Cyberattacks targeting Active Directory are on the upswing, putting pressure on AD, identity, and security teams to monitor the constantly shifting AD-focused threat landscape. To help IT pros better understand and guard against attacks involving AD, the Semperis Research Team offers this monthly roundup of recent cyberattacks that used AD…
Even after more than 20 years of service, Active Directory (AD) remains one of the most critical components of the typical enterprise’s IT infrastructure. AD security is easy for users to take for granted when it is working. However, in the event of an attack, its criticality to business operations…
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and an excellent time to bust the ghosts of configurations past. One of the actions that the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) recommend taking is “Update your software.” A perfect place to start: Rid your domains of the outdated…
Most organizations have virtualized some or all their AD domain controllers (DCs). Virtualized DCs have their advantages, but they also introduce risks that didn’t exist with physical servers. One of these risks is the temptation to use hypervisor snapshots (a point-in-time VM image) for AD backups. Don’t. Let’s be clear: Even though Microsoft supports hypervisor snapshot restores since Windows Server 2012 (i.e., they won’t break AD as they could in…
“As a K–12 environment, our Active Directory [AD] deployment is a bit unique compared to how a standard business network would look,” says John Hallenberger, systems administrator and project leader for the Fox C-6 school district. “Users are added and removed pretty much daily. Things like complex password enforcement and…
Ransomware attacks have reportedly declined this year. But don’t start celebrating just yet. “Gang models are evolving,” notes my colleague, Alexandra (Alix) Weaver, Semperis Solutions Architect. “I caution everyone: Do not let your guard down.” Part of the changing trend, Alix says, might be attributed to an increase in the…
Cyberattacks targeting Active Directory are on the upswing, putting pressure on AD, identity, and security teams to monitor the constantly shifting AD-focused threat landscape. To help IT pros better understand and guard against attacks involving AD, the Semperis Research Team offers this monthly roundup of recent cyberattacks that used AD…
While helping Andrew Schwartz with his Kerberos FAST post (which has more information about what FAST is and how it works, so have a read), I noticed something interesting. AS-REQs for machine accounts are unarmored. Kerberos armoring is described by Microsoft: Kerberos armoring uses a ticket-granting ticket (TGT) for the…