Securing your Active Directory has become more important now than ever. The AD controls who gets access to your network and what they can do once they are inside it.
Failure to authorize the right users or allow unauthorized users to access your network can result in severe data breaches and prolonged downtime. That’s why companies are outsourcing IT help desk companies to maintain their Active Directory and prevent common attacks.
Active Directory is the main target of cybercriminals. Alex Simons, working at Microsoft, said 90% of organizations use Active Directory, which accounts for 500 million users. Sadly, 95 million of these accounts are attacked every day.
That’s not the worst part. Most of these attacks go unnoticed and unaddressed until they disrupt the organization’s workflow. With AD attacks increasing at an alarming rate, you need to implement control measures to protect your network and company’s assets from such attacks.
Let’s check out the most common Active Directory attacks and how to protect your system against them.
6 Common Active Directory Attack Methods You Should Watch Out For
Your IT help desk providers are responsible for keeping your Active Directory safe. They implement the latest security protocols and tools to boost your authentication system.
Your IT team protects your systems against these 6 common AD attacks regularly to ensure the smooth running of your business.
- LDAP Reconnaissance
- Default Credentials
- BloodHound Reconnaissance
- Pass-the-Hash with Mimikatz
- Password Spraying
- Hardcodedded Credentials
1. LDAP Reconnaissance
Your IT help desk providers are responsible for keeping your Active Directory safe. They implement the latest security protocols and tools to boost your authentication system.
Your IT team protects your systems against these 6 common AD attacks regularly to ensure the smooth running of your business.
- LDAP Reconnaissance
- Default Credentials
- BloodHound Reconnaissance
- Pass-the-Hash with Mimikatz
- Password Spraying
- Hardcodedded Credentials
Remediation
Any authorized user of your network can execute LDAP queries, so detecting these attacks is often pretty challenging.
You should monitor users’ activity and LDAP accounts closely to detect abnormal queries. If detecting LDAP attacks isn’t possible, you can ensure that the data discovered against your users and systems won’t do any damage to your business.
2. Default Credentials
Any authorized user of your network can execute LDAP queries, so detecting these attacks is often pretty challenging.
You should monitor users’ activity and LDAP accounts closely to detect abnormal queries. If detecting LDAP attacks isn’t possible, you can ensure that the data discovered against your users and systems won’t do any damage to your business.
Remediation
Update the passwords of all devices as soon you implement them in your organization. You can also use a random password generator that sets a random password for all hardware and software devices connected to your on-premise systems.
3. BloodHound Reconnaissance
Update the passwords of all devices as soon you implement them in your organization. You can also use a random password generator that sets a random password for all hardware and software devices connected to your on-premise systems.
Remediation
Protection against the BloodHound Reconnaissance attack requires the same web application. You can use BloodHound to identify vulnerable systems. You should also reset the authorization access for each user.
Microsoft recommends the best practices for avoiding attack paths in AD. You should keep an eye out for unusual authentication requests. Setting controls for who can access the servers is another way to minimize these risks.
4. Pass-the-Hash with Mimikatz
Protection against the BloodHound Reconnaissance attack requires the same web application. You can use BloodHound to identify vulnerable systems. You should also reset the authorization access for each user.
Microsoft recommends the best practices for avoiding attack paths in AD. You should keep an eye out for unusual authentication requests. Setting controls for who can access the servers is another way to minimize these risks.
Remediation
Since Pass-the-hash targets the NTLM authentication protocol, the only way to prevent it is by ensuring that the passwords to your privileged accounts aren’t in a place where they can be easily found.
Enable LSA Protection for better security. Also, enable Restricted Admin Mode, so your remote employees have limited access to your Active Directory.
5. Password Spraying
Since Pass-the-hash targets the NTLM authentication protocol, the only way to prevent it is by ensuring that the passwords to your privileged accounts aren’t in a place where they can be easily found.
Enable LSA Protection for better security. Also, enable Restricted Admin Mode, so your remote employees have limited access to your Active Directory.
Remediation
You should create a strong password policy within your organization. Every employee must use complex passwords (preferably a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters). Change the authentication password every month. Also, implementing two-factor authentication can help prevent password spraying.
6. Hardcodedded Credentials
You should create a strong password policy within your organization. Every employee must use complex passwords (preferably a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters). Change the authentication password every month. Also, implementing two-factor authentication can help prevent password spraying.
Remediation
Hardcoding isn’t a safe practice. It might save you time, but it brings security risks that can leak your confidential data to the attackers and give them access to privileged accounts. Ask your developers to avoid embedding credentials into the scripts.
Bottom Line
Microsoft keeps updating protocols for AD attacks, but that doesn’t make your system immune to these attacks. Given the increasing number of Active Directory attacks, any business can become a victim of such incidents. You need to upgrade your security protocols and monitor user activity within the AD to mitigate the risks.