From the Field: Local Groups

๐Ÿ”Ž ๐—™๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—บ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—™๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฑ โ€” Real-World Findings from Security Assessments

๐Ÿ’ฅ ๐Ÿฏ๐Ÿด.๐Ÿญ%ย of environments I assessedย ๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐—น๐—น ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฒ ๐—น๐—ผ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฝ๐˜€ ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ฝ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜‚๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐˜†

Itโ€™s aย ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐˜… โ€” with aย ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—ด ๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜.

๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜‚๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐˜† ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—น๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—น๐—ผ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฝ ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ฝ ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ผ:

๐Ÿ”น Unmapped privileges

๐Ÿ”น Untracked admin access

๐Ÿ”น Messy permissions that attackers love

Years later, no one remembers who has access to what โ€” until BloodHound or a similar tool shows you the chaos.

๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐˜€๐—ต๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—น๐—ฑ ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐—ฑ๐—ผ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ?

Use Group Policy to centrally manage local group membership:

โœ… Group Policy Preferences โ†’ More flexible

โœ… Restricted Groups โ†’ Stricter, but less adaptable

โš ๏ธ Pick one โ€” never mix both! Theyโ€™ll conflict and cause instability.

This approach ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ฎ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜, ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ณ-๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ดย every 90ยฑ30 minutes โ€” perfect for applying your Tiering Model and limiting admin access across Tiers.

๐Ÿ’ฌ How do you manage local memberships?