Active Directory Fundamentals

Auditing failed logons and lockouts

September 12, 2025
Auditing failed logons and lockouts in active directory Failed logons and account lockouts are the earliest, loudest signals of identity trouble in a Windows environment. Sometimes that trouble is harmless (a user typing the wrong password). Sometimes it is operational debt (stale credentials in a scheduled task). Sometimes it is an active adversary (password…
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Active Directory Fundamentals

Restricting logon to specific machines

September 12, 2025
Restricting logon to specific machines: the expert guide Restricting logon to specific machines means enforcing which Windows computers a given user may sign in to—locally or via Remote Desktop—using Active Directory controls such as userWorkstations (“Log On To…”) and computer-side User Rights Assignment policies (“Allow/Deny log on locally” and “Allow/Deny log on…
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Active Directory Fundamentals

How to handle user SID-related tasks

September 12, 2025
Handling user SID-related tasks: from first principles to field-tested operations Security identifiers (SIDs) are the nucleus of identity and authorization in Windows and Active Directory. Every access check, every token, every ACL decision hinges on these opaque strings. If you run AD at any real scale, you’ll spend real time handling user SID-related tasks: looking up SIDs…
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Active Directory Objects

How to detect stale/orphaned service accounts

September 12, 2025
Detecting stale or orphaned service accounts: a modern playbook for AD & Entra Service accounts are the quietest identities in your estate—and the most dangerous when forgotten. They run backups, talk to databases, deploy code, and glue systems together. When those identities become stale (unused) or orphaned (no clear owner), you inherit invisible risk…
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Uncategorized

AD internal vs external trust hardening

September 12, 2025
AD internal vs external trust hardening Active Directory trusts are one of those features that “just work” right up until they become the quietest, widest attack path in your environment. The hardening mindset is simple: a trust is not a convenience link, it is an authentication boundary decision. This article compares…
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Active Directory Fundamentals

Principles from Microsoft AD hardening series

September 12, 2025
Principles from Microsoft’s Active Directory Hardening Guidance Microsoft has published years of Active Directory (AD) security guidance across documents, reference architectures, “security hardening” checklists, and the broader identity security model used for Windows, Entra ID, and hybrid environments. The specifics evolve, but the…
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Active Directory FundamentalsActive Directory Policies

How to enforce policy changes with minimal topology disruption

September 12, 2025
Enforcing policy changes with minimal topology disruption In Active Directory, “policy change” usually means Group Policy, security baselines, authentication hardening, and configuration shifts that must apply consistently. “Topology disruption” is what happens when enforcement is achieved by rearranging the directory—moving OUs, splitting…
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Active Directory Fundamentals

Leveraging AD improvements for hybrid cloud usage

September 12, 2025
Leveraging AD improvements for hybrid cloud usage Hybrid identity is rarely “cloud identity plus legacy AD.” In most enterprises, Active Directory (AD DS) remains the authoritative source for many user and computer identities, authentication policies, and operational workflows—while cloud services depend on Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) and…
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