The basics of Active Directory

Before we explore Active Directory security, let’s look at what AD is, why organisations use it, and why securing your AD is vital.

Active Directories (AD) serve as a central location for managing and organising information about network resources such as computers, users, groups, and other devices within an organisation. AD provides authentication, authorisation, directory services, policy management, and more.

AD makes it easy to connect users with each other and the resources they need, as well as providing extra security features like single sign-on (SSO) and authentication methods. AD also helps to keep processes organised and running smoothly by keeping records and organising data into domains, trees, and forests.

An Active Directory acts as a hub for all information within an organisation, with rules and permissions in place to prevent unauthorised access to different areas in the environment.

The importance of Active Directory security

Due to the amount of sensitive information, let alone access controls and authentication processes, Active Directories hold, they are a prime target for threat actors. Active Directory security is often overlooked because ADs are often mistaken for security systems within themselves, leading many organisations into believing they don’t need protection.

Access control privilege escalation attacks, where an attacker gains unauthorised access to higher levels of control or privileges within a system or network (like an AD) to exploit vulnerabilities to elevate access levels, are on the rise. Threat actors breach systems via several methods:

• Password-based attacks: attackers may attempt to guess or brute-force passwords to gain access to user accounts with higher privileges. Once they compromise an account with lower privileges, they escalate their access by obtaining credentials or privileges of higher-level users or administrators
• Token replay attacks: tokens are used in authentication processes to validate a user’s identity and permissions. Attackers might intercept these tokens and replay them to gain unauthorised access to resources or services, effectively escalating their privileges within the system
• Exploiting vulnerabilities: attackers exploit security vulnerabilities or misconfigurations in the Active Directory infrastructure to gain elevated privileges. This could involve exploiting flaws in software, protocols, or configurations to bypass security controls and gain access to sensitive resources
• Abusing trust relationships: Active Directory environments often involve trust relationships between domains or forests. Attackers may abuse these trust relationships to gain unauthorised access to resources in trusted domains or forests, thereby escalating their privileges within the entire Active Directory environment

With threat actors becoming smarter and accessing more resources, now is the time to protect your AD from increasing threats.

The benefits of securing your Active Directory

• Enhanced access control
  Active Directory serves as the backbone for managing user accounts, permissions, and access to resources within an organisation’s network. Active Directory security solutions can help enforce granular access controls, ensuring that only authorised users have access to specific resources based on their roles and responsibilities. This reduces the risk of unauthorised access and helps prevent potential data breaches or insider threats.
• Improved threat detection and response
  Security solutions for Active Directory often include advanced threat detection capabilities, such as anomaly detection, behaviour analytics, and real-time monitoring. These features help identify suspicious activities, such as unusual login attempts or unauthorised changes to user privileges, allowing security teams to promptly investigate and respond to potential threats before they escalate into security incidents.
• Strengthened compliance and auditing
  Implementing Active Directory security helps organisations like yours meet compliance requirements by providing detailed audit logs, access reports, and compliance assessments. These tools assist in demonstrating regulatory compliance during audits and ensuring that security policies are effectively enforced across the Active Directory environment.

Quest Security Guardian

Quest Security Guardian is the most recent Active Directory security solution that not only protects against the latest threats, but also spotlights what happened, what was exposed, and how to fix the problem.

Designed to reduce your attack surface while also only flagging the most exploitable vulnerabilities, Security Guardian keeps your assets under lock and key and prevents overwhelming your IT Team.

Delivering a comprehensive and ongoing Active Directory cyber resilience lifecycle, ensuring defence across multiple layers that align with the NIST Cyber Security Framework, Quest are an identity leader. Our specialists work closely with Quest to ensure we deliver maximum value to organisations like yours.