Active Directory FundamentalsActive Directory ObjectsActive Directory PoliciesRecent Posts

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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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 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 FundamentalsActive Directory PoliciesRecent PostsTop Read Articles

SID filtering in complex AD layouts: the one-bit boundary that decides what crosses your forest

September 9, 2025
Quick definition: SID filtering is a trust-side control that removes foreign SIDs—including values in SIDHistory—from a user’s authorization data as it traverses a trust. It prevents privilege escalation by honoring only the SIDs the trusting side expects. Answer box (at a glance) External/domain trusts: Quarantine=Yes by default → accept only SIDs from the directly trusted…
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Active Directory FundamentalsActive Directory Policies

AD high-availability: RODCs and cross-site redundancy

September 5, 2025
Active Directory high availability Design for the worst day: local logons at branch speed, safe failover by intent—not accident. RODC Sites & Services Next Closest Site Password Replication Policy Definition (snippet-ready): AD high availability with RODCs and cross-site redundancy is the practice of placing read-only domain controllers in low-trust or connectivity-constrained sites and…
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Active Directory FundamentalsActive Directory PoliciesRecent Posts

Transitioning AD schema versions safely: runbook & pitfalls

September 5, 2025
Active Directory The schema is your forest’s data contract. When you raise its version—via adprep or app extensions—you change what can exist and how it behaves. This self-contained guide explains the why, the risks, and a precise runbook you can use in production. Reading time: ~16–20 minutes On this page Why schema transitions matter now What the schema actually is First…
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Active Directory FundamentalsActive Directory PoliciesRecent AD NewsTop Read Articles

DNS delegation architectures for multi-forest environments

September 5, 2025
Architecture • DNS • Active Directory If you run more than one Active Directory forest, DNS is the fabric that lets users, apps, and domain controllers in one forest reliably find resources in another. The right DNS delegation architecture makes cross-forest name resolution fast, secure, and predictable—even in hybrid cloud. Guide + Comparison Updated: 5 Sep 2025 Reading time: ~16–18…
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Active Directory FundamentalsActive Directory PoliciesUncategorized

How to track rogue domain controllers

August 29, 2025
Tracking Rogue Domain Controllers in Active Directory (Detection + Response Playbook) A rogue domain controller (DC) is any system that is acting as a DC or participating in DC trust/replication without being approved, expected, and controlled. In practice, “rogue DC” includes: An attacker-promoted DC in a compromised domain An unauthorized (shadow IT) DC spun up by an admin or a…
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Active Directory Policies

Block windows app installation with elevated privileges using GPO

December 22, 2023
In an enterprise IT environment, controlling the permissions and actions of the Windows Installer is crucial for maintaining security and consistency. Allowing the Windows Installer to use elevated permissions during program installations can lead to unexpected changes and potential security vulnerabilities. In this article, we will guide system administrators through the process of creating a…
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