Module 3: Identities & Services Hardening

This directory contains security requirements and policies designed to protect administrative identities, user credentials, and critical network service accounts in the Active Directory domain.

Technical Hardening Controls

1. Enforce Fine-Grained Password Policies Enforces Password Settings Objects (PSOs) with strong password length and lockout settings for administrative groups.

2. Enable Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) Implements Windows LAPS or Classic LAPS to rotate local administrator passwords periodically.

3. Implement Group Managed Service Accounts (gMSA) Replaces static passwords with auto-managed complex service account credentials.

4. Restrict Kerberos Delegation Bans unconstrained delegation and mandates constrained/resource-based constrained delegation.

5. Configure and Populate Protected Users Group Enforces strict caching and authentication restrictions on high-privilege identities to prevent credential theft.

6. Rename and Disable Default Administrator and Guest Accounts Mitigates automated scanning and brute-force attempts on built-in OS accounts.

7. Restrict Interactive Logons for Service Accounts Blocks interactive local and remote desktop logons for service accounts via User Rights Assignment GPOs.

8. Enforce User and Service Account Kerberos Encryption (AES-Only) Sets the msDS-SupportedEncryptionTypes attribute to AES-only to mitigate Kerberoasting and session hijacking.

9. Enforce Kerberos Pre-Authentication Mandates Kerberos pre-authentication on all active user accounts to mitigate AS-REP Roasting attacks.

10. Restrict Schema Administrators Group Membership Automates Schema Admins membership audit and locking using Restricted Groups GPO to minimize the attack surface.

11. Enforce Accidental Deletion Protection on Organizational Units Safeguards OUs from deletion errors or malicious administrative actions via the ProtectedFromAccidentalDeletion attribute.

12. Configure Active Directory Authentication Silos Enforces logical boundaries restricting where Tier 0 administrator and host accounts can authenticate, preventing credential theft.

13. Clean Up adminCount Attribute Orphans Identifies and remediates orphan accounts with disabled security descriptor inheritance, resetting adminCount to 0 and re-enabling inheritance.

14. Renew KDS Root Keys and gMSA Secrets Enforces KDS root key rotation and triggers password regeneration for Group Managed Service Accounts to mitigate exfiltration backdoors.

15. Harden Active Directory Certificate Services (ADCS) Hardens ADCS templates to block ESC1 SAN enrollment bypasses, mandates manager approval, and secures CA Web Enrollment endpoints.

16. Configure Point and Print Restrictions Restricts printer driver installation to administrators, configures Early Launch Antimalware driver policy, disables logon screen user enumeration, and hardens CredSSP/credentials delegation.

17. Disable Machine Account Quota Restricts the ms-DS-MachineAccountQuota attribute to 0 and limits the SeMachineAccountPrivilege user right to prevent unauthorized computer object creation by standard domain users.

18. Restrict Pre-Windows 2000 Compatible Access Group Limits the memberships of the legacy "Pre-Windows 2000 Compatible Access" group and restricts anonymous query options to prevent directory enumeration.