Category Archives: Systems Administration
HOWTO: Detect NTLMv1 Authentication
Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) offers many ways to integrate applications and services. Before Windows 2000 Server and Active Directory, in the Windows NT era when servers were beige and server racks from wood, authentication on networks was NTLM-based. Windows 2000 Server introduced Microsoft’s Kerberos implementation, but even today NTLM continues to be used. […]
HOWTO: Identify Azure AD-integrated apps and services that still rely on ADAL
While initially communicated for June 30th, 2022, the deprecation of the Azure Active Directory Authentication Library (ADAL) has been postponed to December 2022. No doubt, this has to do with the continued use of the Azure Active Directory Authentication library (ADAL) in many apps and services. Since this month, Microsoft has made an Azure AD […]
You may encounter authentication issues after installing the November 2021 Cumulative updates
While installing updates is one of the basic information security measures, many organizations hold off on installing updates for Windows Server within 48 hours. This month, we saw another reason why it’s a smart idea to test updates in pre-production environments before deploying them to production domain controllers. After installing the November 2021 cumulative and/or […]
Support for vSphere 6.5 and vSphere 6.7 ends in one year
On October 18th, 2016, VMware announced vSphere 6.5 focusing on a simplified experience and improving security features. Today, we're seeing one year of support left for this great product that has served so many organizations well. vSphere 6.5 To me, vSphere 6.5 was a milestone release. Sure, it didn't have the appeal as other […]
Three Active Directory vulnerabilities were addressed in the October 2021 Updates
When looking at the October 12th, 2021 updates today, I noticed three updates that specifically address vulnerabilities in Active Directory Domain Services and DNS. These vulnerabilities affect domain controllers at the heart of many networking infrastructure environments. About the vulnerabilities Three vulnerabilities were addressed: CVE-2021-40460 RPC Runtime Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability CVE-2021-40460 is a vulnerability […]
Three vulnerabilities in AD FS were addressed at this month's Patch Tuesday
When looking at the October 2021 Patch Tuesday today, I noticed three updates that specifically address vulnerabilities in Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS). About the vulnerabilities Three vulnerabilities were addressed today: CVE-20221-40456 AD FS Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability CVE-2021-40456 is a vulnerability that could allow an attacker to bypass BannedIPList entries for WS-Trust workflows […]
Admins that have upgraded to Azure AD Connect v2 are at risk of running out of date and insecure installations
Admins that have bit the bullet on Azure AD Connect v2 are now eating the sour grapes of that decision, as Microsoft doesn't offer Automatic Upgrades on any of the v2 builds released to date. About Azure AD Connect v2 Azure AD Connect is Microsoft’s free Hybrid Identity bridge product to synchronize objects and their […]
Hornetsecurity’s 365 Threat Monitor: Get rid of unwanted and potentially dangerous messages
Any messaging administrator will tell you that it’s hard to fight against spam. As we read about most cybersecurity incidents starting with (spear)phishing attacks, it also becomes increasingly clear messaging administrators in small and medium-sized business need to work harder or smarter to protect their colleagues. Messaging in the modern age Many organizations started their […]
Azure AD Connect v1.x reaches end of support in 1 year
Last week, Microsoft issued a statement on the support of Azure AD Connect version 1.x. It reaches end of support on August 31st, 2022. That is exactly one year from now. What 'unsupported' means In-place upgrade of Windows Server on an Azure AD Connect server is not supported. While you might pull it off, […]
HOWTO: Manually delete unavailable print queues from Active Directory
Recently, I advised to disable the Print Spooler service on Domain Controllers. Concluding that blogpost, I mentioned that admins need to perform manual tasks at the end of the lifecycles of published printers if they have printers published. Today, let’s take a look at these manual tasks in the two scenarios you need to pay […]
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