When was the last time you checked your Active Directory for threats and misconfigurations?

When was the 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 for threats and misconfigurations?

➡️ You should do it regularly – because most of the “dangerous stuff” isn’t created by attackers. It’s 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗯𝘆 𝗮𝗱𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘀, tools, legacy projects, and forgotten delegations.

❓But what if you don’t want to blindly trust a 𝟯𝗿𝗱-𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹?

𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝗜 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗔𝗗𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗲.

And yes – this still fits the “no 3rd party trust” idea, because 𝗔𝗗𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗦𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁. If you don’t want to run it as a tool, you can simply copy out the exact AD queries for each check and run them directly in your environment.

✅ 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲: 51 security checks for Active Directory

(If you run it fully, you also get a clear HTML report with explanations.)

🆕 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘂𝘀𝗲-𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗲: turn it into continuous monitoring

Pick the checks you care about, run them daily (e.g., 9:00 AM), compare results with yesterday, and alert on changes. 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 – 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝘆 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲.

It won’t replace enterprise detection platforms, but it’s free, fast, and easy to start.

If you want the 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽-𝗯𝘆-𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽 way to build this “daily AD detection” approach, I created a short course for it. It’s currently 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰 – but if you’re interested, 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗿 𝗗𝗠 me and I’ll send details.