GOAD (Game of Active Directory)

What it is

Game of Active Directory (GOAD) is an open-source lab project from Orange Cyberdefense. It automates building Windows virtual machines into vulnerable Active Directory forests and domains for pentest practice. It is released under GPL-3.0, and version 3 is the current line.

What it helps with

- Building the full GOAD lab with 5 VMs, 2 forests, and 3 domains
- Running smaller setups such as GOAD-Light (3 VMs) or MINILAB (2 VMs) on a modest machine
- Practicing SCCM attacks in a dedicated lab with Microsoft Configuration Manager installed
- Tackling the NHA and DRACARYS challenge labs, which come with no schema provided
- Deploying on VirtualBox, VMware Workstation, VMware ESXi, Proxmox, Ludus, AWS, or Azure

Who it's for

Pentesters, red teamers, and students who want a realistic Active Directory environment to learn and rehearse attacks.

Worth knowing

For authorized use only: practice inside your own lab. The project warns the lab is extremely vulnerable and should never be exposed to the internet without isolation. It uses free Windows evaluation VMs that expire after 180 days, after which you enter licenses or rebuild. Cloud providers bill you for the resources you run.

Is GOAD free?
Yes, the project is free and open source, though cloud hosting costs and Windows licensing after the 180-day evaluation are on you.

Can I run it on a laptop?
The GOAD-Light and MINILAB variants exist for smaller machines, using 3 and 2 VMs respectively.

How does it relate to BloodHound, NetExec, and Impacket?
In our view GOAD is the practice target and those tools are what you attack it with, so they pair naturally for learning Active Directory attack paths.