3.1.1.6.1 AdminSDHolder

References

  • Special Objects in section 6.1: Windows NT operating system

Glossary terms: Active Directory, security principal, privileges, PDC, FSMO, SD, transitive membership, RID

LDAP attributes: nTSecurityDescriptor, groupType, objectClass, member, objectSid, dSHeuristics

LDAP classes: container, user, group

Constants

  • Access mask bits, CARs:

  • groupType bits: GROUP_TYPE_SECURITY_ENABLED

  • Constant RIDs: DOMAIN_ALIAS_RID_ADMINS, DOMAIN_ALIAS_RID_ACCOUNT_OPS, DOMAIN_ALIAS_RID_SYSTEM_OPS, DOMAIN_ALIAS_RID_PRINT_OPS, DOMAIN_ALIAS_RID_BACKUP_OPS, DOMAIN_ALIAS_RID_REPLICATOR, DOMAIN_GROUP_RID_SCHEMA_ADMINS, DOMAIN_GROUP_RID_ADMINS, DOMAIN_GROUP_RID_CONTROLLERS, DOMAIN_USER_RID_KRBTGT, DOMAIN_USER_RID_ADMIN

If a security principal object with elevated administrative privileges in Active Directory has a weak SD, Active Directory is vulnerable to straightforward attack. Therefore, Active Directory protects the SDs of such objects from updates that might give them weak SDs.

Each security principal is represented as an object o in Active Directory. For every o there is an attribute o!nTSecurityDescriptor. The value is the SD that defines ownership, permissions, and audited operations for o.

Active Directory protects the SD on certain objects by periodically overwriting any changes. This mechanism loosely establishes an upper bound on the length of time that a protected object can have a weak SD.