Active Directory

Innostage Completes Functional Testing of PT NGFW 1.10.3 Across 156 Criteria

Innostage has published the second part of its evaluation of PT NGFW version 1.10.3, focusing on functional capabilities rather than raw performance. The testing covered 156 individual checks grouped into categories such as basic technical features, firewalling, IDS/IPS, web filtering, malware protection, logging, routing, deployment, cryptographic controls and access management. Out of the total, 136 checks passed fully, seven passed with remarks, and 13 did not meet the predefined criteria. Key confirmed functions include high-availability clustering, centralized management via PT-MNGT, AD-based rule application, Site-to-Site VPN, TLS inspection, and Syslog integration with external security systems. Several advanced scenarios, including custom block pages, application risk classification, and centralized software distribution, were not confirmed under the test conditions. The report provides detailed protocol notes that help organizations map product capabilities against their specific infrastructure and regulatory requirements.

Home Lab Guide: Deploying Active Directory, Windows 7 Client and ELK Stack for Security Logging

A detailed tutorial walks readers through building an isolated VirtualBox lab featuring a Windows Server 2019 domain controller with DNS and DHCP, a Windows 7 client joined to the domain, and an ELK stack running Elasticsearch, Logstash and Kibana 9.4.2. The guide covers creation of organizational units, Group Policy Objects for advanced auditing, and configuration of Winlogbeat 7.17 to forward Security, System and Application logs to Logstash. Special attention is given to common pitfalls such as missing GPO extension attributes that prevent audit policies from applying and memory constraints when running the full ELK stack on limited RAM. The author emphasizes that Windows 7 is unsupported and should only be used in isolated lab networks. All steps are provided with exact PowerShell commands, netplan configurations, and Logstash pipeline examples suitable for a 192.168.100.0/24 NAT network.

Hacker or Engineer? Reconstructing Attack Chains in Industrial OT Networks

Positive Technologies expert Anton Kutepov presents a detailed educational scenario from the Standoff online polygon to demonstrate how security teams can trace an attack from initial perimeter compromise to unauthorized writes on a PLC. The case begins with an unexpected SCADA server command to a hydrocracking unit controller outside the maintenance window. By correlating network traffic, endpoint telemetry, authentication logs, and asset context, analysts reconstruct the full path: exploitation of a vulnerable DMZ system, lateral movement via Kerberoasting and Active Directory certificate abuse, RDP access to an engineering workstation, and finally weakening of Windows Defender on the SCADA server before issuing the control command. The analysis shows that a single permitted industrial protocol operation becomes suspicious only when placed in the context of prior defensive control changes and anomalous access routes. The article stresses that protecting OT environments requires continuous asset inventory, unified telemetry from traffic and endpoints, and pre-approved response playbooks that avoid disrupting the physical process.

Ghost Assets in Vulnerability Management: How Identification, Merging and Asset History Eliminate Anomalies in MaxPatrol VM

Positive Technologies experts explain how infrastructure changes create duplicate, merged and phantom assets that distort vulnerability management. The article details three core mechanisms inside MaxPatrol VM: unique asset identification across scan sources, non-destructive merging of new and existing data, and full lifecycle history with configurable aging policies. It describes how the system distinguishes assets using prioritized keys such as system ID, FQDN, MAC address and VM ID, then applies recursive merging rules that respect multiple data sources. Policies allow teams to set freshness and obsolescence thresholds, automatically hiding assets after 90 days while preserving historical snapshots for PDQL queries. The piece also covers practical cloning and partial-scan scenarios that can produce misleading duplicates or lingering collections.

Ransomware Operators Hijack Active Directory via GPO to Lock Companies Without Encryption

Kaspersky researchers have uncovered a new extortion campaign called Payload that targets manufacturing companies by compromising privileged accounts and seizing control of Active Directory. Instead of deploying traditional ransomware encryptors, the attackers created a Group Policy Object named Payload linked to the domain root. This GPO automatically changed desktop wallpapers and lock screens across all systems, displayed ransom demands, and disabled administrative accounts after policy refresh. The group also exfiltrated valuable corporate data before the lockdown and later published it on the dark web to increase pressure on victims. Because the attack relied entirely on legitimate Windows mechanisms such as VPN access and Group Policy, conventional antivirus solutions proved ineffective. Experts recommend monitoring GPO changes, enforcing phishing-resistant MFA on VPN and admin systems, and applying least-privilege principles to limit the impact of credential compromise.

Alfa-Bank Balances Cloud Trust and Zero Trust Models During Migration to Yandex Cloud

Alfa-Bank's head of container and cloud security, Sasha Chertok, detailed how the bank migrated regulated workloads to Yandex Cloud while preserving existing Zero Trust controls. The organization mapped on-premises network segmentation, Active Directory authentication, and firewall policies directly onto Yandex Cloud resources using interconnect links secured with GOST encryption. Responsibility for managed services is shared under a Cloud Trust model, yet the bank retains oversight through Terraform-managed Security Groups, custom CSPM checks, and internal CI/CD gates. User access continues to authenticate via on-premises Active Directory and KeyCloak federations, while authorization leverages granular Yandex Cloud IAM roles. Logging and detection rely on a combination of Yandex Cloud Audit Trail, Cloud Logging, and the YCDR service to compensate for incomplete control-plane visibility. The resulting hybrid architecture now supports 1,500 virtual machines, 100 managed services, and 1,000 identities across multiple environments without disrupting established security processes.

Asset and Vulnerability Management in Practice: Building a Working Process with MaxPatrol VM and NetBox

This detailed guide explains how organizations can implement effective asset and vulnerability management by focusing on reliable infrastructure data, IT collaboration, and automation. It draws from real-world projects using MaxPatrol VM, NetBox, and 1C:ERP to demonstrate dynamic grouping, webhook-driven asset onboarding, and deviation-based control. The approach emphasizes eight core principles including minimizing human dependency, just-in-time awareness, maximum data accuracy, and embedding security into existing IT workflows. Technical flows cover automatic scanning initiation upon asset creation in NetBox, categorization against unacceptable events, and priority-based patching cycles aligned with Patch Tuesday. Self-control mechanisms and PDQL queries enable ongoing validation of subnets, asset freshness, and compliance without excessive manual oversight. The framework is designed to be adaptable to any mature vulnerability management platform beyond the specific tools demonstrated.

Microsoft Releases Record 966 Patches in Largest Patch Tuesday Ever, Including Two Actively Exploited Zero-Days

Microsoft has issued its largest monthly security update to date, addressing 966 vulnerabilities across Windows and related products during the September Patch Tuesday. The release includes two zero-day flaws already exploited in real-world attacks: CVE-2026-81963 in the Windows Update stack and CVE-2026-85880 in the Windows ALPC mechanism, both enabling local privilege escalation to SYSTEM level. A total of 105 vulnerabilities received critical severity ratings, with the majority involving privilege escalation (438) and remote code execution (258). An additional 204 issues were fixed earlier in September across Azure, Entra ID, Edge, and other services. The surge in patched flaws coincides with Microsoft's deployment of an AI-assisted vulnerability discovery system. Previous months saw significantly lower volumes, with 570 fixes in July and 400 in August.

SCCM Misconfigurations Expose Organizations to Full Infrastructure Takeover

BI.ZONE expert Alexander Kuznetsov details how Microsoft Configuration Manager (SCCM) deployments in 25% of Russian organizations can grant attackers complete control over corporate infrastructure when misconfigured. The article outlines critical risks including administrative privilege escalation, lateral movement, data collection, persistence, and policy manipulation that allow attackers to blend with legitimate maintenance operations. Key recommendations focus on infrastructure isolation, placing Site Server, SMS Provider, and Site Database Server roles in Tier 0 segments, and avoiding single SCCM hierarchies across multiple Active Directory forests or security tiers. The report emphasizes eliminating Network Access Account (NAA) usage in favor of HTTPS or Enhanced HTTP, strictly limiting Client Push Account and domain join account privileges, and auditing computer accounts for site servers. Additional guidance covers PXE deployment risks, database access restrictions, and role-based administrative controls to prevent credential extraction via tools such as SharpSCCM and mimikatz. Overall, the publication provides actionable hardening steps aligned with the principle of least privilege to reduce the attack surface of widely deployed SCCM environments.

Critical Veeam ONE Flaw Allows Remote Attackers to Expose Service Account Credentials via Forced SMB Authentication

Veeam has patched a critical vulnerability in Veeam ONE that enables a remote unauthenticated attacker to force SMB authentication attempts using the platform's service account. Identified as CVE-2026-65641 with a CVSS score of 9.3, the flaw impacts version 13.1.0.7034 and all prior builds of the 13.x line, while 12.x installations remain unaffected. Exploitation allows an attacker to redirect SMB authentication to a controlled server, exposing Net-NTLM material that can be used for offline password cracking or NTLM relay attacks against other services. The severity depends on the privileges of the compromised account, with elevated risk in environments where Veeam ONE runs with high privileges or broad access to Active Directory, backup servers, and hypervisors. Patches are available in Veeam ONE 13.1 Patch 0 (build 13.1.0.7233) and Veeam ONE 13.0.2 Patch 1 (build 13.0.2.7159), and organizations are urged to apply updates immediately.

Rethinking SSO: Centralized User Data Provision and Authorization Processing in Corporate Systems

The article examines Single Sign-On systems not merely as authentication gateways but as architectural hubs for delivering user attributes and executing additional authorization logic. It highlights how SSO can aggregate data from sources like Active Directory, HR systems, and IDM platforms, then deliver it via OIDC claims to downstream applications. The discussion covers the shift from fragmented integrations across dozens of apps to a single trusted enforcement point using standards such as aggregated and distributed claims. It also explores the authorization pipeline where SSO acts as a Policy Enforcement Point querying external Policy Decision Points via the AuthZEN Authorization API 1.0. Practical examples include electronic business cards, role assignment, access routing, and mandatory MFA checks before token issuance. The piece stresses maintaining data ownership with source systems while establishing SSO as the single point of trust for applications.

The Tale of Active Directory Domain Sabotage: Architect Plants DNS-Killing Task on Departing Branch Controllers

A detailed case study from a former Windows Server 2003 Active Directory environment describes how an architect embedded a monitoring script on branch domain controllers to detect prolonged loss of VPN connectivity to headquarters. The script incremented a hidden registry counter each time the head office IP failed to respond and triggered a net stop dns command once the threshold was exceeded, effectively collapsing the AD domain for the departing branches. The architect later cleaned up traces by reassigning tasks and ownership to the SYSTEM account. A network engineer eventually noticed the repeated DNS service stops, restarted the service multiple times, and eventually contacted the architect. The story illustrates both the critical dependency of Active Directory on DNS and the inherent risk posed by highly privileged administrators who can weaponize that dependency. Two main conclusions are drawn: DNS failure immediately renders an AD domain unusable, and every domain administrator represents the primary threat to domain integrity.

Advanced Windows Auditing Configuration Guide for Effective Incident Response in SOC Environments

The article provides a detailed walkthrough on configuring advanced audit policies in Windows 10 and Windows 11 to generate meaningful security events for incident investigation. It explains the role of the LSASS service in logging activities to the Security event log and contrasts basic auditing with the more granular advanced auditing that offers 53 subcategories. The guide covers enabling key subcategories such as Logon, Process Creation, and Account Management using auditpol commands, along with registry tweaks for PowerShell Script Block Logging and command-line auditing in process creation events. Practical tests demonstrate real-world events including successful and failed logons (Event IDs 4624 and 4625), process creation with arguments (Event ID 4688), and user account creation (Event IDs 4720 and 4732). All steps are performed on a VMware Workstation virtual machine running Windows 10 Pro 22H2 to avoid impacting production systems.

Cybercriminals Actively Exploiting Critical Zero-Day Vulnerabilities in SonicWall SMA1000 Appliances

Cybercriminals are actively exploiting a critical zero-day vulnerability in SonicWall SMA1000 appliances used for corporate remote access. The attack chain combines two flaws that together enable unauthenticated access to internal services and local privilege escalation, ultimately allowing remote code execution with maximum privileges on affected devices. The most severe issue, CVE-2026-15409, carries a maximum CVSS score of 10.0 and permits attackers to reach internal appliance services without authentication, while CVE-2026-15410 facilitates local privilege escalation. Impacted models include the SMA1000 Series 6210, 7210, and 8200v running firmware versions 12.4.3-03434 and 12.5.0-02800. SonicWall has confirmed that its SSL VPN firewalls and the SMA 100 product line remain unaffected. Compromised appliances have already been observed serving as stealthy entry points into corporate networks, where attackers harvested credentials, session data, and multi-factor authentication seeds before pivoting into Active Directory environments. Administrators are urged to apply the emergency patches that upgrade devices to firmware versions 12.4.3-03453, 12.5.0-02835, or later.

Solar inRights 3.11 Automatically Blocks Corporate Accounts Whose Passwords Appear in Dark Web Leaks

GC Solar has released Solar inRights 3.11, a major update to its identity and access management platform that integrates directly with the Solar AURA threat monitoring service. The new version automatically detects corporate credentials exposed in open sources and dark web dumps, validates whether the same login-password pairs remain active inside the organization, and instantly revokes access while alerting the security team. The feature addresses the common scenario in which employees reuse work email addresses and passwords on third-party websites, allowing attackers to test stolen credentials against corporate systems in what appears to be legitimate login attempts. Research cited by Solar shows that a single large Russian company typically has more than 600 unique corporate accounts circulating in public and underground sources, although only about 4 percent directly indicate infrastructure compromise. Yandex Cloud data further reveals that valid account abuse featured in 54 percent of over 25,000 attacks on cloud and hybrid environments during the first half of 2025. In addition to the leak-response capability, version 3.11 introduces improved search, request filtering, and integration templates for Active Directory, Exchange, and 1C.

Microsoft Patches Record 570 Windows Vulnerabilities in July Update, Including Three Actively Exploited Zero-Days

Microsoft released its largest Patch Tuesday update to date, addressing 570 vulnerabilities across Windows and related products. Among them are three zero-day flaws, two of which have already been exploited in real-world attacks. Fifty-nine issues were rated critical, with 48 enabling remote code execution. The company credited its use of AI for discovering more vulnerabilities in the Windows codebase. The update covers a wide range of components including .NET, Active Directory services, Microsoft Office, Azure services, and Microsoft Defender. Administrators are urged to apply the patches promptly to mitigate risks from privilege escalation, remote code execution, and information disclosure flaws.