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We have released a new security audit solution called NTFS Security Auditor to manage NTFS permissions / security in the Windows network.

Vyapin’s NTFS Security Auditor audits the NTFS security across your Windows network. It gives a complete inventory report of all the users and their permissions to the Files/Folders/Shares. You can track unauthorized access to important files and folders, thereby protecting intellectual property and maintaining confidentiality across your network environment.

NTFS Security Auditor is a simple audit application targeted at System Administrators, IT infrastructure managers and System Audit personnel to assist in network security scrutiny. The powerful built-in reports help in both management reporting and IT Audit & Compliance reporting such as SOX and HIPAA.

Features at a Glance

	Multiple domain NTFS permissions reporting with multiple dimensions – reports folders/files access using users/groups dimensions and users/groups with permission dimensions.
	Analyze inadvertent user access.
	Report on explicit user/group permissions.
	Summarize shares on individual workstations for the entire domain.
	Search on user/group permissions on selective files/folders using conditions
	Scan specific accounts and computers in the domains
	Export audit reports to MS-Access/HTML/XLS/PDF/TIFF/CSV format

Download 15-day trial version from the product home page

Vyapin announces the release of its new product Active Directory Change Tracker version 1.0, a powerful tool to track, analyze, and report all changes made to your AD configuration.

Active Directory Change Tracker audits all changes made to your Active Directory by periodically collecting only the changed data, reporting what exactly changed, along with the new and old values, when the change was made, where the change happened in your Active Directory. Active Directory Change Tracker also determines who made the change by looking up the Security Event logs of your audit-enabled Active Directory.

For further information about Vyapin’s Active Directory Change Tracker version 1.0, you can view the product information and download a 15-day trial copy from the product
home page.

Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) supports the concept of nesting groups, or adding groups to other groups. Nesting groups can help to reduce the number of permissions that has to be given to key individuals, or to vital groups. 

Effectively nesting groups in a multi domain environment reduces the network traffic between the domains and simplifies the network administration in a domain tree.

Maintaining more number of nested groups is a real pain, because without our knowledge some of the nested groups may get looped. Say for an example there are four groups in an Active Directory Domain like Developers, Quality Checkers, Technical Advisors and Technical Leaders.

In the above scenario, Developers, Quality Checkers and Technical Leaders forming a group in a loop in an ADUC (Active Directory Users and Computers). In a large environment, it is very difficult to find the number of groups that form a loop in a domain.

Our latest version of Admin Report Kit for Active Directory (ARKAD) has got the necessary features to view a number of nested groups, and a number of groups that are forming a loop in a domain. The following figure displays the groups that are forming a loop in ‘SPACENET’ domain.

For further information about ARKAD, you can view the product information and download a 15-day trial copy from the product
home page.

Our much anticipated major release of ARK for Active Directory (ARKAD) version 7.0 is finally here with the following new features included,

• ARKAD is now available in two editions: Standard and Advanced. Click here to know the differences.
• Custom LDAP Queries: Allows the user to create their own Quick Reports to search only the specified domain partition, and searches can be narrowed down to a single container/OU object. Users can also specify their own LDAP queries.
• Ability to manage list of Active directory Domains in a single place to generate reports for various domains.
• Ability to connect to other forest domains with alternate credentials and also save the credentials for later use across application sessions.

For further information on ARK for Active Directory (ARKAD), visit our product home page at http://www.vyapin.com/products/active-directory-audit/active-directory-reports.htm

Our much anticipated major release of Admin Report Kit for Windows Enterprise (ARKWE) version 7.4 is finally here with the following new features included,

• Provision to generate permission reports on user-defined lists by using the Scan Profiles of Users and Groups.
• Provision for alternative enumeration of servers in a domain using Active Directory Computer accounts(to avoid Browser Service dependency).
• Ability to search report data.
• Ability to e-mail generated reports.
• Support for x64 platform.
• New Permissions reports under Built-in Reports category
• Enhanced Scan options for all built-in reports using Scan Profiles
• Minor enhancements.

For further information on ARK for Windows Enterprise (ARKWE), visit our product home page at http://www.vyapin.com/products/windows-audit/windows-reports.htm

Background

NTFS permissions play a vital role in securing Operating system objects (Folders, Files, and Services etc). NTFS permissions works on the basis of what is called an Access Control Model. The Access Control Model contains of the following:

• Access token
• Security Descriptors

Access token: Contains information about the logged on user and their privileges.

Security descriptors: Every object in a system has a set of regulatory information attached to it, which controls information about gaining access to the object and its attributes. These sets of regulatory information are termed as Security Descriptors. Security descriptors are created along with creation of an object and act as the backbone of the NTFS security.

A Security Descriptor consists of the following components:

• Security identifier (SID) – a unique identifier (a unique value) that identifies whether the entry is a User or Group.

• Discretionary Access Control List (DACL) - contains the Users and Groups and Permissions (Allow or Deny) on the object. Each entry in DACL is called an Access Control Entry (ACE).

• SACL (System Access Control List) - contains the auditing details of attempts made to access the object.

Let us review the above concepts with a simple example. Imagine a “Folder” as a physical File folder cabinet with an electronic lock. The various electronic lock codes for accessing the file cabinet are Permissions, which control who gains access to the file cabinet and what they can do inside the file cabinet. Such information is maintained in DACL as ACE entries. You can also put an additional Security near the File cabinet, to maintain an information log (audit) about who are accessing the file cabinet (SACL). SID is like an electronic key code that unlocks the file cabinet.

NTFS working

Whenever a user logs into the system, the system creates a unique Access Token for the user. The Access token contains the information about the Security Identifier (SID) and the permissions held by the user. Whenever the user tries to access any object, a copy of the Access token is given to the thread executing the process. The object for which the user is requesting access contains the Security Descriptor. The object, on receiving request, compares User SID with the entries present in the Security Descriptors DACL entries. If a match is found while comparing items, applicable permissions are given to the user.

Let us review the working of NTFS permissions with a simple example.

Consider a user named Tom requesting Access to object as logon user.

On receiving the Access request, DACL checks the ACE entry for “Tom”. In this scenario Tom is given the permissions to “Read, Write, Delete” on the object.

Note: This Scenario is also applicable for users accessing “Shared Folders” across File Servers.

Types

Permissions are of two types

• Explicit permissions
• Inherited permissions

Explicit permissions: Permissions that are listed in ACL directly.

Inherited Permissions: Permissions that are granted by means of group membership; the user may not be listed in the ACL directly, as we know that ACL contains permissions for users and groups, but via group membership, users may be getting some permissions. For example consider an object with the following ACE entries

Note: User Gary is a member of Technical Leaders group.

For the above scenario, user Gary is getting the permission “Take Ownership” because of his membership in Technical Leaders, in addition to his existing permissions. These extra permissions are termed as Inherited Permissions. So while accessing the object, the resultant permissions that are applicable are:

Effective Permissions

Effective permissions are the resultant permissions a User or a Group has towards an object. Effective permissions are the combination of Explicit and Inherited Permission entries and the restrictive permissions apply while accessing object. The following shows the essential factors that need to be addressed while considering effective permissions:

Factors:

• Well known SID
• Local group membership
• Global group membership

Effective permission calculation involves both direct and indirect group membership. The user may be direct member of the group or may become an indirect member of the group by-means of nested groups. For example consider the following scenario

Even though User Gary is not a direct member of the Team Leaders group, by means of nested group Team Leader -> Team Auditing, Gary is somewhat of an “indirect” member of Team Leaders. That is, the permissions of Team Leaders are also applicable for user Gary along with the other permissions.

If the user is a member of more than one group, effective permissions are calculated by taking all the groups’ membership into account and the approximating them.

Effective permissions for groups do not involve group membership. It shows only the explicitly assigned permissions in the ACL.

How Admin Report Kit For Windows Enterprise (ARKWE) address effective permissions reporting?

ARKWE has the provision to report about Share folders and Files NTFS permissions in all dimensions.
It has the ability to report the permissions information about the Users and groups that may or may not present in the Share Folders across File servers and domains.

It has provision to Export/Print reports in various formats (HTML/CSV/MDB/PDF/TIFF/XLS) and also to schedule reports at required Time intervals without any user interaction.

ARKWE addresses the effective permissions reporting pain, by taking all the necessary factors such as Group membership, Well Known Sid etc into account. The following summarizes the advantages of ARKWE over the Windows Effective Permissions Tool.

Our much anticipated major release of Admin Report Kit for Active Directory (ARKAD) version 6.2 is finally here with the following new features included,

1. AD Summary Reports: ARKAD now comes up with the ability to report object-specific significant information in a powerful summarized view. AD Summary reports displays summarized vital information about Domains, Organizational Units, Computer Accounts and groups.
2. Quick Reports: Quick reports allow the users to restrict the scope of reports to include only specific entities within the domain and generate meaningful information faster. This saves the users from the time involved in scanning the entire domain to retrieve information about specific objects. This is especially useful for oft repeated administrative tasks.
3. ARKAD now allows the user to schedule reports by e-mail. The reports can be scheduled to later hours to reduce the operational load and can be automatically mailed across to the desired recipients.
4. Custom Queries: With ARKAD, it is now possible for users to create their own reports. Custom Queries feature within the Quick reports allow the user to create a custom report by defining logical queries and generating the reports within the ARKAD framework. A custom query can be used to extract information from various containers across the directory.
5. Additional user attributes such as Employee ID, Employee Number, Department Number, Division, Car License etc. can be now retrieved using ARKAD. This additional information better qualifies the users associated with the directory.
6. Computers’ last logon date and time: ARKAD retrieves the last logon date and time of a computer specific to domain controllers within a domain and reports the most recent value as the computer’s last logon date and time.
7. ARKAD now reports the list of nested groups and nested groups that form a loop. (Quick reports->List of nested groups that form a loop).

Admin Report Kit for Active Directory (ARKAD) with its above features could very well be indispensable for any Active Directory infrastructure.

For further information on ARKAD, visit our product home page at http://www.vyapin.com/products/active-directory-audit/active-directory-reports.htm

NTFS Permissions reports on Files, Folders and Shares using Admin Report Kit for Windows Enterprise.

There are several powerful features available in Admin Report Kit for Windows Enterprise to generate reports on NTFS permissions on files and folders residing in servers and workstations across multiple domains in the network. All reports may be scheduled and generated for multiple computers, users, and groups for multiple domains as a batch job.

The Permissions Reports section under the built-in reports feature (out-of-the-box reports) includes specific reports that report exclusively on reporting the access permissions assigned to users and groups on files, folders and shares. Our NTFS permissions reporting tool has several flavors of reports designed specifically for the administrator’s convenience. The following questions can be easily answered using these multi-dimensional reports:
1. Given a selected set of Users and Groups, which files and folders do they have access to across computers in a domain?
2. Given a selected set of files, folders and shares across computers, which users and groups have access to these?
3. Which users have inherited access permissions by virtue of their group membership (even though they may not have been granted explicit permissions)?
4. What permissions have been assigned to users both explicit and inherited through nested groups? One single report showing both.
5. What are the net effective permissions for users and groups on a set of folders?
6. How are nested groups affecting NTFS permissions on files and folders?

Here is a walkthrough of how to generate NTFS Permissions Reports using Admin Report Kit for Windows Enterprise (ARKWE):

Click on the Permissions Reports menu item under the Built-in Reports button in the toolbar.

The following NTFS Permissions Reports are available:

List of permissions for specific users and groups on folders
Reports the folder permissions assigned to specific users and/or groups on a selected set of folders.

List of permissions for folders
Reports the permissions associated with a selected set of folders.

List of permissions for specific users and groups on files
Reports the files permissions assigned to specific users and/or groups under a selected set of folders.

List of permissions for files
Reports the permissions associated with files under a selected set of folders.

List of all permissions for folders (Inherit & Explicit)
Reports the permissions for users assigned in the folders directly and inherited by means of nested groups.

List of effective permissions for users and groups on folders
Reports the effective permissions for users and groups for a set of folders.

List of effective permissions for users and groups on files
Reports the effective permissions for users and groups for files available in a set of folders.

Apart from the above out-of-the-box NTFS Permissions Reports, several standard customizable reports on various share and folder resources are available. These may be customized and scheduled as batch jobs for multiple computers and domains.

Please click on the following to download and evaluate the above features in Admin Report Kit for Windows Enterprise.
http://www.vyapin.com/products/windows-audit/windows-reports.htm

Consider the following scenario:

There are two domains in a forest with different namespaces namely SPACENET (SPACENET.local) and OtherDomain (OtherDomain.local). Let us assume that SPACENET is the domain that needs to access resources in OtherDomain. In order to allow domain users from SPACENET to access resources in the domain OtherDomain, we need to add SPACENET’s users as members in the ‘domain local group’ of
OtherDomain.

If any user from the SPACENET domain is a member of ‘domain local group’ of OtherDomain (within the same forest), then the ‘Member Of’ tab for that user will not show that he is a member of ‘domain local group’ of OtherDomain. So, if you would like to know the ‘member of’ details of a particular User in a domain, a comprehensive listing should show all groups the User is a member of, including those groups in other domains that the user is a member of. 

Please see following figures to understand this better.

Active Directory Users and Computers for

‘OtherDomain.local’

Active Directory Users and Computers for ‘SPACENET.local’

If an administrator wants the ‘Member of’ details for users for the entire forest, he needs to view each group’s ‘Members tab’ in the AD console to see whether the specified user is a member of this group. The administrator needs to repeat this step for all domains and all groups in those domains.
 
So, How does ARKAD help show Users ‘Member of’ details for all domains in a forest in a single report view?
 
With the help of Admin Report Kit for Active Directory (ARKAD) you can view the users ‘Member Of’ details for an entire forest. The following image depicts the report generated by ARKAD for the above scenario.

A user may be assigned to multiple groups in an Active Directory organization. A group member may have membership in other groups in the same domain (or) in a different domain within the same forest (or) in a different domain in a different forest.

An in-depth user/group membership report must include all the groups that a user is member of across the entire AD organization (and not just the groups within one domain).

In a multiple forest environment, When we add a member from one domain to a group in another domain (from a trusted domain outside of that forest) , Active Directory automatically creates a special object called a foreign security principal (FSP) in the CN=ForeignSecurityPrincipals container in the domain NC.

Active Directory creates a foreign security principal object in a forest when objects from its trusted external forest are assigned group membership and security for trusting the forest’s objects. The users and groups of the external forest are represented by foreign security principals in the trusting forest and is necessary for them to access domain resources that exist in that forest. When a trust is established between domains across forests, these foreign security principals can become members of ‘domain local groups’ in the source domain.

In order to generate a report on all user memberships, you need a tool that runs through all user memberships across domains and if there are multiple forests with FSPs, then the membership across forests will have to be generated. For example, a complete membership listing of a User A, who is present in multiple domains across multiple forests, will show all groups that User A is a member of (including Domain Local Groups).

Vyapin’s Admin Report Kit for Active Directory (ARKAD) generates such complex user/group membership reports.

How to view all security principals in all domains within a single forest in ARKAD? (A security principal can be a user, group, service, or Computer). The Forest Reports feature in ARKAD allows the user to generate reports across domains in a forest. (Select ‘Forest Reports…’ under New Report button in the tool bar. The Forest Reports window with the list of reports will be displayed; Select a report from the list of reports. Click Next to proceed to the next steps).