Categories

Active Directory Backup & Recovery

Identity Recovery and Crisis Management Are Inseparable for Effective Incident Response

  • Alex Weinert | Chief Product Officer
  • Oct 08, 2025

When a cyber incident hits, chaos reigns. The business is panicking, the pressure is on, and performance relies on the team’s ability to collaborate and innovate. Ready1 for Identity Crisis Management brings teams and tools together, streamlining IR and identity recovery—and speeding your return to normal business operations.

Unlocking Unmatched Identity Resilience: The Semperis-Cohesity Partnership

  • Chris Salzgeber | Former Product Manager, Integrations

The Semperis-Cohesity partnership is the convergence of two industry leaders, each with singular expertise. With Cohesity Identity Resilience, organizations can be confident that their critical identity systems are secure and recoverable.

5 Keys to Fault-Tolerant Active Directory Recovery

  • Kriss Stephen | Principal Solutions Architect

Active Directory (AD) forest recovery is one of the most complex tasks an IT professional can face—so you don’t want to be unprepared during a live incident. Learn 5 key elements you need to ensure fault-tolerant recovery in your worst-case scenario.

Active Directory Security

What You Need to Know: Windows Admin Center Remote Privilege Escalation (CVE-2026-26119)

  • Andrea Pierini
  • Mar 23, 2026

Learn about the discovery of CVE-2026-26119: why it worked and why you shouldn’t underestimate authentication reflection.

When Is WinRM Over HTTP Secure?

  • Andrea Pierini
  • Mar 17, 2026

Is use of the Windows Remote Management (WinRM) protocol over HTTP inherently bad? Take a nuanced look at why “HTTP = insecure” isn’t the whole story—and when HTTPS can actually introduce risk.

What You’re Missing: Proper LAN Manager Authentication Levels

  • Andrea Pierini
  • Mar 11, 2026

One of the most common misconfigurations I encounter in Active Directory environments is a LAN Manager authentication level set to 2 on domain controllers (DCs). If your reason for staying at level 2 is legacy application compatibility, you can move to level 3 today without breaking those applications.

AD Security 101

What You’re Missing: Proper LAN Manager Authentication Levels

  • Andrea Pierini
  • Mar 11, 2026

One of the most common misconfigurations I encounter in Active Directory environments is a LAN Manager authentication level set to 2 on domain controllers (DCs). If your reason for staying at level 2 is legacy application compatibility, you can move to level 3 today without breaking those applications.

How to Defend Against a Password Spraying Attack

  • Daniel Petri | Senior Training Manager

Active Directory remains a critical infrastructure component for managing network resources, login credentials, and user authentication. Yet its centrality makes it a prime target for cyberattacks. One such evolving cyberattack is password spraying, a threat that’s gained in complexity in recent years. Password spraying attacks stand out due to their…

How to Defend Against SID History Injection

  • Daniel Petri | Senior Training Manager

Security Identifier (SID) History injection is a sophisticated cyberattack vector that targets Windows Active Directory environments. This attack exploits the SID History attribute, which is intended to maintain user access rights during migrations from one domain to another. By injecting malicious SID values into this attribute, an attacker can escalate…

Community Tools

EntraGoat Scenario 3: Exploiting Group Ownership in Entra ID

  • Jonathan Elkabas and Tomer Nahum
  • Nov 06, 2025

Dive into EntraGoat Scenario 3, where you’ll discover how individually legitimate Entra ID features, when combined with misconfigured group ownership, can cascade into a privilege escalation chain that elevates a low-level account into a tenant-wide threat.

EntraGoat Scenario 6: Exploiting Certificate-Based Authentication to Impersonate Global Admin in Entra ID

  • Jonathan Elkabas and Tomer Nahum

Editor’s note This scenario is part of a series of examples demonstrating the use of EntraGoat, our Entra ID simulation environment. You can read an overview of EntraGoat and its value here. Certificate Bypass Authority–Root Access Granted EntraGoat Scenario 6 details a privilege escalation technique in Microsoft Entra ID where…

EntraGoat Scenario 2: Exploiting App-Only Graph Permissions in Entra ID

  • Jonathan Elkabas and Tomer Nahum

In our second EntraGoat attack scenario, follow the steps from a carelessly leaked certificate to capture the Global Admin password—and full Entra ID compromise.

Directory Modernization

Security-Centric Active Directory Migration and Consolidation

  • Michael Masciulli

Enterprise organizations with legacy Active Directory (AD) environments have a security problem. Their AD infrastructure has likely degraded over time and now harbors multiple security vulnerabilities because of inefficient architecture, multiple misconfigurations, and poorly secured legacy applications. Yet Active Directory migration and consolidation, especially involving a sprawling AD infrastructure, is…

Active Directory Migration: 15 Steps to Success

  • Daniel Petri | Senior Training Manager

Active Directory (AD) migration projects can be challenging and complex. Such projects involve the migration of users, groups, computers, and applications from one AD domain or forest to another. Careful planning and execution can help your migration team complete a successful AD migration, with minimal disruption to end users and…

Why AD Modernization Is Critical to Your Cybersecurity Program

  • Mickey Bresman

Active Directory (AD) is the core identity store for many organizations. As such, AD has also become a major target for bad actors. If attackers gain access to AD, they gain access to any resources in the organization. In a hybrid on-prem/cloud scenario, which is common today, that includes access…

From the Front Lines

Ransomware Defense in 2026: What CISOs Need to Know

  • Sean Deuby | Principal Technologist, Americas
  • Dec 23, 2025

The fastest way to turn a cyber incident into a business outage is through identity system compromise. Ransomware continues to exploit that fact—and the consequences are real. Here are practical, board-ready steps CISOs can take to boost resilience when those attacks happen.

Hello, My Name Is Domain Admin

  • Mickey Bresman

My friends know I’m a movie buff. Being also a mixed martial enthusiast, one of my all-time favorites is Fight Club, based on Chuck Palahniuk’s first novel. The story is about an identity crisis: rebelling against consumerism, trying to find truth and meaning in life, and becoming a “real” person…

New Ransomware Statistics Reveal Increased Need for Active Directory Security and Resilience

  • Mickey Bresman

By now, we’re all familiar with the need for an “assume breach” mindset where ransomware and other cyber threats are concerned. To better understand the necessity and challenges of this approach, we partnered with international market research firm Censuswide to ask organizations about their experience with ransomware attacks. What we…

Hybrid Identity Protection

Hardening Entra ID Recovery and Identity Security Resilience

  • Tim Springston
  • Feb 24, 2026

Most identity recovery strategies primarily focus on users and groups. But in Entra ID, that’s only part of the story. After an attack, if access signals are missing or misaligned, you may technically have your users back, but you still can’t safely run the business. Take a look at how…

Checklist: How to Assess Your Cloud Identity Environment for True Cyber Resilience

  • Chris Steinke | Director of Product Integration & Strategy
  • Feb 18, 2026

Cloud identity environments such as Entra ID and Okta, while more flexible and easier to implement than their on-premises counterparts, can be especially vulnerable to service disruptions. Use this checklist to assess and strengthen resilience.

Semperis Acquires MightyID: Expands True Cyber Resilience Across Multi-IdP Environments

  • Alex Weinert | Chief Product Officer
  • Feb 04, 2026

An identity an outage anywhere can become a business crisis everywhere. And effective defense means resilience—not just prevention—so operations can continue, even under attack. Learn how Semperis’ acquisition of MightyID expands our comprehensive identity resilience across your entire identity fabric.

Identity Attack Catalog

How to Defend Against Password Guessing Attacks

  • Daniel Petri | Senior Training Manager

Here’s what you need to know about password guessing and how to protect Active Directory—and your organization.

Group Policy Preferences Abuse Explained

  • Huy Kha | Senior Identity & Security Architect

The Group Policy Preferences feature provides a well-known pathway for cyber attackers to discover easily decoded passwords in Active Directory. Learn to spot and defend against this vulnerability.

ESC1 Attack Explained

  • Huy Kha | Senior Identity & Security Architect

Discover how certificate template misconfigurations in Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) enable ESC1 attacks—allowing cyber attackers to rapidly escalate privileges and potentially compromise entire networks.

Identity Threat Detection & Response

What You Need to Know: Windows Admin Center Remote Privilege Escalation (CVE-2026-26119)

  • Andrea Pierini
  • Mar 23, 2026

Learn about the discovery of CVE-2026-26119: why it worked and why you shouldn’t underestimate authentication reflection.

Hardening Entra ID Recovery and Identity Security Resilience

  • Tim Springston
  • Feb 24, 2026

Most identity recovery strategies primarily focus on users and groups. But in Entra ID, that’s only part of the story. After an attack, if access signals are missing or misaligned, you may technically have your users back, but you still can’t safely run the business. Take a look at how…

Semperis Acquires MightyID: Expands True Cyber Resilience Across Multi-IdP Environments

  • Alex Weinert | Chief Product Officer
  • Feb 04, 2026

An identity an outage anywhere can become a business crisis everywhere. And effective defense means resilience—not just prevention—so operations can continue, even under attack. Learn how Semperis’ acquisition of MightyID expands our comprehensive identity resilience across your entire identity fabric.

Our Mission: Be a Force for Good

Duns 100 Ranks Semperis in Top 15 to Work For

  • Yarden Gur

This month marked two milestones for Semperis. First, Deloitte recognized the company as one of the 100 fastest growing technology companies in North America and (for the third consecutive year) one of the top 10 fastest-growing tech companies in the greater New York area. Then, the company was listed for…

What It Means to be a Mission-Driven Company

  • Mickey Bresman

On behalf of the entire team, I’m excited to share that Semperis has been named to Inc.’s 2022 list of Best Workplaces. This annual list honors workplaces that are ranked highly by their employees on topics like benefits, trust in senior leadership, change management, and career development. I could not…

Hybrid Identity Protection: IDPro Founder Ian Glazer

  • Sean Deuby | Principal Technologist, Americas

You won’t want to miss the newest episode of the Hybrid Identity Podcast (HIP)! In this session, I have the pleasure of talking with IDPro founder and Salesforce Senior VP of Identity Product Management Ian Glazer. What’s new at IDPro? IDPro has become the organization for identity pros looking for…

Purple Knight

Ransomware Defense in 2026: What CISOs Need to Know

  • Sean Deuby | Principal Technologist, Americas
  • Dec 23, 2025

The fastest way to turn a cyber incident into a business outage is through identity system compromise. Ransomware continues to exploit that fact—and the consequences are real. Here are practical, board-ready steps CISOs can take to boost resilience when those attacks happen.

Purple Knight Scoring Improves Understanding of Identity System Security Vulnerabilities

  • Ran Harel

Our latest Purple Knight (PK) v4.2 release introduces fundamental changes, particularly concerning the new scoring calculation. Changing from a broader approach that considered all indicators, we’ve now zeroed in on the “failed” indicators, those that highlight genuine security threats in your environment. This shift aims to ensure that the overall…

Semperis Offers New Protection Against Okta Breaches

  • Semperis Research Team

In an ever-evolving digital landscape, organizations rely on robust identity protection solutions to safeguard sensitive data and maintain secure operations. For most enterprise businesses, that means protecting Active Directory and Entra ID (formerly Azure AD). But identity protection is just as vital for organizations that use Okta, a cloud-based identity…

Semperis University

BadSuccessor: How to Detect and Mitigate dMSA Privilege Escalation

  • Semperis Team

The BadSuccessor Active Directory attack technique exploits a dangerous Windows Server 2025 vulnerability. Learn how DSP indicators of exposure and compromise enable you to proactively halt malicious activity.

Exploiting the Intruder’s Dilemma for Active Directory Defense

  • Huy Kha | Senior Identity & Security Architect

Can you create an AD defense that exploits intruder attack techniques? Learn how to selectively use an attacker’s own methods to detect and expel them.

Defending Against Cable: Prevent Malicious Use of Post-Exploitation Tool

  • Huy Kha | Senior Identity & Security Architect

Post-exploitation tools—such as Cable, the Active Directory-specific pentesting tool—are meant to educate security teams. But attackers use them too. Here’s how to detect and defend against malicious use of the Cable tool.

The CISO’s Perspective

Semperis Acquires MightyID: Expands True Cyber Resilience Across Multi-IdP Environments

  • Alex Weinert | Chief Product Officer
  • Feb 04, 2026

An identity an outage anywhere can become a business crisis everywhere. And effective defense means resilience—not just prevention—so operations can continue, even under attack. Learn how Semperis’ acquisition of MightyID expands our comprehensive identity resilience across your entire identity fabric.

Ransomware Defense in 2026: What CISOs Need to Know

  • Sean Deuby | Principal Technologist, Americas
  • Dec 23, 2025

The fastest way to turn a cyber incident into a business outage is through identity system compromise. Ransomware continues to exploit that fact—and the consequences are real. Here are practical, board-ready steps CISOs can take to boost resilience when those attacks happen.

Hello, My Name Is Domain Admin

  • Mickey Bresman

My friends know I’m a movie buff. Being also a mixed martial enthusiast, one of my all-time favorites is Fight Club, based on Chuck Palahniuk’s first novel. The story is about an identity crisis: rebelling against consumerism, trying to find truth and meaning in life, and becoming a “real” person…

Threat Research

What You Need to Know: Windows Admin Center Remote Privilege Escalation (CVE-2026-26119)

  • Andrea Pierini
  • Mar 23, 2026

Learn about the discovery of CVE-2026-26119: why it worked and why you shouldn’t underestimate authentication reflection.

SyncJacking: Hard Matching Vulnerability Enables Entra ID Account Takeover

  • Tomer Nahum
  • Jan 13, 2026

Attackers with certain privileges can abuse Entra Connect hard matching synchronization to take over synchronized Entra ID accounts.

nOAuth Abuse Update: Potential Pivot into Microsoft 365

  • Eric Woodruff | Chief Identity Architect
  • Jan 05, 2026

Additional nOAuth research indicates that the risk of nOAuth abuse still exists and that many organizations are still unaware of this vulnerability.

Uncategorized

Exploiting Ghost SPNs and Kerberos Reflection for SMB Server Privilege Elevation

  • Andrea Pierini
  • Oct 29, 2025

When misconfigured Service Principal Names (SPNs) and default permissions align, attackers can exploit Kerberos reflection to gain SYSTEM-level access remotely. Even with Microsoft’s security update, Ghost SPNs can still haunt you. Learn why.

Improve Hybrid AD Security with Automated Response and Streamlined Administration

  • Eran Gewurtz | Director of Product Management

Service accounts are easy to misconfigure, hard to keep track of, and often forgotten, making them ideal entry points for cyber attackers. Learn how DSP expands your ability to discover, monitor, govern, and protect service accounts.

How to Defend Against Password Guessing Attacks

  • Daniel Petri | Senior Training Manager

Here’s what you need to know about password guessing and how to protect Active Directory—and your organization.

AD security resources

Stay informed. Get the latest news and resources on identity threat detection and response (ITDR), hybrid Active Directory (AD) security, and cyber resilience, brought to you by Semperis experts.