The active role of Active Directory (AD) in enterprise environments makes it a primary target for cyber threats. As organizations continue to rely heavily on AD for authentication and authorization, having structured detection and mitigation strategies ready is essential for effective incident response. Be sure to incorporate this knowledge in your incident preparedness and playbooks.
Why Preparedness Matters for Active Directory Incidents
- High-Value Target: AD manages access across on-premises systems and hybrid cloud services (such as Microsoft Entra ID). Gaining control of AD gives malicious actors privileged access to critical infrastructure, business applications, and sensitive enterprise data.
- Complex Attack Surface: Default permissive settings, legacy protocol support, and complex object relationships create hidden exploitation pathways.
- Persistence & Remediation Challenges: Threat actors can establish persistent access that survives standard remediation, often requiring time-consuming and disruptive recovery measures like rebuilding Active Directory.
- Speed of Response: Pre-established detection rules and mitigation controls enable security teams to limit lateral movement, lower dwell time, and significantly minimize operational impact.
Key Highlights from the Guide
The guide outlines 17 common techniques used by threat actors and provides actionable strategies to detect and mitigate them, including:
- Credential Harvesting & Escalation
- Domain Trust & Privilege Exploitation
- Persistence Mechanisms
- Certificate & Hybrid Identity Risks
- Detection Tooling & Canaries
Source & Authority Credits
This comprehensive guidance was co-authored by international cybersecurity authorities:
- Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) / Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC)
- Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
- National Security Agency (NSA)
- Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS)
- New Zealand National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-NZ)
- United Kingdom National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK)
To review the full guidance and implementation checklists, refer to the document: Detecting and mitigating Active Directory compromises (September 2026).pdf.