Active Directory Under Siege: Why Preemptive Cyber Defense Is the Only Way Forward 

Active Directory (AD) has always been the beating heart of enterprise identity, trust, and access. It authenticates users, governs permissions, and manages access to critical systems and applications.  

But because it holds the keys to the kingdom, AD has also become one of the most abused and strategically exploited assets in the modern threat landscape. 

Today’s adversaries don’t just want a foothold. They want dominance, and AD provides it. 

Yet too many organizations still treat AD as an IT administration tool rather than a major cyberattack surface, one where a single compromise can cascade into organization-wide disruption, ransomware detonation, or silent identity takeover across hybrid infrastructures.   

Why AD Is Ground Zero for Modern Attackers   

In just the last year, several major incidents have highlighted how AD is increasingly being used as the primary gateway for full network compromise.    

In early 2025, attackers targeting Marks & Spencer successfully exfiltrated the NTDS.dit file (the core AD credential database) allowing them to crack administrator passwords, impersonate privileged users, and move laterally across the entire infrastructure before deploying ransomware.    

In another case, attackers breached a corporate AD environment and stole the NTDS.dit file to stage a near-complete domain takeover, demonstrating how quickly identity-layer attacks can escalate into full systemic control.  

Meanwhile, security researchers exposed new AD-specific vulnerabilities like the “BadSuccessor” privilege escalation flaw in Windows Server 2025, showing how even modern AD features such as Managed Service Accounts can inadvertently create new attack paths.    

These real-world examples prove the same truth: attackers no longer rely on traditional malware to breach organizations. They abuse identity, privilege, and AD itself.   

Unlike isolated systems, Active Directory is foundational. Its compromise grants adversaries the ability to:   

• Forge trust (Golden Ticket attacks, DCSync, Kerberoasting). 
• Elevate privilege and impersonate domain administrators. 
• Disable endpoint protections and SIEM logging. 
• Move laterally across hybrid environments. 
• Destroy or corrupt backup systems before launching ransomware.  

Modern AD attacks blend identity abuse, memory exploitation, and cloud privilege escalation, making them nearly impossible to detect using legacy EDR, logging, or behavior analytics.   

The Verizon 2025 Data Breach Investigation Report found that 88% of breaches now involve compromised credentials; attackers are increasingly leveraging AD authentication, not malware, to gain entry and stay hidden.   

Hybrid Active Directory Has Expanded the Attack Surface   

Today, most enterprises run hybrid identity ecosystems that integrate on-prem AD with Azure AD, Office 365, SaaS applications, and security tools. While this increases agility, it also creates multiple points of failure, including:   

• Synchronization weaknesses (Azure AD Connect, Azure Sync) that open pivot paths between cloud and on-prem domains. 
• Legacy protocol risks (NTLM, LDAP, SMB signing bypass) that enable relay and replay attacks. 
• OAuth and token theft techniques that bypass credential protection entirely. 
• Inconsistent visibility across domains, clouds, and identity providers.   

Attackers are targeting the seams, the areas where cloud and on-prem identity infrastructures connect. These synchronization and identity replication pathways enable stealthy lateral movement without triggering alerts.   

What Morphisec Research Reveals About AD Exploitation 

Morphisec Threat Labs has uncovered multiple vulnerabilities tied to AD exploitation — including Microsoft Outlook-based vulnerabilities that quietly steal AD tokens, cached credentials, or enable in-memory code execution that bypasses EDR altogether. 

Check out links to our research here: 

1. CVE-2024-30103: A zero-click RCE vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook allowed attackers to execute malicious payloads simply when a user opened an email. Once exploited, attackers could obtain cached AD credentials and escalate privileges. Read our full analysis here. 
2. CVE-2025-47176: This discovery revealed how weak path traversal controls in roaming Outlook signatures could allow persistent backdooring of AD-connected devices, enabling threat actors to embed malicious payloads that would sync across all linked environments. Read more about this vulnerability here. 
3. CVE-2024-38021: Attackers leveraged in-memory manipulation and poor sanitization to bypass traditional security features. This attack was tied directly to AD credential theft and lateral movement inside hybrid infrastructures. Full technical analysis here. 

These vulnerabilities demonstrate a clear trend: In-memory, fileless, and identity-driven attacks are now the preferred weapon for reaching and compromising AD.   

Detection tools can’t see these attacks. Antivirus cannot block them. SIEM logs don’t capture them. The attackers never “land” in a way that triggers an alert, because they exploit runtime memory, identity tokens, and AD synchronization paths directly.   

Why Detection is No Longer Enough 

Traditional security models (heavily reliant on event logging, alerts, and after-the-fact response), are failing. Today’s AD attacks use stealth techniques that:   

• Mimic normal AD behavior (DCSync, Kerberos replication). 
• Use stolen credentials or forged tokens. 
• Operate entirely in memory and leave no files behind. 
• Hide in synchronization pathways between Azure AD, Outlook, and identity management systems. 

By the time you detect an AD compromise, it’s already too late. The attackers have privileges, disable defenses, and prepare ransomware deployment.   

Why Preemptive Cyber Defense Is Essential for Active Directory Protection 

If detection tools can’t see these threats — we must stop them before they execute.   

That’s where preemptive cyber defense fundamentally changes the equation.   

Instead of monitoring for malicious behavior, preemptive defense (via Automated Moving Target Defense, or AMTD) proactively disrupts the exploit mechanisms adversaries rely on, including in-memory manipulation, credential theft, RCE execution, and lateral movement.   

The Key Difference: 

 How Morphisec Stops Active Directory Attacks — Pre-Execution 

Morphisec’s proprietary AMTD is deception technology that disrupts attacker techniques in real time, blocking exploitation and credential theft before attackers can use them to compromise Active Directory.   

Morphisec Neutralizes AD Threats by:   

• Blocking In-Memory Exploits (Reflective loading, weaponized Outlook vulnerabilities, in-memory RCE). 
• Preventing Credential Theft (Pass-the-Hash, Kerberoasting, LSASS scraping, token theft). 
• Eliminating Lateral Movement Paths (RCE propagation, Azure AD pivoting, SMB relay). 
• Providing Virtual Patching for unpatched AD-connected applications and systems. 
• Shielding Hybrid Identity Environments across endpoints, servers, and cloud identity hubs. 

Morphisec doesn’t wait to detect attacks. It stops them silently, automatically, and before execution.   

What Enterprises Can Do Next 

Protecting AD in 2025 and beyond requires more than detection. It requires fundamentally changing how we protect identity, trust, and access across hybrid environments. 

Security leaders must: 

• Treat AD as a critical attack surface, not just an IT asset. 
• Implement preemptive, execution-blocking controls like AMTD across endpoints and identity-connected systems. 
• Use virtual patching to protect AD-linked applications (Outlook, Azure Sync, legacy infrastructure). 
• Ensure unified visibility of privilege changes, synchronization behaviors, and access anomalies across hybrid environments. 
• Integrate preemptive prevention into incident response and recovery planning. 

AD is more than an IT directory. It is the backbone of enterprise trust. Attackers know it. Now defenders must act accordingly.   

Detection-only strategies cannot protect AD from stealthy in-memory, identity-driven attacks. The only proactive path forward is preemptive cyber defense — stopping attacks before they execute, and before they can harvest credentials, forge tokens, or pivot across hybrid identity layers.   

Morphisec’s AMTD-powered prevention-first architecture is uniquely built for this challenge, enabling enterprises to protect AD and hybrid identity infrastructures at runtime, without needing detection, signatures, or behavior analytics.   

Register for our live webinar Deep Dive into Outlook RCE Exploits and AD Defense to see how attackers are exploiting Outlook and AD to launch ransomware campaigns, and what you can do to stop them. 

About the author

Brad LaPorte

Chief Marketing Officer

Brad LaPorte is a seasoned cybersecurity expert and former military officer specializing in cybersecurity and military intelligence for the United States military and allied forces. With a distinguished career at Gartner as a top-rated research analyst, Brad was instrumental in establishing key industry categories such as Attack Surface Management (ASM), Extended Detection & Response (XDR), Digital Risk Protection (DRP), and the foundational elements of Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM). His forward-thinking approach led to the inception of Secureworks’ MDR service and the EDR product Red Cloak—industry firsts. At IBM, he spearheaded the creation of the Endpoint Security Portfolio, as well as MDR, Vulnerability Management, Threat Intelligence, and Managed SIEM offerings, further solidifying his reputation as a visionary in cybersecurity solutions years ahead of its time.