Anonymous access enabled in AD forest
Cayosoft Threat Definition CTD-000006
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Risk Summary
Enabled anonymous access poses a threat to the Active Directory forest. Threat actors might use anonymous LDAP access to inventory users, groups, and objects, enabling reconnaissance and follow-on attacks.
- Severity: High
- Platform: Active Directory
- Category: Forest-wide
- MITRE ATT&CK Tactics: Defense Evasion, Initial Access; Persistence, Privilege Escalation
- MITRE D3FEND Tactics: Application Configuration Hardening
Description
Enabled anonymous access poses a threat to the Active Directory forest. Threat actors might use anonymous access to your forest via the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) to collect information about the environment. The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) can be used to provide information about users, groups and other object types.
Real-World Scenario
An external attacker identifies an exposed LDAP port on a perimeter-published DC or via a misconfigured firewall. Because anonymous LDAP operations are allowed (per the forest’s dSHeuristics setting), the attacker performs unauthenticated queries to enumerate user accounts, group memberships, service principals, and OU structure. With this map, the attacker crafts targeted password-spray attempts and phishing that quickly yield a low-privilege account, then abuses group nesting to escalate. Cayosoft Guardian would detect the risky forest configuration and raise CTD-000006 before reconnaissance succeeded.
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Detect this and other threats with Cayosoft Guardian Protector (Free of Charge)
1.) Download Cayosoft Guardian Protector for free real-time threat detection and monitoring of your hybrid AD and Microsoft 365 environment. Once downloaded, sign in and navigate to the Threat Detection Dashboard.
2.) Open All Alerts and search for CTD-000006 or Anonymous access enabled in AD forest.
3.) Open any alert and Click for details (from Raise Threat Alert action).
4.) Evidence:
- AD forest
- dSHeuristics
- Target object ID (redacted format shown in alerts)
Remediation Steps
Disable anonymous access to the Active Directory:
- ) Go to Start Menu.
- ) Select Run.
- ) Enter adsiedit.msc.
- ) Click OK.
- ) Select ADSI Edit node.
- ) In the Action menu select Connect to…
- ) Enter path in the Connection point section: CN=Directory Service,CN=Windows NT,CN=Services,CN=Configuration, {Root domain in forest}.
- ) Expand a new node, right-click on a child node CN=Directory Service,CN=Windows NT,CN=Services,CN=Configuration, {Root domain in forest}.
- ) Select Properties.
- ) Find dSHeuristics attribute in the Attribute editor.
- ) Set seventh character value to ‘0’. Do not modify any characters in the DsHeuristics string other than the seventh character.
How to Prevent It
Cayosoft Guardian can proactively detect and alert on Anonymous access enabled in AD forest. It continuously monitors Active Directory, Entra ID, Microsoft 365, and Intune for over 200 misconfigurations, providing early warning before attackers can exploit them.
FAQ
Because attackers can query AD without authentication, allowing them to enumerate users, groups, OUs, and service accounts—fueling password-spray attacks, targeted phishing, and privilege-escalation paths.
It enables (1) or disables (0) anonymous LDAP operations at the forest level. Setting it to 0 blocks all unauthenticated directory queries.
No—if you modify only the 7th character. Changing any other character can alter unrelated directory behaviors and is not recommended.
Yes. Cayosoft Guardian Protector can detect and alert on this misconfiguration at no cost.
Yes. Cayosoft Guardian provides full detection, alerting, auditing, and prescriptive remediation for anonymous LDAP access and over 200 other AD/M365 configuration risks.
References
- Microsoft: Anonymous LDAP operations to Active Directory are disabled – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-US/troubleshoot/windows-server/identity/anonymous-ldap-operations-active-directory-disabled
Final Thought
Proactive monitoring and timely remediation of configuration risks is essential to maintaining a secure Active Directory and Microsoft 365 environment. By addressing issues like Anonymous access enabled in AD forest, you reduce attack surfaces and strengthen your organization’s overall security posture.