RE: ADSI question

From: Ayers, Diane (DMA8_at_pge.com)
Date: 08/27/04

  • Next message: afreyman_at_dsw.net: "RE: ADSI question"
    Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 10:40:13 -0700
    To: <focus-ms@securityfocus.com>
    
    

    Just one comment to add. Depending on your environment, setting all
    accounts to change passwords on the next login all at the same time may
    not be the best approach. If you have a large user base, resetting all
    passwords as expired may overwhelm your help desk. An alternate
    approach would be to do your accounts in batches and spread the impact
    over a given time period.

    Set your policy to enforce complex passwords and then process the
    accounts in batches until you get all your accounts to have new
    passwords. We have used this process with good success.

    Diane

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Laura A. Robinson [mailto:laurarobinson@earthlink.net]
    Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2004 4:26 PM
    To: 'Paul Aviles'; focus-ms@securityfocus.com
    Subject: RE: ADSI question

    Inline...

    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: Paul Aviles [mailto:paviles@adjoined.com]
    > Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2004 12:31 PM
    > To: focus-ms@securityfocus.com
    > Subject: ADSI question
    >
    > Is it possible to use ADSI to query user accounts and find if they are

    > using a strong password?

    Since what is actually stored is either a hash of the password
    (LM/NTLM/NTLMv2) or a key derived via a combination of (username + salt
    (UPN
    suffix) + password) -> hashing algorithm = result(Kerberos), not that
    I'm aware of.

    > Before using GPO's to
    > enable it, I need to have an audit and show how many people don't have

    > them. Is this a property of the users?

    See above. It is stored in the user objects, but you're not going to be
    able to determine who has or has not used them. Instead, you should
    probably just implement the policy, then use a script to require all
    users to change their passwords at their next logon (mass selection of
    the attribute to require such). Simpler, cleaner, more efficient.

    >
    > Also, I believe that when you install AD in a new environment by
    > default it has strong password enabled.

    In Windows Server 2003, yes.

    > Is that the same
    > when you do an in place migration?

    There's no such thing. There is a migration, and there is an in-place
    upgrade. I'm assuming you mean the latter, yes? If you mean the former,
    then it's a clean install of Win2K3, and the complexity policy is,
    indeed, in place. In the case of an upgrade your Windows 2000 settings
    remain intact (unless I'm having a synapse misfire).

    Laura

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    ---
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ---
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    

  • Next message: afreyman_at_dsw.net: "RE: ADSI question"

    Relevant Pages

    • Re: password expiration policy for admin and system accounts ?
      ... policy that Admins manually reset these important account passwords every ... You can still have the passwords set to never expire, ... > Privileged accounts should be the most, not the least, well guarded. ...
      (microsoft.public.security)
    • Re: password expiration policy for admin and system accounts ?
      ... policy that Admins manually reset these important account passwords every ... You can still have the passwords set to never expire, ... > Privileged accounts should be the most, not the least, well guarded. ...
      (microsoft.public.win2000.security)
    • RE: Security Logging - Passwords & Accounts
      ... Security Logging - Passwords & Accounts ... Does anybody know of any way to log changes to user & group accounts and ...
      (RedHat)
    • Re: Trillian Ver 3.1 saves passwords in plain Text
      ... >Cc: Suramya Tomar ... When you choose the option to check your yahoo email from Trillian ... I have a YIM, ICQ, AIM and several Jabber accounts. ... >trace of any of my passwords in any file in this directory. ...
      (Bugtraq)
    • Re: pwdump 2 & 3
      ... There are some noticeable differences between Windows NT4 and Windows ... cached passwords are stored separately as LSA secrets. ... - Local user accounts, stored in SAM database. ... use PWDUMP as a local admin. ...
      (Pen-Test)