I have been fascinated with Read-Only Domain Controllers (RODCs) since RODC was released as a new DC promotion option with Windows Server 2008. Microsoft customers wanted a DC that wasn’t really a DC. – something that could be deployed in a location that’s not physically secure and still be able to authenticate users. This post …
Category: Microsoft Security
Nov 24 2017
Securing Microsoft Active Directory Federation Server (ADFS)
Many organizations are moving to the cloud and this often requires some level of federation. Federation, put simply, extends authentication from one system (or organization) to another. Gerald Steere (@Darkpawh) and I spoke about cloud security at DEF CON in July 2017. Presentation slides and video are here: “Hacking the Cloud” One of the key …
Feb 08 2017
Detecting Kerberoasting Activity Part 2 – Creating a Kerberoast Service Account Honeypot
In my previous post, “Detecting Kerberoasting Activity” I explain how Kerberoasting works and describe how to detect potential Kerberoasting activity. The trick to this is understanding what activity is normal in order to filter out the noise and increase the fidelity of the alert. This post describes how to filter from millions of events to …
Feb 05 2017
Detecting Kerberoasting Activity
Introduction Kerberoasting can be an effective method for extracting service account credentials from Active Directory as a regular user without sending any packets to the target system. This attack is effective since people tend to create poor passwords. The reason why this attack is successful is that most service account passwords are the same length …
Nov 03 2016
Securing Domain Controllers to Improve Active Directory Security
Active Directory security effectively begins with ensuring Domain Controllers (DCs) are configured securely. At BlackHat USA this past Summer, I spoke about AD for the security professional and provided tips on how to best secure Active Directory. This post focuses on Domain Controller security with some cross-over into Active Directory security. The blog is called …
Oct 18 2016
BSides DC (2016) Talk – PowerShell Security: Defending the Enterprise from the Latest Attack Platform
This Saturday at BSides DC, I am presenting on the current state of PowerShell security in a talk called, “PowerShell Security: Defending the Enterprise from the Latest Attack Platform.” I cover some of the information I’ve posted here before: PowerShell Version 5 Security Enhancements PowerShell Security: PowerShell Attack Tools, Mitigation, & Detection Detecting Offensive PowerShell …


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