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.

When using Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA), the auth.json file is not used; all authentication information is provided in settings.json instead.

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

Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA)

If using IWA instead of API tokens, you must include IWA-specific configuration fields in your settings.json file. These fields are required to enable SharpHound to authenticate using the service account’s Windows credentials via Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS).

{
... (other settings) ...
  "ProviderWellKnown": "https://adfs.example.com/.well-known/openid-configuration",
  "ClientId": "12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012",
  "Resource": "https://your-tenant.bloodhound.com",
  "UseIntegratedWindowsAuthForADFS": true,
}

When using this configuration, do not include an auth.json file. The authentication credentials will be handled through ADFS using the service account’s Windows identity.

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: * 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: * 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%\\BloodHoundEnterprise\\ 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\\BloodHoundEnterprise\\
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: It is possible to prevent a Windows computer from rotating its password completely with this setting:	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. Note: this control forces SharpHound to collect using LDAP over SSL where possible. LDAP negotiation may occur for some functionality. Additionally, some AD Structure collection may occur from existing .Net APIs that are used for resolution. 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.
ProviderWellKnown	String	[IWA Only] The ADFS well-known endpoint URL for Integrated Windows Authentication. This is typically the ADFS server address with “/.well-known/openid-configuration” appended. Required when UseIntegratedWindowsAuthForADFS is enabled.	null	https://adfs.example.com/.well-known/openid-configuration
ClientId	String	[IWA Only] The Client ID generated by BloodHound during collector client creation. Used to identify SharpHound to the ADFS server. Required when UseIntegratedWindowsAuthForADFS is enabled.	null	12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012
Resource	String	[IWA Only] The BloodHound Enterprise tenant URL used as the resource identifier for the ADFS application. Required when UseIntegratedWindowsAuthForADFS is enabled.	null	https://your-tenant.bloodhoundenterprise.io
UseIntegratedWindowsAuthForADFS	Boolean	[IWA Only] Enable Integrated Windows Authentication via ADFS. When set to true, SharpHound authenticates using the service account’s Windows credentials against the configured ADFS server. The auth.json file is not used when this is enabled. Requires ProviderWellKnown, ClientId, and Resource to be configured.	False	True

auth.json

Plaintext JSON file that defines the credentials the service uses 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 BloodHound Enterprise tenant.	null	w4Tc+heVmaMTWgodlw0YlztaEGG53J/mwogiEZLvKE6WtylfYuoVEA==
TokenID	String	Unique identifier for the token.	null	0c6120ee-2fbe-478f-a864-2e264f9c16d2