Source: Cloud Security Alliance
Author: unknown
URL: https://www.oasis.security/resources/blog/why-should-active-directory-hygiene-be-part-of-your-nhi-security-program
# ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY:
Active Directory struggles with modern hybrid environments, requiring improved hygiene to manage machine identities, reduce security risks, and maintain operational stability.
# MAIN POINTS:
1. Active Directory was designed for human users, not machine identities, which now outnumber humans by 20 to 1.
2. Machine identities require multiple credentials and have unpredictable lifecycles, complicating security and access management.
3. Poor AD hygiene can cause security risks, operational disruptions, and inefficiencies in hybrid environments.
4. Stale accounts and excessive permissions create vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit.
5. Forgotten dependencies in AD can lead to sync failures with Entra, disrupting critical applications.
6. Manual identity tracking is slow, error-prone, and needs automation for efficiency.
7. AD’s nested group structures obscure permissions, making access control difficult.
8. Logs from AD and Entra are fragmented, requiring significant expertise to analyze effectively.
9. Service accounts often lack clear ownership, making them hard to manage securely.
10. Hybrid environments amplify these challenges, with lingering permissions and hidden dependencies causing governance issues.
# TAKEAWAYS:
1. Active Directory hygiene is crucial for securing hybrid environments and preventing security risks.
2. Automation is essential for effective identity tracking and reducing manual errors.
3. Organizations must regularly audit and clean up stale accounts and excessive permissions.
4. Visibility into AD and Entra logs is necessary for understanding and managing access.
5. Clear ownership of service accounts is key to maintaining security and operational stability.