AD Domain ServicesDirectory Objects & Identity Data

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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GPO FundamentalsGroup Policy & Endpoint Policy

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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AD Domain ServicesDirectory Objects & Identity Data

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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Detection EngineeringSecurity Operations for Identity

Detecting unmanaged accounts via group audit

September 17, 2025
Detecting unmanaged accounts via group audit: advanced comparison guide for AD, Entra, SIEM, and PAM Detecting unmanaged accounts via group audit means using group membership changes and “who got added where” telemetry to surface identities that operate outside expected governance: accounts not onboarded to PAM, not tied to HR/ITSM ownership, not covered by standard…
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AD Domain ServicesDirectory Objects & Identity Data

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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GPO FundamentalsGroup Policy & Endpoint Policy

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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