ESAE (Enhanced Security Administrative Environment) is a security model used to protect high-value assets in an organization. It is designed to address common attack scenarios such as pass-the-hash, lateral movement, and credential theft by isolating the administrative environment from the rest of the network. The ESAE forest is a separate Active Directory forest that is dedicated to the administration of the organization’s high-value assets.
The concept behind ESAE is to separate the administrative accounts and resources from the production environment to prevent attackers from gaining control of sensitive accounts and data. In an ESAE forest, administrative accounts are managed separately and are subject to higher security standards, such as two-factor authentication, regular password changes, and restrictions on administrative privileges.
Usage examples of ESAE forests include securing access to critical assets such as financial data, intellectual property, and sensitive customer information. It is commonly used by government agencies, financial institutions, and healthcare organizations to protect against cyber attacks.
To implement an ESAE forest, the organization must first set up a separate Active Directory forest dedicated to administrative functions. The administrative accounts and resources are then moved to this forest, and a trust relationship is established between the production forest and the ESAE forest to allow access to the administrative accounts and resources.
Overall, the ESAE model provides a higher level of security and reduces the risk of compromise of sensitive data by separating administrative accounts and resources from the production environment.
Implementation, configuration and management ESAE forests
Implementing an ESAE (Enhanced Security Administrative Environment) forest involves creating a separate Active Directory forest that is dedicated to the administration of the organization’s high-value assets. This involves setting up a new domain controller and creating a new forest.
Once the new forest is set up, the organization must create separate administrative accounts that are used only for administrative tasks in the new forest. These accounts must be protected by strong passwords, two-factor authentication, and other security measures to ensure that they are not compromised.
Next, a trust relationship is established between the production forest and the ESAE forest. This allows users in the production environment to access the administrative accounts and resources in the ESAE forest, but it also limits access to the sensitive resources to only those who need it.
Configuration and management of an ESAE forest involves ongoing monitoring and security measures. Regular audits should be performed to ensure that administrative accounts are properly secured and that access to sensitive resources is limited to only those who need it. Two-factor authentication, password policies, and other security measures must be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure that they are still effective in protecting against attacks.
In addition, it is important to regularly test the ESAE environment to ensure that it is working as intended. This involves conducting penetration testing and other security assessments to identify vulnerabilities and areas of weakness that need to be addressed.
Implementing, configuring, and managing an ESAE forest requires a high level of expertise in Active Directory and security best practices. It is recommended that organizations work with experienced IT professionals to ensure that their ESAE environment is properly configured and managed to protect against cyber threats.
