Active Directory is frequently rejected as just another service to be regained as a result of a cyber-attack and security is an afterthought. The hard reality is, however, that your entire ecosystem is affected if the Active Directory is found to be compromised.
The main stores for employer authentication, identity management, and access control are 90 percent of companies using the Active Directory. The hybrid approach to identity and cloud dependence and complexity that arise are becoming more widespread nowadays for organizations. But it is vital to realize that the cloud identity still depends upon the integrity of the on-site Active Directory.
As Active Directory is used to synchronize to other ID stores, any damaging influence on your ID architecture may produce a disastrous rippling. It’s a popular picture that frequently captures security guards unaware.
The ripple effect
A modification performed by an attacker within the on-site Active Directory can give far more access than only local resources. An attacker, for instance, can make a compromised user account in Active Directory, a member of a sales group. This group would probably give access to systems, apps, and important information on site.
But because Active Directory often fuses with cloud applications using external IDPs (for example, Azure AD), the same change in membership can reasonably be assumed to allow access to cloud-based CRM (for example, Salesforce), customer information (hopefully contained in the broken account, but more likely to include the entire organizational data) and other resource sources.
In many cyber-attacks, it is more complicated to obtain high privileges on one count to compromise only a second, three-fold, etcetera, whenever you move between system and system, or – in a hybrid environment – between on-site and cloud, leveraging on-site Active Directory access to targeted accounts known to have cloud access.
An intriguing example is a recent attack on NTT. After compromising a cloud server, assailants utilized it as a step to the internal Active Directory, while collecting the keys to the kingdom, including servers that host client information and other sensitive resources.
Although attacks with more than one compromised account and multiple modifications in the Active Directory are likely to occur, the ultimate result is identical – the attacker has access to resources wherever they are located inside a logical environment.
The attacks from Solar Winds are another illustration of the dual duty of Active Directory to secure the assets of an organization and at the same time provide a platform to attackers to launch attacks. While Active Directory has not been the main vector of SolarWinds assaults, various popular attack techniques from the Active Directory are used to travel around the premises and to extend the reach of the attackers through cloud identities and application environments.
Securing the AD
Ring 0 is the home of the OS kernel in some development designs and offers complete access to every resource. Active Directory is the Ring 0 of your security for many businesses. Breach it and the attacker gets the keys to the kingdom. The effort needed to safeguard Active Directory is concerted.
This goes beyond standard monitoring tools since typically they lack Active Directory-centered protection to capture increasingly complex attacks on identities. An attacker can access anything in the network if he modifies Active Directory. Specific security mechanisms must therefore be in place to monitor and prevent unsanctified changes inside the Active Directory itself and the ability to revert to a known safe state if past preventive attempts are changed.
In addition, the hardening of Active Directory is typically unknown, but should an attacker enter your surroundings and attempt to exploit Active Directory to travel through your network, it should be regarded as a crucial factor in minimizing the effect.
The ripple is real; there’s nothing a long-term attacker cannot access if he can jeopardize your Active Directory. This makes it unique and requires additional precautions to ensure that Active Directory is secured.
Prepare for New Attacks
If the safety of your Active Directory was ever to be reviewed, the time is now. Many organizations understand Active Directory’s significance, but are a step backward in its safe management, especially as COVID-19 accelerated the deployment of mobile workers, cloud services, and devices.
Since Active Directory is a key target for attackers who attempt to rob credentials and use ransomware on the network, the consequences of an Active Directory attack should be taken into account even if you are not directly responsible for its day-to-day functioning.
Makes it a priority to find out, communicate, and execute complete on-site and in-the-cloud threat monitoring, detection, and responsiveness to Active Directory in your organization.
With the ability to scan your directories continuously for security vulnerabilities, prevent ongoing cyber-attacks and quickly recover from ransomware and other data integrity emergencies, you’ll always stay ahead of the attacker and reduce the likelihood of your organization making headlines through a compromised Active Directory.
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