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Identity Security Blog

Expert insights on Active Directory and Azure security vulnerabilities, hardening guides, and remediation best practices.

133 articles
AD Audit Tool Comparison: How to Compare PingCastle, Purple Knight, and Repeatable Audit Workflows
ADAzureIdentityMonitoring

AD Audit Tool Comparison: How to Compare PingCastle, Purple Knight, and Repeatable Audit Workflows

A criteria-first comparison of AD audit tools, from PingCastle and Purple Knight to repeatable workflows built for hybrid identity and remediation follow-up.

How to Audit Microsoft Entra ID Security (Azure AD): Practical Review Guide
AzureIdentityConditional Access

How to Audit Microsoft Entra ID Security (Azure AD): Practical Review Guide

Learn how to audit Microsoft Entra ID security, including Conditional Access, MFA, PIM, app permissions, guest access, and remediation priorities.

Audit Active Directory Security: What to Review First and How to Prove Remediation
ADIdentityPrivileged Access

Audit Active Directory Security: What to Review First and How to Prove Remediation

A technical guide to auditing Active Directory security, from Tier 0 exposure and ACL abuse to Kerberos, AD CS, logging, and remediation proof.

ACL Abuse and DCSync: The Silent Paths to Domain Admin
ADPermissionsAttack Paths

ACL Abuse and DCSync: The Silent Paths to Domain Admin

DCSync requires no exploit - just a misconfigured ACL. Learn how GenericAll and replication rights give attackers silent paths to dump every password hash in your domain.

GPO Misconfigurations: How Group Policy Becomes an Attack Vector
ADGPOAttack Paths

GPO Misconfigurations: How Group Policy Becomes an Attack Vector

Weak GPO permissions allow low-privileged users to modify policies applied to Domain Controllers, while missing LAPS enables domain-wide lateral movement from a single machine compromise.

Azure Guest Accounts: The Forgotten Attack Surface in Your Tenant
AzureGuest ExternalIdentity

Azure Guest Accounts: The Forgotten Attack Surface in Your Tenant

Forgotten guest accounts, unrestricted invitation rights, and no MFA for external users create a persistent and often unmonitored attack surface in Azure Entra ID.

Azure Privileged Access: Too Many Global Admins
AzurePrivileged AccessIdentity

Azure Privileged Access: Too Many Global Admins

Azure privileged access risk comes from standing Global Admins, weak admin authentication, unmanaged emergency accounts, and PIM gaps. Learn how to audit, reduce, monitor, and validate privileged access in Microsoft Entra ID.

Entra ID Conditional Access Gaps: What Misconfigurations Leave Real Exposure
AzureConditional AccessIdentity

Entra ID Conditional Access Gaps: What Misconfigurations Leave Real Exposure

A technical guide to reviewing Entra ID Conditional Access gaps across scope, exclusions, legacy authentication, workload identities, sign-in evidence, and remediation validation.

Azure App Registrations: Over-Privileged Tenant Apps
AzureApplicationsPermissions

Azure App Registrations: Over-Privileged Tenant Apps

Over-privileged app registrations with leaked client secrets give attackers full API access to mailboxes, files, and Azure resources. Learn how to audit and secure your app registrations.

Azure Identity Protection: Blocking Leaked Credentials
AzureRisk ProtectionIdentity

Azure Identity Protection: Blocking Leaked Credentials

Azure Identity Protection is useful only when risk detections trigger a response. Learn how sign-in risk, user risk, Conditional Access policies, remediation, and validation work in Microsoft Entra ID.

Azure Tenant Hardening: Fix Insecure Default Settings
AzureConfigCompliance

Azure Tenant Hardening: Fix Insecure Default Settings

Azure tenants still ship with real gaps: legacy auth enabled, guest invitations unrestricted, and Security Defaults often disabled once teams start building Conditional Access. Learn how to harden your tenant baseline.

Azure Identity Security: Why MFA Alone Is Not Enough
AzureIdentityConfig

Azure Identity Security: Why MFA Alone Is Not Enough

Azure identity security requires more than enabling MFA somewhere. Learn how Security Defaults, Conditional Access, authentication strengths, emergency accounts, and risk response work together in Microsoft Entra ID.

Identity Security Resources

Explore the identity security pages that support this topic

Explore detailed pages for Active Directory, Entra ID, ETC Collector deployment, and side-by-side product comparisons.

Active Directory security audit

Review the landing page focused on Tier 0, Kerberos, delegation, ADCS, and remediation priorities.

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Microsoft Entra ID security audit

See the Entra ID page covering Conditional Access, MFA, PIM, app permissions, and guest exposure.

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PingCastle alternative

Compare PingCastle with ETC Collector for recurring AD audits and standalone collection workflows.

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Purple Knight alternative

Compare Purple Knight with ETC Collector for AD plus Entra ID reviews and recurring follow-up.

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ETC Collector

Review ETC Collector, its local deployment modes, and how teams run standalone or recurring audits.

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