RE: [BULK] - RE: Microsoft Active Directory security concerns

["Ramsdell, Scott" <sramsdell () stinsonmoheck com>]

Dennis,

You are certainly right.

I was merely commenting on what Dave's NT administrators are likely to
say to justify their point of using the existing AD structure.

However, Dave does indicate that many of the users of the portal will be
existing internal users.  These users will, in my experience, complain
up the chain of command if they are expected to use different accounts
to login to the external portal than they use to login to the internal
domain.  They will point out that (possibly) both OWA and TS are
available externally using internal credentials.

So, while we may all agree with Dave's hunches that this isn't the best
thing to do, I think he's in for at least a debate on the merits (and
now he knows their point of view a bit better).

Properly controlled, allowing access through a web portal isn't more of
a risk than allowing access through Outlook Web Access or Terminal
Services, in my opinion.  No, it's not ideal, but the business is likely
to take the risk.

Best Regards,
Scott Ramsdell

-----Original Message-----
From: Depp, Dennis M. [mailto:deppdm () ornl gov] 
Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 6:48 AM
To: Ramsdell, Scott; DHegenbarth () wrberkley com;
security-basics () securityfocus com
Subject: [BULK] - RE: Microsoft Active Directory security concerns

Scott,

I agree, however, these same advantages can be had if you setup a
separate AD forest for your DMZ.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Ramsdell, Scott [mailto:sramsdell () stinsonmoheck com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2006 2:18 PM
To: DHegenbarth () wrberkley com; security-basics () securityfocus com
Subject: RE: Microsoft Active Directory security concerns

Dave,

I'm not advocating one way or the other, as I've seen the business
owners of web systems go both ways.  However, here are some advantages
to using AD accounts over local accounts since you asked:

- the accounts must conform to your password policies
- the accounts can be restricted to login to only the DMZ web server
- the accounts can have a login/logoff hours policy applied to them
- you can apply GPOs to the accounts for whatever purpose you need
- you can set expiration dates for the accounts


Best Regards,
Scott Ramsdell


-----Original Message-----
From: DHegenbarth () wrberkley com [mailto:DHegenbarth () wrberkley com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2006 11:06 AM
To: security-basics () securityfocus com
Subject: Microsoft Active Directory security concerns

All,

I have spent most of my time in network security and IDS/IPS technology
so I'm fairly new to security pertaining to MS Active Directory.  We are
being asked to evaluate web portal authentication/authorization for
users, most of whom are not employees of our company.  Our NT group
wants to add / maintain users in an "external OU", in an existing
domain, under our existing AD forest.  I think this is a bad idea but I
am not versed enough in AD to argue the point.  Are there glaring issues
with this strategy? My concern is that if someone were to gain access to
AD they might not only effect external applications but internal
production as well.

Are "external OU's" that secure?  Are there more secure authentication
schemes?


Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.



Dave
 
 
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