Active Directory (AD) is a Microsoft technology used for managing computers and other resources on a network. It is a centralized authentication and authorization service that enables users to log in to multiple computers and applications using a single set of credentials. Therefore, Active Directory deployments are a main target for cyber criminals as whoever gains control of your AD (and that’s easier than most people think) gains full control over your environment.
Why is getting control over your AD not that hard? Because deployment, migration, configuration, or operation of MS Active Directory is not that simple due to the many configuration options and its complexity. And this very often leads to misconfigurations that are causing vulnerabilities. Examples for AD security issues include:
Weak Passwords. Weak passwords are one of the most common vulnerabilities in AD security. Attackers can use tools to crack passwords, or they can simply guess them if they are easy to guess.
Privilege Escalation. Once an attacker gains access to a system, they can use various methods to escalate their privileges to gain greater access to systems and data.
Lack of Monitoring. AD security can be compromised if there is no monitoring in place to detect unauthorized access or suspicious activity.
Misconfigured Settings. Misconfigured AD settings can leave systems open to attack. For example, if user permissions are not properly configured, attackers may be able to gain unauthorized access.
Poorly Designed Group Policy Objects (GPOs). GPOs are used to enforce policies across an organization. Poorly designed GPOs can leave systems open to attack, as they may not provide adequate security.
Insider Threats. Insider threats can pose a significant risk to AD security, as employees with access to sensitive data may be tempted to abuse their access for personal gain.
Unpatched Systems. Unpatched systems can leave AD vulnerable to known exploits. Attackers can use these vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access to systems and data.
It’s highly recommended to perform regular AD Security Audits covering the following key aspects:
Domain Controllers. They are the backbone of the Active Directory infrastructure. Hence, it is crucial to review domain controller configurations, security policies, and logs to ensure they are configured correctly and adequately protected against threats.
Group Policies. Such policies are used to enforce security settings on domain-joined machines. Our experts will review the group policy configurations to ensure that they are aligned with your organization’s security policies and best practices.
User Accounts. User accounts are the primary way users access resources in the domain. Our experts will review user account configurations to ensure that they are correctly configured.
Privileged Accounts. Such accounts have access to critical systems and data and are hence highly targeted by attackers. Our experts will review privileged account configurations to ensure that they are adequately protected and monitored.
Group Memberships. Group memberships control access to resources in the domain. Our experts will review group membership configurations to ensure that only authorized users have access to resources.
Password Policies. They dictate the strength and complexity of passwords used by users in the domain. Our experts will review password policy configurations to ensure that they are aligned with your organization’s security policies and best practices.
Auditing and Monitoring. These are critical components to detect and respond to security incidents. Our experts will review the auditing and monitoring configurations to ensure that they are adequately configured.
Authentication and Authorization. Our experts will review authentication and authorization mechanisms in the domain to ensure that they are adequately protected.
A common approach is to collect all necessary information in cooperation with your team and agree a course of action. Then, our experts either may deploy several analysis tools within your infrastructure or may provide you with such analysis tools that need to be executed by your team. In both cases, the tools will generate data that will be analyzed by our experts and then you will receive comprehensive documentation of the results and recommendations for eliminating identified vulnerabilities.
Next, either your team or our experts will use the results of the first audit to harden your system. Once this has been done, another test will be performed including a corresponding analysis and evaluation. Using the results of the second test we will perform a final review where the results of the second tests will be discussed and compared with the results of the first test. If necessary, we will provide additional recommendations regarding further measures to harden the Active Directory.