RE: [ActiveDir] Active Directory and Bastion Hosts

[Mulnick, Al]

I agree with Roger on that.  Active Directory *can* be used, hardened etc. (see the nsa docs for hardening guides as well as the Microsoft stuff on the subject). But why? Why do you need the overhead of Active Directory as a bastion host?  Answer that question and you can decide if it fits.  Couple that with the questions at the bottom of Roger's email and you can see a decision pattern.     My preference is to not use it in that environment unless I need something from it I can't get elsewhere.  I can get the directory service in ADAM but there are other pieces of Active Directory I may also need for some applications.   Al From: Roger Seielstad [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, April 23, 2004 12:22 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Active Directory and Bastion Hosts Its quite possible to use AD on bastion and DMZ hosts. It just shouldn't be the same forest as your production internal systems. It strikes me that using the Federated Forests concepts in ADv2 (ie Win2k3) you can deploy a bastion AD that trusts your internal forest using a one way cross forest trust. There still is an inherent security risk there, but its then hacking two forests instead of one.   I really, REALLY don't think this is worth it unless there are sufficient numbers of systems for which a unified authentication domain makes sense. For instance, if you ran a 50 server webfarm, it might make sense, but for 2-3 boxes, local accounts tend to make more sense.   If what the bastion hosts need to access in AD is a set of attributes (via LDAP), it makes more sense to turn up an instance of ADAM and use MIIS to one way replicate data to it, at which point you're only exposing exactly the data that's required.   Can you describe the goal/business need that's trying to be addressed here?   Roger -------------------------------------------------------------- Roger D. Seielstad - MTS MCSE MS-MVP Sr. Systems Administrator Inovis Inc.   From: Edwin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, April 23, 2004 11:17 AM To: Active Directory List Subject: [ActiveDir] Active Directory and Bastion Hosts Active Directory is a great tool for managing systems, I am sure that we can all agree.  However a topic of discussion has come up raising the question, should AD be used on Bastion Hosts?   My opinion is no, it should not.  AD is perfect for a secured internal network environment but not for servers that are constantly being accessed by the anonymous user.  Aside from the anonymous user, you have those users that have configured web sites on the server that have a "foot in the door" towards direct access to the machine.   With AD, in my opinion, if one machine were to be compromised or some other vulnerability discovered, the potential for all machines connected to the domain to be affected are much greater.  In a network without AD, the compromise of one machine will generally suggest an isolated machine because it is not connected to other machines by some means of a trusted connection.   One DLL installed that was not properly reviewed before install, a security update that was overlooked or not known about, or any other compromise to the machine could potentially affect the entire domain.   The above reflects my general opinion about the matter.  My problem is that I do not seem to find any supporting documents that would support my opinion.  Would anyone share the same thoughts and know of any documents, preferably from Microsoft, regarding the use of Active Directory in a bastion host environment?   Thank you all for your responses in advance.