Why You Need a Clean and Updated Active Directory
Active Directory (AD) is the backbone of your infrastructure, providing identity and access management, authentication, authorization, and security policies for your users, computers, and services. However, if you don't keep your AD clean and updated, you may face serious issues such as:
- Security Breaches: Outdated or unused accounts, computers, and policies can create vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit to gain access to your network and data.
- Performance Degradation: Excess or obsolete objects and policies can clutter your AD database and slow down your domain controllers, affecting the availability and responsiveness of your network services.
- Compliance Violations: Failing to adhere to regulatory standards and best practices for managing your AD can result in fines, penalties, or legal actions.
- Operational Inefficiencies: A messy and outdated AD can make it harder to troubleshoot issues, audit changes, and implement new features or updates.
Therefore, it is essential to keep your AD clean and updated by regularly performing tasks such as deleting or disabling inactive or expired accounts, removing or disabling unused computers, updating or consolidating service accounts, and reviewing or modifying group policy objects.
How to Clean Up Your User Accounts
User accounts are the most common and critical objects in your AD, as they represent the identities and permissions of your domain users. To keep your user accounts clean and secure, you should follow these steps:
- Define and Enforce a Password Policy: A password policy specifies the complexity, length, expiration, and history of user passwords. A strong password policy can prevent unauthorized access and brute-force attacks.
- Enable Account Lockout Policy: This mechanism disables a user account after a certain number of failed login attempts, preventing password guessing and denial-of-service attacks.
- Disable or Delete Inactive or Expired Accounts: These accounts can pose a security risk as they can be compromised or reused by attackers or former employees.
- Use Organizational Units and Groups: These containers help you organize your user accounts based on their attributes, roles, or functions, simplifying administration and management.
How to Clean Up Your Computer Accounts
Computer accounts are the objects that represent the computers that are joined to your AD domain. They allow your domain controllers to authenticate and authorize your computers and apply security policies to them. To keep your computer accounts clean and secure, you should follow these steps:
- Disable or Delete Unused or Decommissioned Computers: Unused or decommissioned computers are those that are no longer in use or have been removed from your network. These computers can create security gaps, as they can be hijacked or reactivated by attackers or unauthorized users.
- Use Organizational Units and Groups: Similar to user accounts, you can use OUs and groups to organize your computer accounts based on their attributes, roles, or functions. This can help you manage your computer accounts more efficiently and consistently.
- Enable and Monitor Computer Account Passwords: Computer account passwords are the passwords that your computers use to authenticate with your domain controllers. By default, these passwords are automatically generated and changed every 30 days. You should enable and monitor this feature, as it can prevent unauthorized access and spoofing attacks.
How to Clean Up Your Service Accounts
Service accounts are the accounts that are used by applications or services to run on your network. They allow your applications or services to access network resources and perform tasks without human intervention. To keep your service accounts clean and secure, you should follow these steps:
- Use Managed Service Accounts: Managed service accounts are a type of service accounts that are automatically created and managed by AD. They have the following advantages over traditional service accounts:
- They have complex and random passwords that are automatically changed and synchronized with the service.
- They have minimal permissions and privileges that are granted only to the service that uses them.
- They have built-in auditing and logging features that track their activities and changes.
- Use Group Managed Service Accounts: Group managed service accounts are a type of managed service accounts that can be used by multiple servers that host the same service. They have the same benefits as managed service accounts, plus they can provide high availability and load balancing for your services.
- Disable or Delete Unused or Obsolete Service Accounts: Unused or obsolete service accounts are those that are no longer needed or used by any service. These accounts can create security risks, as they can be exploited or misused by attackers or unauthorized users.
How to Clean Up Your Group Policy Objects
Group Policy Objects (GPOs) are the objects that contain the settings and policies that you want to apply to your users and computers. They allow you to control and configure various aspects of your network, such as security, performance, or functionality. To keep your GPOs clean and secure, you should follow these steps:
- Review and Update Your GPOs: You should regularly review and update your GPOs to ensure that they are relevant, effective, and consistent with your network needs and goals. You should also test your GPOs before applying them to your production environment, to avoid any errors or conflicts.
- Delete or Disable Unused or Redundant GPOs: Unused or redundant GPOs are those that are no longer applied or needed by any user or computer. These GPOs can create confusion, inconsistency, or performance issues, as they can override or conflict with other GPOs.
- Use Organizational Units and Groups: As with user and computer accounts, you can use OUs and groups to organize your GPOs based on their scope, purpose, or function. This can help you apply your GPOs more accurately and efficiently to your target objects.
- Use Security Filtering and Delegation: Security filtering and delegation are features that allow you to control who can view, apply, or modify your GPOs. You should use these features to limit the access and permissions of your GPOs to only the authorized users or computers.