Why Relying Solely on AD Security Logs is not Good

What Are Active Directory Security Logs?

AD Security logs are the records created in active directory domains by domain controllers for the purpose of tracking security activity. These logs are vital records that tell the tale of the profound events and changes that occur on your network. They provide a comprehensive audit trail which records system changes, security breaches, user login, password changes, among other things. To understand the security and health of your AD  infrastructure, these logs must be analysed.

Types of Active Directory Security Logs

Active Directory contains various types for security logs:

• Application Log: Application logs are Software programs that create logs when something happens within or to the program. Typically, programs write the appropriate log data to a file on the program’s server. To conserve disk space, some organizations have applications forward their logs to a network share, a specific
• Security log: These logs include details regarding authorization and authentication attempts, including successful and failed logins, account lockouts, and modifications to security policies. These are specialist papers that offer details on possible security risks in your setting. These consist of users who have been flagged for danger, unsafe sign-ins, and more.
• Directory Service Log: This log records all actions and changes done in Active Directory. It includes events generated by the domain controller. This helps with checking for problems or keeping an eye on what’s happening in the directory. By default, it also logs all critical errors.

Key Information Captured in Audit Logs

AD captures the following types of information in audit logs

1. User Information: The most important data captured by audit logs are user activities such as authentication requests, creating or deleting accounts, user-changed passwords, and login and logout events.
2. Configuration Changes: Any of the following configuration changes, such as changing the application, network connection, upgrading the system, backup and recovery options, or any other configuration changes, are also captured by the audit log.
3. Data Modification: It keeps track of all data record modifications, deletions, and other changes, as well as entries pertaining to data downloading, changes in data ownership etc.
4. Access Control Changes: Access Control Changes in Active Directory (AD) are changes that have been applied to permissions or security settings that control who has access to or is able to modify specific objects (such as users, groups, GPOs) in the directory.
5. System and Custom Events: System events such as startup, shutdown, changes to the performance, and troubleshooting issues are stored in the audit logs. The entries for the customized event vary based on the organization’s requirements. The audit logs store any application-specific, integration, and other events depending upon the events that are being configured.

How to Manage Active Directory Security Logs

1. Event Viewer: In the Microsoft Windows operating system, the program called “event viewer” provides a comprehensive log of system events to provide administrators with the information they require for system maintenance, security, and accountability. Through the use of this program, administrators can fetch and analyze data related to security events by categorizing logs into a number of categories.
2. Group Policy Configuration: The security log on the Microsoft Windows Server domain controller contains information on occurrences pertaining to Group Policy. IT administrators can configure audit policies using Group Policy Objects (GPOs) to specify which event logs should be captured across the domain. This helps reduce unnecessary event logging and ensures focus on relevant security activities.

How to Manage AD Security Logs

1. Unexplainatory AD Logs: One of the biggest issues is that the AD log does not tell the whole story. Logs usually say something like “Group Y was changed” or “User X Logged In.” They didn’t indicate whether that was normal or why it happened. In order to understand what is going on, a lot of research needs to be conducted.
2. Massive Volume: A vast quantity of events make it difficult to manage AD security logs. Logs are generated for each minor event in Active Directory, such as group changes, password modifications, and logins. The sheer volume of events generated each day overwhelms storage space and complicates it to separate the signal from the noise. It is hard to determine which logs to consider since there are numerous ones.
3. Decentralized Logs: They are logs pertaining to the audit logs stored locally on each domain controller, thus making centralized analysis and reporting more challenging. Centralized analysis thus becomes one of the largest challenges since there are a number of domain controllers.
4. Resource based and Expensive: There are a number of codes and technical terminologies in Active Directory security logs. It seems to be resource-based and costly since the key concern is that everyone does not know what to look for, thereby an expert is required to decipher them.
5. Storage Constraints: Some logs have to be stored for a long time, like years, especially in the finance and medical sections. This means that you need a lot of storage space as well as a way of efficiently storing and retrieving logs when needed.

Limitations on Active Directory Security Logs

1. Scalability and Performance Issue: The biggest limitation of security logs is legacy log management, which cannot scale with the business and doesn’t allow for centralized monitoring of large infrastructures. Moreover, logging requires storage and CPU, which can affect domain controller performance.
2. Detection and Response Constraints: AD logs do not have real-time notices, thus allowing threats to be detected late and response being hindered. Sophisticated attackers may employ techniques that make it impossible to produce detectable activity in AD logs, thus evading typical monitoring controls.
3. Log Management Complexities: The sheer volume of log data requires stringent retention policies and large storage capacity, which can put a strain on IT budgets. Also, privileged users can modify or delete logs, erasing any evidence of criminal activity. This is referred to as log integrity problems.
4. Less Visibility: AD security logs are focused on directory-related events, with glaring blind spots on your organization’s security picture. AD logs do not collect endpoint activity or network-level threats, such as attackers’ lateral movement or local privilege escalation.With non-Windows operating systems deployed or third-party applications utilized in your business, AD security logs will not monitor events that occur in such environments.

How to Improve Active Directory Security Auditing with Lepide

Lepide  Active Directory Auditor helps organizations monitor, track, and report on all changes within their AD environment in real time. By providing a detailed audit trail of user activity, group policy changes, permissions modifications, and more, the solution enhances security and compliance efforts. Lepide also enables you to understand logon/logoff behavior, track failed logons, and spot potential brute force attacks with pre-defined threat models. This means that you can easily detect and react in real time to threats targeting your AD.

Logging data checks regularly, best practices, and implementing niche solutions make for a solid defense against cyber attacks.

For better Active Directory management and security, Schedule a demo or download a Free Trial today.