AD Fundamentals

Active Directory (AD) is Microsoft's directory service for managing users, computers, and resources in a Windows network. It provides centralized authentication and authorization.

Almost every enterprise runs AD, which makes it a prime target. Compromising AD often means compromising the entire organization.

A domain is the core administrative boundary in AD. It groups objects (users, groups, computers) under a shared database and security policy.

Each domain has a name like corp.example.com. All authentication within the domain is handled by domain controllers.