA==",
"TokenID": "0c6120ee-2fbe-478f-a864-2e264f9c16d2"
}

The following table outlines supported fields and their default values:

Field	Type	Description	Default value	Example value
Token	String	Used by SharpHound Enterprise to authenticate with the the BloodHound Enterprise tenant.	null	”w4Tc+heVmaMTWgodlw0YlztaEGG53J/mwogiEZLvKE6WtylfYuoVEA==“
TokenID	String	Unique identifier for the token.	null	”0c6120ee-2fbe-478f-a864-2e264f9c16d2”