Exposing the DNS Danger: Unsecure Dynamic Updates in Active Directory

Welcome to Directory Insights in 10 Minutes, a bite-sized cybersecurity briefing from Guardians of the Directory. I’m your host, Craig Birch—Principal Security Engineer and Identity Security Enthusiast.

In this episode, we dive into a critical misconfiguration that still lurks in many AD environments: DNS zones allowing unsecure dynamic updates.

🔍 Here’s what we cover:

• What dynamic updates are and how they work in AD-integrated DNS

• The three update modes—Secure Only, Nonsecure and Secure, and None

• Why nonsecure dynamic updates are a serious attack surface

• Real-world DNS attack tactics using spoofed records and tools like Responder

• A simple PowerShell script to detect vulnerable DNS zones

• How to fix your zones using DNS Manager

• And why Cayosoft Guardian is your best defense against configuration drift

🛡️ In Active Directory, trust starts with DNS—make sure that trust isn’t anonymous.

• PowerShell Detection Script:

• Learn more about Cayosoft Guardian: https://www.cayosoft.com/guardian

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🧰 Resources Mentioned:powershellCopyEditGet-DnsServerZone | Where-Object { $_.DynamicUpdate -ne "Secure" }🔔 Subscribe & Follow:📢 Connect with Craig Birch: