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Auditing Nested Group Memberships: An Expert Guide

September 29, 2025
Auditing nested group memberships for security risks: the expert’s comparison guide Reading time: ~14–18 min • Last updated: 2025-09-29 Nested groups are convenient, flexible, and dangerously opaque. This guide shows how to audit them properly in Active Directory and Microsoft Entra, with path-aware reporting, Windows event alerts, and Graph transitive queries. …
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How to design OU structures for RBAC enforcement

September 29, 2025
How to design OU structures for RBAC enforcement OUs are boundaries for administration and policy; groups are the engine of access. Get that separation right and your RBAC holds up under audits, reorgs, and hybrid cloud. Why this matters Modern estates are hybrid and audited. Auditors expect group-based least privilege, mapped…
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Active Directory FundamentalsActive Directory PoliciesTop Read Articles

Automating inactive user account cleanup: beyond “run a script every 90 days”

September 19, 2025
A production-grade playbook for hybrid Active Directory and Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) inactive user account cleanup: signals, staged actions, reversibility, and governance—backed by copy‑paste runbooks. On this page Quick definition Why the usual approach breaks First principles Production-ready technical core Implications & trade-offs Expert mental models Misunderstandings &amp…
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Active Directory Fundamentals

Self-service password reset integration with AD

September 17, 2025
Self-Service Password Reset Integration with Active Directory (AD) Self-service password reset (SSPR) reduces helpdesk tickets, improves user productivity, and shortens recovery time during lockouts or forgotten passwords. The integration challenge is simple: users want one reset experience, while organizations still rely on on-premises Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)…
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Active Directory Fundamentals

Reviewing user attributes for gaps

September 17, 2025
Reviewing User Attributes for Gaps (Active Directory) User attributes are the “identity data layer” your directory runs on. When attributes are missing, inconsistent, or stale, the problems show up everywhere: authentication quirks, broken email routing, licensing mistakes, access drift, failed audits, and messy offboarding. …
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Active Directory Fundamentals

Comparing native vs third-party user management tools

September 17, 2025
Comparing Native vs Third-Party User Management Tools (Active Directory & Hybrid) User management in Windows environments rarely stays “just ADUC.” Once you add scale, audits, hybrid identity, and delegated administration, you’re really solving a lifecycle problem: create, modify, grant access, review, and retire identities—reliably…
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Active Directory Fundamentals

Removing 'password never expires' accounts

September 17, 2025
Removing “Password Never Expires” Accounts in Active Directory The “Password never expires” setting (the DONT_EXPIRE_PASSWORD userAccountControl flag) is one of those legacy conveniences that quietly turns into a long-term security and compliance problem. This article shows how to find these accounts, decide what “good” looks like per account type, and remove the…
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Active Directory Fundamentals

Ensuring compliance for dormant/shared accounts

September 17, 2025
Ensuring Compliance for Dormant and Shared Accounts Dormant accounts and shared accounts are two of the most common identity-control gaps in Active Directory and hybrid environments. They create audit findings because they weaken accountability (who did what?) and increase attack surface (stale credentials, over-permissioning, and silent…
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Active Directory Fundamentals

Aging analysis of user accounts

September 17, 2025
Aging Analysis of User Accounts A first-principles approach to reducing access risk, cleaning identity sprawl, and improving audit readiness. What “aging analysis” means: Aging analysis is the practice of classifying user accounts by time-based signals (e.g., last sign-in, last password change, time since creation, and time since last entitlement…
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