I could draw all manner of different stages here based on Demmings PDCA or similar framework. It can be downloaded from Auditing your directory services PingCastle is an active directory and windows auditing toolset which is available for use either through a commercial services organisation or internally (e.g. Windows security is not a simple affair, someone telling you otherwise is probably trying to over egg their sales pitch! However, it doesn’t have to be rocket science either, from the Sysinternals suite, the Microsoft security baselines through to a range of third party products there’s a wealth of material out there on AD security, but when you consider there are maybe 3000+ group policy configurations possible and a whole range of forest/domain and directory configurations it’s not a 2 second job! But wait, we’ve got something special in the toolbox! PingCastle! This security game is complex but discovery of AD issues doesn’t need to be! It’s the very hub that links most modern networked systems together and now it’s expanded beyond the corporate walls into the cloud with integration into Azure Directory Services as part of Azure or Office 365.Įssentially Active Directory can be considered a castle whereby crown jewels are held! This may be in the form of credentials/identity or by nature of granting access to business systems that hold sensitive data (such as using AD integration to log into an HR or Finance system). At the heart of most organisations are a Windows server active directory domain (or multiple of these), yet one of the most common findings when we review organisations security postures are there are significant weaknesses in their active directory deployments, both from an architectural, operational and security perspectives.Īctive directory provides a range of functionality to organisations, from authentication, authorisation as well as supporting services such as printer and share listing, DNS, people/information lookups and integration for 3 rd party services.

Sysinternals suite tutorial pdf