Active Directory Permissions Guide and Best Practices

What Are Active Directory Permissions?

Active Directory is a centralized database of network components and their hierarchical relationships. As the foundation for user management in Windows environments, AD plays a pivotal role in determining who can access files, folders, and applications. Its sophisticated permission management capabilities allow administrators to assign, verify, and revoke permissions with ease. Understanding how these permissions work paramount for effective administration is. Security groups and organizational units can help to facilitate efficient permission management and enable the alignment of group policy objects to specific users and devices.

How Do Active Directory Permissions Work?

In Windows, access to an object is granted or denied based on the comparison between a user’s Security Identifier (SID) and the object’s Access Control List (ACL). The ACL defines the permissions for specific users and groups on that object. Notably, deny permissions take precedence and are listed at the beginning of the ACL, overriding any subsequent entries. Furthermore, permissions in Windows networks are typically inherited from parent objects to child objects, and explicit permissions have precedence over inherited ones. However, deny permissions override allow permissions, ensuring granular control over access rights.

How to Set and View Active Directory Permissions

To control permissions in Active Directory, follow the steps below to manage permissions through Active Directory Users and Computers:

1. Select the object whose permissions you want to modify.
2. Right-click on the selected object and select “Properties.”
3. Switch to the “Security” tab.
4. Select the permissions you want to assign to specific groups and users.

To investigate permissions within Active Directory, navigate to Active Directory Users and Computers, select the desired object, right-click on it, choose Properties, and switch to the Security tab. This tab displays the permission levels granted to various AD users and groups, allowing you to assess their access privileges. Below are the three main types of Active Directory Permissions:

1. Read: Allows viewing files and their properties.
2. Write: Allows editing and deleting files.
3. Full Control: Allows viewing, editing, and deleting files as well as modifying settings.

Advanced permissions in AD are accessible through the Advanced settings of the Security tab. These permissions extend beyond basic rights and offer a finer level of control by providing individual options for specific tasks. Adminstrators can exercise granular authority over actions such as deleting objects, modifying ownership, or altering permissions.

Best Practices for Active Directory Permissions

Managing Active Directory permissions effectively is crucial for maintaining a secure and well-organized environment. The following best practices will help organizations ensure that users have the appropriate level of access to resources and are able to maintain compliance with regulatory requirements.

1. Use Groups Whenever Possible: To effectively manage access rights in AD, avoid directly assigning permissions to users. Instead, group users based on their roles and grant permissions to those groups. Create dedicated security groups for each permission, naming them clearly to indicate the resources they control. Add user groups to these permission groups, ensuring a clear record of group memberships and accessible resources. This approach, known as AGDLP (account, global, domain local, permission), enhances efficiency but requires consistent adherence to group structure and naming conventions among administrators.

2. Use Permission Inheritance Consistently: In Active Directory, permission inheritance flows in a hierarchical manner, with objects inheriting permissions from their parent objects and passing them down to their child objects. Understanding and managing permission inheritance is crucial for AD administrators. Used effectively, inheritance simplifies permission management by allowing administrators to focus on high-level decisions that trickle down to nested objects and folders. However, inheritance can also lead to unwanted access if files are placed in the wrong location. Restricting or denying inheritance on individual objects should be a last resort, as it can complicate tracking which privileges are inherited and which are not.

3. Adopt a Clear & Stringent AD Structure: Effective administration of AD requires a meticulous design strategy that minimizes exceptional circumstances. This necessitates a transparent, hierarchical structure that guarantees proper inheritance, targeted settings, and effortless identification of access permissions through intuitive folder organization. Sustaining a logical AD environment calls for discipline and meticulousness among all administrators. They must collectively adhere to standardized methods for managing groups, permissions, and user access, thereby preventing unauthorized folder creation at the root level.

4. Adhere to the Principle of Least Privilege: In AD, managing permissions ensures users have access to necessary resources and prevents unauthorized access to sensitive data. The principle of least privilege (PoLP) is fundamental to this approach, granting users only the permissions they need to perform their job duties. Least privilege access requires a systematic approach to user provisioning and de-provisioning, often achieved through role-based access control (RBAC). Regular audits or user access reviews are essential to ensure that no unnecessary permissions accumulate over time. Adhering to the principle of least privilege is a critical component of many security standards and regulations, including NIST CSF, ISO 27001, the GDPR, and the NIS2 directive.

How Lepide Helps with AD Permission Management

The Lepide Data Security Platform is a comprehensive Active Directory security solution that helps organizations detect and respond to threats to sensitive data, which includes identifying users with excessive permissions, providing visibility into risky user behavior, and sending real-time alerts to administrators when such behavior is detected. It accurately determines the number of privileged users and allows for efficient oversight of logon/logoff activity.

Additionally, the platform can identify actions such as transferring sensitive files or accessing servers outside normal hours. It provides automated real-time alerts for specific conditions, such as a high volume of file copy events, and uses advanced machine learning algorithms to detect anomalies in real-time.

Lepide’s solution simplifies the process of keeping Active Directory clean by eliminating inactive/obsolete accounts, as well various other clean-up operations. Finally, the platform provides insights into the root cause of a security incident with a timeline of events, allowing administrators to easily roll back unauthorized AD and Group Policy changes, capture backup snapshots of objects for future restoration, and provide audit reports displaying all changes made for easy identification and reversal.

If you’d like to see how the Lepide Data Security Platform can help to secure your Active Directory environment, schedule a demo with one of our engineers.