Architecture & Design

Monitoring Lateral Movement Paths in Active Directory Lateral movement is what happens after an attacker (or rogue insider) gets an initial foothold: they pivot from one machine/account to another until they reach high-value targets like file servers, application tiers, and ultimately Domain Admin or Tier-0 assets. In Active Directory (AD), lateral movement succeeds not…

Canary tokens are deliberate “tripwires”: objects, credentials, or breadcrumbs that should never be touched in normal operations. When an attacker (or an automated tool) interacts with them, you get a high-signal alert that something is wrong—often early, before full domain compromise. This guide focuses on practical canary patterns that work well in Active Directory…

Deploying Deception Techniques in Active Directory (AD): A Practical Defender’s Playbook Deception in Active Directory is about placing high-signal, low-risk traps where real attackers naturally go—so you detect early, confirm intent faster, and reduce time-to-contain. Done well, deception doesn’t replace monitoring; it amplifies it by turning attacker curiosity into reliable alerts.

LSASS (Local Security Authority Subsystem Service) is the Windows process that handles interactive logons and manages authentication-related secrets in memory. Because it sits at the center of Windows authentication, attackers often try to access or dump LSASS memory to steal credentials or reusable secrets. This guide focuses on defensive detection, triage, and response—what to look…

1) What is a “shadow admin” in AD? A shadow admin is any user, group, or service principal that can achieve admin outcomes—such as modifying privileged group membership, controlling GPOs, resetting admin credentials, or replicating directory secrets—without being a direct member of obvious privileged groups. Why they’re hard to spot They hide in structure…

Responding to AD Security Incidents in Real Time (Active Directory IR Playbook) Active Directory is both your identity backbone and (when compromised) your blast radius amplifier. “Real-time response” in AD isn’t about heroics—it’s about making fast, reversible, evidence-safe moves that stop privilege spread while you preserve the truth of what…

Vulnerability Scanning Tools for Active Directory Security (Practical Guide) Vulnerability scanning for Active Directory isn’t just “run a Nessus scan at the domain controllers.” AD is an identity control plane. Your biggest risks are often misconfigurations, excess privilege, weak authentication paths, and attack paths that don’t look like classic CVEs. …