🔒 Secure Bits 💡 𝗗𝗶𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆, 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗗𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗱𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘀? It’s surprisingly easy to make an account nearly invisible, and most administrators wouldn’t even notice. Here’s how: 1️⃣ 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝘂𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 Apply a Deny Full Control ACL for “Everyone” on the target account. This prevents anyone from seeing or modifying it. 2️⃣ 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 Even if an account is hidden, its group membership might still be exposed. Use the Primary Group feature instead of traditional group memberships. Since the primary group is stored in the account’s attributes, it won’t show up in standard group lookups. If combined with Deny ACLs, it becomes almost invisible. 3️⃣ 𝗛𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘂𝗻𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 Place it in a misleading Organizational Unit (OU), ideally one only visible in Advanced Mode. Apply Deny List Content ACLs on the final OU to obscure it further. 𝗗𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸? Not for officially privileged groups. AdminSDHolder protection kicks in for accounts in groups like Domain Admins (I wrote posts about this). 𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱? Yes, you should monitor for: ✔ Primary group changes ✔ Suspicious ACL modifications (especially Deny) ✔ AD object-level changes (Event logs) Also, SAM-R protocol can be used for enumeration (depending on configuration). 💡 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗗 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹. My ADProbe tool helps uncover hidden accounts like this: lnkd.in/e4APU8Pd Have you checked your environment for this? Let’s discuss 👇 #Windows #CyberSecurity #ActiveDirectory #WindowsSecurity #ADSecurity