Netwrix PingCastle: Entra ID & Active Directory Security Assessment Tool

Active Directory risk assessment (sometimes called AD security assessment or AD audit) is a process that helps organizations identify potential security weaknesses and misconfigurations within their Active Directory environment. These weaknesses could be exploited by malicious actors, potentially leading to unauthorized access and compromise of sensitive data. Regularly assessing your Active Directory helps ensure its security and protects your valuable information.

Due to its legacy nature and inherent complexity, Active Directory can be susceptible to vulnerabilities. Additionally, managing a vast network of users, devices, and permissions inherently increases the risk of misconfigurations, creating security gaps that attackers love to exploit.

Furthermore, Active Directory's role as the central hub for user access and authentication makes it a high-value target. A compromised Active Directory grants attackers a single point of entry to a wealth of sensitive data and resources within the network.

However, it's important to consider that Microsoft is constantly working to improve Active Directory security through updates and patches. Organizations can further mitigate these vulnerabilities by implementing regular Active Directory risk assessments and proactively mitigating identified risks before bad actors exploit them.

The report may contain data that is restricted by your security policy. This can be a problem when you have to transfer this data over the network. To limit that risk, Netwrix PingCastle can work on a report encrypted with an RSA key: the report can be stored encrypted or transmitted safely while only the instance having access to the private key can process it.

Netwrix PingCastle does not collect any other information than what is written in the report. No internet connectivity is required unless you want to verify the signature of the binaries.

Netwrix PingCastle requires the DotNet Framework 2 for report generation, and the reporting program requires the DotNet Framework 3 to use the OpenXML library. Consequently, Operating Systems starting from Windows 2000 are supported.

Netwrix PingCastle requires network connectivity to the domain, such as LDAP (TCP/389), ADWS (TCP/9389), SMB (TCP/445), and authorization to connect on the domain, which is granted by default to local domain accounts or accounts from trusted domains.

Yes, Netwrix PingCastle does not require an internet connection. Furthermore, the machine-readable report can be encrypted using an RSA key, which is suitable for email transfer.

Netwrix PingCastle enhances Active Directory security by scanning for misconfigurations, outdated settings, and other risk indicators. It helps you prioritize remediation efforts and aligns your security posture with industry standards like MITRE ATT&CK and ANSSI frameworks.