Tag: AD Security

There’s Something About Service Accounts

Service accounts are that gray area between regular user accounts and admin accounts that are often highly privileged. They are almost always over-privileged due to documented vendor requirements or because of operational challenges (“just make it work”). We can discover service accounts by looking for user accounts with Kerberos Service Principal Names (SPNs) which I …

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Beyond Domain Admins – Domain Controller & AD Administration

Active Directory has several levels of administration beyond the Domain Admins group. In a previous post, I explored: “Securing Domain Controllers to Improve Active Directory Security” which explores ways to better secure Domain Controllers and by extension, Active Directory. For more information on Active Directory specific rights and permission review my post “Scanning for Active …

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Black Hat USA 2016 Talk – Beyond the MCSE: Active Directory for the Security Professional

This summer in Las Vegas, I’m speaking at Black Hat USA 2016 on Active Directory security, “Beyond the MCSE: Active Directory for the Security Professional.” This talk covers the key AD security components with specific focus on the things security professionals should know. I put this talk together because I have noticed that while Active …

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Active Directory Security Group Resources

Laura Robinson (Microsoft) has 2 posts which are excellent resources when working on your Active Directory delegation model. These posts focus on the concept of an “Admin-Free Active Directory” meaning that there are no accounts in the powerful AD groups: Enterprise Admins, Domain Admins, Administrators, & Schema Admins. The posts also list all of the …

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