Re: AD in the DMZ . . . OK?

["Pierre A. Cadieux" <hobbit () theshire com>]

One of the first things to consider with this type of architecture is what 
is at risk.  Depending on how you have it implemented the AD can contain a 
ton of information that should be properly protected.  Is placing this 
repository in your DMZ a "good idea"?

Not being sure what industry you are in or what your possible privacy 
exposures are, If this is only used for authentication, and the information 
is simply userID/Password, this may be ok.  Be very certain to harden the 
system properly, no userID's used in the DMZ should match internal ID's and 
enforce an aggressive password rotation schedule, and monitor the heck out 
of the network and systems in your DMZ.

In some ways having an AD in the DMZ makes sense, but it can be a huge 
risk.  Figure out if the risk is required, and if you have done everything 
you need to prevent any additional exposure.

->Pierre Cadieux, CISSP



At 03:49 AM 7/28/2004, karl wrote:
> Hello
>
> One of the developers I work with has come up with a wild and crazy notion 
> to write a .NET app that sits on a DMZ Web server but gets user 
> information from the Active Directory on the other side of the firewall..
>
> I'm inexperienced with this, so did some research and found that this kind 
> of thing is possible (plenty of articles on putting Exchange servers in 
> the DMZ), but found myself wondering if this ever happens, i.e. do people 
> actually have their networks set up this way?  Do folk expose/replicate AD 
> to the DMZ in practice?
>
> It's all very well that this stuff is possible, but if it's perceived as 
> insecure and not implementable in the real world . . . . . . .
>
> Thanks for any advice . . . . .
>
> Karl
>
>
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to facilitate one-on-one interaction with one of our expert instructors. 
Attend a course taught by an expert instructor with years of in-the-field 
pen testing experience in our state of the art hacking lab. Master the skills 
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