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How to Prevent Privilege Escalation in Active Directory

10 min read| Published On - December 15, 2025

What is Privilege Escalation?

Privilege escalation is a security exploit used by attackers which starts with compromised or stolen credentials to gain unauthorized access to system privileges within a computer system, network, or application.

Generally, it is achieved by exploiting vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, human error, or flaws in the security design of a system allowing an attacker to gain control, access sensitive data, or perform unauthorized actions.

An Active Directory privileged account is an account with elevated privileges to a system. In general, these may be accounts within high-level administrator groups such as the Domain Administrators, or Enterprise Administrators groups. An attacker with access to an account in one of these groups has the “keys to the kingdom.”

Active Directory authenticates and authorizes users, endpoints, and services to Active Directory. IT teams can use AD authentication to streamline user and rights management while achieving centralized control over devices and user configurations through the AD Group Policy feature.

It also provides limited single sign-on (SSO) functionality, allowing users only to authenticate once and then seamlessly access any corporate resource in the domain(s) for which they’re authorized. However, because of this central role that AD has in authentication and authorization, it makes it a prime target for attackers.

Why Privilege Escalation needs to be Prevented?

If an attacker gets unauthorized access to a privileged user account, there is no end to the damage that they may cause. And despite having the ability to immediately cause harm to data and network resources, once an attacker gains access, they may silently continue to investigate resources using the privileged account credentials. This allows them to create more opportunities for future access to the system in case an initial account compromise is discovered.

Preventing privilege escalation is crucial for the following reasons:

Protecting sensitive data: Privilege escalation can lead to unauthorized access to confidential information, such as personal, financial, or business data, which can be exploited or leaked by malicious actors.
Maintaining system integrity: When an attacker gains higher-level privileges, they can manipulate, modify, or delete critical system files, configurations, or applications, which can cause system instability or malfunction.
Prevent unauthorized actions: By preventing privilege escalation, you can limit attackers’ ability to perform unauthorized actions, such as creating new user accounts, installing malware, or altering security settings.
Compliance and legal implications: Organizations must adhere to various regulations and industry standards that require proper security measures to be in place, including protection against privilege escalation. Failure to do so can result in penalties, legal actions, and reputational damage.
Maintain operational continuity: A successful privilege escalation attack can disrupt business operations, leading to downtime, lost productivity, and potential revenue loss. Preventing such attacks helps maintain operational continuity and safeguards business processes.

How does Privilege Escalation Occur in Active Directory?

Within Active Directory, attackers may gain initial access through phishing or lateral movement, and then they can use that access to escalate privileges to Domain Admin level.

Privilege escalation can occur both vertically, where privileges are elevated from a lower to a higher privilege level, and horizontally where an attacker works laterally within a network, gaining access to resources or capabilities at the same privilege level.

Another attack method is Kerberoasting. The Kerberos protocol uses tickets to securely authenticate users and devices without transmitting plain text passwords over the network. These tickets are encrypted using a secret key shared between the user and the authentication server. In a Kerberoasting attack, the attacker can extract these encrypted tickets from the network and then use brute-force attacks to try and crack the encryption and gain access to the sensitive information or resources that the ticket grants access to. The accounts most vulnerable to Kerberoasting are those with weak passwords.

All user accounts interacting with a system possess a certain level of privilege, whether the account holder is aware of them or not. Non-privileged users are generally limited in their access to system databases, sensitive files, or other valuable information sources. Because of this, they might not even be aware of their privilege limitations as unlike malicious actors, they have no need to access information beyond their designated requirement.

Common Weaknesses that Allow Privilege Escalation and How to Overcome Them

Password Policies
Having too many Privileged Accounts
Unpatched Systems
Identify Inactive User Accounts
Un-managed Inactive User Accounts
Not Scanning for Vulnerabilities
Not Monitoring Network Traffic and Behavior

1. Password Policies

One of the key challenges facing organizations with Active Directory is knowing the current state of user passwords; and as native Active Directory tools do not provide visibility over weak passwords, reused passwords, or breached passwords it makes it difficult to track password activity. As well as obtaining user credentials through phishing attacks or exploiting other vulnerabilities, attackers can use other password related methods to start a privilege escalation attack, such as password spraying, targeting different accounts with known passwords, or using breached passwords, that are still in use elsewhere within the system.

It is essential to implement a strong password policy to reduce the risk of unauthorized access and privilege escalation through password attacks. Ensure your password policy includes:

Complexity: Ensure that passwords are complex and include a mix of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.
Length: Enforce a minimum password length, typically 12-16 characters.
Password rotation: Set a password expiration period, requiring users to change their passwords regularly and make sure they cannot use the same passwords for at least 3 cycles.
Account lockout: Implement account lockout policies to lock accounts after a specified number of failed login attempts which will help to reduce the risk of brute-force attacks.

2. Having too many Privileged Accounts

There are various ways in which an attacker may start a privilege escalation attack. One such way is that an attacker attempts to access the internal network using a phishing email containing a malicious attachment or link. An unsuspecting end-user who clicks on the malicious attachment provides the attacker with the means to gather additional credentials. This first compromised account allows the attacker to look around the system and find other credentials. If one of those accounts happens to be a privileged account, it is a straightforward process for the attacker to work their way through the system causing significant damage. The solution to this is to implement the Principle of Least Privilege.

What is the Principle of Least Privilege?

The Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP) is an information security concept in which a user is given the minimum levels of access needed to perform their job functions. For example, a user account created for extracting records from a database does not need admin rights, and a programmer whose main function is updating lines of code doesn’t need access to financial data.

Following the principle of least privilege is considered to be a best practice in information security and it is a highly effective way to greatly reduce the chance of an attack within an organization. The more that a user has access to, the greater the negative impact if their account becomes compromised or if they become an insider threat.

3. Unpatched Systems

The regular patching and updating of software and systems are essential to handle known vulnerabilities and reduce the risk of privilege escalation attacks. A patch management process should include:

Regular monitoring for updates: Keep track of security patches and updates released by software vendors.
Prioritize patches: Prioritize patches based on the severity of vulnerabilities and the potential impact on your systems.
Testing and deployment: Test patches in a controlled environment before deploying them to avoid any potential compatibility issues or interruptions.
Communicate any Changes: Notify your Security Operations team when you make specific changes that may affect functionality across the organization.

4. Un-managed Inactive User Accounts

Inactive users in Active Directory (AD) are accounts that have not been used for a certain period of time. The exact time frame for considering an account as inactive may vary depending on the organization’s policies and security requirements. In general, an account is considered inactive if the user has not logged in for a specified period of time, typically 30, 60, or 90 days. Inactive user accounts can be a security risk because these accounts may still have access to resources or systems, and their credentials may be compromised; and because these compromised accounts could go unnoticed, significant damage could take place before the source of the attack is found.

It is an essential security task, therefore, to continually monitor stale user accounts so that these inactive accounts can be identified and revoked before there is the opportunity for them to become compromised.

5. Not Scanning for Vulnerabilities

If regular scanning for vulnerabilities does not take place on a regular basis, potential weaknesses and misconfigurations in your systems may go unnoticed. These weaknesses could then be exploited in a privilege escalation attack. A vulnerability management program can include:

Regular scanning: Schedule scans to run regularly on your systems and networks.
Remediation: Determine a process for prioritizing and remediating identified vulnerabilities, based on their severity and potential impact.
Validation: Verify that vulnerabilities have been successfully remediated and that new vulnerabilities have not been introduced during the process.

6. Not Monitoring Network Traffic and Behavior

If network traffic and user behavior go unmonitored, then any potential privilege escalation attacks already in progress or unauthorized access attempts will go unnoticed. To overcome this, network and behavior monitoring solutions can be implemented such as:

Intrusion detection systems (IDS): Use IDS to monitor network traffic for signs of intrusion or malicious activity.
Security information and event management (SIEM): Employ SIEM tools to collect, analyze, and correlate log data from various sources, helping to identify potential security incidents.
User and entity behavior analytics (UEBA): Implement UEBA solutions to monitor and analyze user behavior for indications of unusual or suspicious activity that may identify unauthorized access or privilege escalation attempts.

Conclusion

Privilege escalation in Active Directory remains one of the most critical threats to organizations largely because attackers need only a single weak or misconfigured entry point to gain access and move towards full domain compromise. As this article illustrates, vulnerabilities such as weak passwords, excessive privileged accounts, unpatched systems and inactive or unmonitored user accounts all create opportunities for attackers to gain elevated access and move laterally within a system.

Ultimately, protecting Active Directory is a continuous process and all activity needs to be monitored closely to identify any potential threats. This is why visibility over what is happening in Active Directory is an essential requirement for administrators to ensure that any suspicious activity relating to potential security threats is identified and responded to immediately.

How Lepide Helps

The Lepide Active Directory Auditing Tool enables effective monitoring, auditing, and reporting on all Active Directory states and changes including the User Password Reset and Change Attempts Report which tracks all password changes, identifying and removing inactive user accounts and the Excessive Permissions by Users reports which highlights excessive permissions.

If you’d like to see how Lepide Auditor can help to audit Active Directory changes, try Lepide for free by downloading the free trial or schedule a demo with one of our engineers.

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