Lateral Movement in Active Directory

Defending Against Lateral Movement

While understanding lateral movement techniques is crucial for security assessments, it's equally important to implement strong defensive measures. Here are some key strategies to protect your Active Directory environment against lateral movement attempts:

• Implement the principle of least privilege for user and service accounts
• Use strong, unique passwords and implement multi-factor authentication
• Regularly patch and update systems to address known vulnerabilities
• Implement and maintain endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions
• Use Microsoft's Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) to manage local admin passwords
• Implement network segmentation and restrict lateral movement between segments
• Monitor for suspicious activities and implement robust logging and alerting mechanisms
• Conduct regular security awareness training for all users
• Implement Just-In-Time (JIT) and Just-Enough-Administration (JEA) practices
• Use Privileged Access Workstations (PAWs) for administrative tasks
• Implement and enforce application whitelisting to prevent execution of unauthorized tools
• Regularly audit and review Active Directory permissions and configurations
• Implement time-based one-time passwords (TOTP) for service accounts where possible
• Use Protected Users security group for privileged accounts to prevent credential caching
• Implement Windows Defender Credential Guard to protect against credential theft
• Disable or restrict unnecessary protocols and services (e.g., LLMNR, NetBIOS)
• Implement and maintain an incident response plan for lateral movement scenarios
• Use Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics (ATA) or Azure Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) for advanced threat detection
• Implement honeypots and honeytoken accounts to detect lateral movement attempts
• Regularly conduct penetration testing and red team exercises to identify vulnerabilities in lateral movement defenses