Many are familiar with Active Directory, the on-premises directory and authentication system that is available with Windows Server, but exactly what is Azure Active Directory? Azure Active Directory (Azure AD or AAD) is a multi-tenant cloud directory and authentication service. Azure AD is the directory service that Office 365 (and Azure) leverages for account, groups, …
Category: Technical Reference
Aug 07 2019
Slides Posted for Black Hat USA 2019 Talk: Attacking & Defending the Microsoft Cloud
Attacking and Defending the Microsoft Cloud (Office 365 & Azure AD) Sean Metcalf (Trimarc) & Mark Morowczynski (Principal Program Manager, Microsoft) The allure of the “Cloud” is indisputable. Organizations are moving into the cloud at a rapid pace. Even companies that have said no to the Cloud in the past have started migrating services and …
Aug 01 2019
AD Reading: Windows Server 2019 Active Directory Features
Windows Server 2019 has several new features, though nothing in this list is related to AD. Note that there is no Windows Server 2019 AD Forest/Domain Functional Level. There are no new features for Active Directory in Windows Server 2019 except one performance update which doesn’t affect most deployments. This update is related to an …
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 …
May 30 2017
AD Reading: Windows Server 2016 Active Directory Features
The following are useful resources for Windows Server 2016 Active Directory Features. Windows 2016 Features What’s New in Windows 2016 Active Directory Windows Server 2016 AD Functional Level Privileged Access Management (PAM) Windows 2016 PAM Shadow Security Principals (temporary group membership) Azure AD Join Windows 2016 Azure AD Join Microsoft Hello …