Active Directory Security Assessment - Find & Fix Security Risks

Run a complete Active Directory security assessment with InfraSOS. Detect misconfigurations, privilege escalation paths, and compliance gaps with automated reports aligned to CIS & NIST benchmarks.

Secure, Audit, & Harden your AD

Active Directory Security Assessment Tool - Detect Risks & Hardening Gaps

Why Active Directory Security Assessments Are Critical

Active Directory (AD) sits at the core of every enterprise IT environment. It manages user identities, authentication, and access across servers, applications, and cloud resources. But this also makes it one of the most targeted systems in modern cyberattacks.

Over time, small configuration changes, inactive accounts, and overly permissive group memberships create security gaps that attackers can exploit. Compromised credentials, misconfigured Group Policy Objects (GPOs), and weak delegation settings are among the most common causes of privilege escalation and domain compromise.

A comprehensive Active Directory security assessment identifies these risks before they become breaches. It provides clear visibility into:

Misconfigurations and weak permissions across users, groups, and OUs.
Outdated security policies that fail to meet CIS or NIST compliance baselines.
Unmonitored privilege escalation paths and inherited access rights.
Critical identity infrastructure weaknesses, such as unsecured LDAP, NTLM, or Kerberos configurations.

Without a structured AD security audit, organizations are left blind to these risks — relying on trust instead of proof.
A regular Active Directory security assessment helps you proactively harden your environment, maintain compliance, and reduce your overall attack surface.

Perform a Free Active Directory Assessment

InfraSOS performs over 250 AD risk assessment checks against CIS / NIST recommendations.

Improve your AD & Entra ID security & compliance.

What Is an Active Directory Security Assessment?

An Active Directory security assessment is a detailed evaluation of your AD environment’s configuration, permissions, and operational health to identify security vulnerabilities and compliance gaps. It goes beyond a simple health check – focusing on the security posture of your identity infrastructure, from domain controllers to group policies, authentication protocols, and privileged accounts.

A thorough assessment covers every layer of AD, including:

User and group permissions: Detect over-privileged or orphaned accounts that increase insider risk.
Authentication and access policies: Verify password complexity, account lockout thresholds, and Kerberos/NTLM enforcement.
Group Policy Objects (GPOs): Identify insecure configurations and inconsistent policy inheritance.
Domain Controller security: Validate patch status, replication consistency, and service configuration (DNS, LDAP, SMB, KDC).
Audit and event logging: Ensure security events are properly logged and protected for compliance evidence.

The goal is to uncover hidden weaknesses that can lead to unauthorized access, lateral movement, or privilege escalation inside your domain.

InfraSOS automates this process by running over 250+ configuration and security checks – aligned with CIS Benchmarks, NIST 800-53, and ISO 27001 controls and Microsoft 365 security assessments.

Each finding is categorized by risk level, allowing you to see exactly where your environment meets or fails baseline security standards.

Common Risks Found in Active Directory

Even the most well-managed environments develop vulnerabilities over time. Misconfigurations, legacy accounts, and inconsistent policy enforcement can quietly weaken the entire security posture of your Active Directory.

A comprehensive Active Directory security assessment helps reveal these hidden risks – the same weaknesses frequently exploited during real-world attacks and ransomware incidents.

Below are some of the most common issues discovered in AD environments:

🔑 Over-Privileged and Stale Accounts

User and service accounts often accumulate permissions far beyond what they need. Stale or inactive accounts, especially those with administrative rights, become easy entry points for attackers.

🧩 Weak Authentication and Legacy Protocols

Outdated protocols like NTLM, unsigned LDAP, or weak password policies leave authentication channels exposed. Attackers can exploit these to intercept or replay credentials.

🧱 Unsecured Group Policy Objects (GPOs)

Incorrectly scoped or overly permissive GPOs can apply insecure configurations across your entire domain. Mismanaged GPO inheritance is a common cause of inconsistent security baselines.

🔐 Unmonitored Privilege Escalation Paths

Nested group memberships, unconstrained delegation, or weak ACLs often create invisible paths for lateral movement. These issues enable attackers to escalate from a single compromised account to full domain control.

🧮 Insufficient Logging and Audit Configuration

Missing or misconfigured audit settings prevent early detection of suspicious activity. Without proper event collection and retention, forensic visibility is limited after an incident.

⚙️ Unpatched or Misconfigured Domain Controllers

Unsecured services like SMBv1, misconfigured replication, or missing hotfixes weaken your domain controllers – the core of AD’s trust model.

By identifying these risks early, you can prioritize remediation and strengthen your Active Directory identity security before attackers exploit the same weaknesses.
InfraSOS makes this process faster by continuously analyzing configurations and reporting clear pass/fail results for every CIS, NIST, and ISO control relevant to AD security.

Perform a Free Active Directory Assessment

InfraSOS performs over 250 AD risk assessment checks against CIS / NIST recommendations.

Improve your AD & Entra ID security & compliance.

Active Directory Security Assessment Checks Performed by InfraSOS

Category	Example Checks Performed	What It Detects / Evaluates
Authentication & Access Control	- Password Complexity, Minimum Length, Maximum Age, and History Retention - Account Lockout Threshold and Duration - Remote Login with Blank Passwords Disabled - LM/NTLM Storage Disabled - Kerberos Encryption Types (AES128/256)	Detects weak or legacy authentication settings, insecure password policies, and exposure to brute-force or replay attacks.
Identity & Privilege Management	- Inactive or Stale Accounts - Over-Privileged Groups (Domain Admins, Enterprise Admins) - Unconstrained / Constrained Delegation - Group Nesting and ACL Review - Admin Logon Rights and Deny Permissions	Identifies privilege escalation paths, unnecessary admin rights, and improper delegation that increase lateral movement risk.
Group Policy Objects (GPOs)	- GPO Consistency with SYSVOL - Disabled or Empty GPOs - Unlinked GPOs - GPOs with Administrative or Authenticated User Permissions - Legacy ADM Templates	Detects insecure or orphaned GPOs and policy inconsistencies that weaken domain configuration baselines.
Domain Controller & Replication Health	- Replication State and DFS Health - NetLogon / SYSVOL Hardening - FSMO Role Ownership Validity - DC Connectivity & Service Status - ADWS, NTDS, KDC, DNS, DFSR, Eventlog Services Running	Detects replication or service issues that compromise domain reliability and integrity.
Network & Protocol Security	- SMB Signing & Compression - LDAP Signing & Channel Binding - NTLM Restrictions - ICMP Redirects & IP Source Routing Disabled - DNS Scavenging and Forwarders	Ensures network-level protections are enforced to prevent credential relay, spoofing, and data interception attacks.
Firewall & Endpoint Protection	- Domain, Public, and Private Firewall Policies Configured - Firewall Logs Enabled (Size ≥ 16,384 KB) - Secure Boot Enabled - LSASS Protection (RunAs PPL)	Verifies Windows Firewall enforcement, integrity protection, and endpoint hardening settings on Domain Controllers.
Audit & Event Logging	- Advanced Audit Policy Enabled - Audit Base Objects Disabled (no crash on audit failure) - Log Sizes & Retention Configured - Application, System, Security, and PowerShell Logs Not Full	Confirms that AD activities are properly logged, retained, and protected for forensics and compliance evidence.
DNS & Infrastructure Configuration	- DNS Service Status & Aging Settings - Consistent Zone Replication and Forwarders - Loopback Address Check - DC Ping and Name Resolution	Ensures name-resolution reliability and DNS integrity, preventing trust and replication errors.
System & Role Hardening	- Unnecessary Roles Not Installed (RDS, WINS, Fax, Web Server, etc.) - Print Spooler Disabled - Hyper-V & Routing Services Check - SMBv1 Disabled	Reduces the attack surface by identifying unnecessary components on Domain Controllers and member servers.
And Much more..

Try InfraSOS for FREE

Try InfraSOS Active Directory, Azure AD & Office 365 Security & Assessment Tool