Password protection for on-premises is enabled

Maester checks this too

CIS.M365.5.2.3.3 (Ensure password protection is enabled for on-prem Active Directory) checks the same setting. Running both reports it twice.

Overview

When on-premises password protection isn’t enabled or enforced, threat actors can use low-and-slow password spray with common variants, such as season+year+symbol or local terms, to gain initial access to Active Directory Domain Services accounts. Domain Controllers (DCs) can accept weak passwords when either of the following statements are true:

• Microsoft Entra Password Protection DC agent isn’t installed
• The password protection tenant setting is disabled or in audit-only mode

With valid on-premises credentials, attackers laterally move by reusing passwords across endpoints, escalate to domain admin through local admin reuse or service accounts, and persist by adding backdoors, while weak or disabled enforcement produces fewer blocking events and predictable signals. Microsoft’s design requires a proxy that brokers policy from Microsoft Entra ID and a DC agent that enforces the combined global and tenant custom banned lists on password change/reset; consistent enforcement requires DC agent coverage on all DCs in a domain and using Enforced mode after audit evaluation.

Remediation

• Deploy Microsoft Entra password protection

Run it

The check runs as part of the whole assessment, with the ZeroTrustAssessment module installed:

Install-Module ZeroTrustAssessment -Scope CurrentUser
Connect-Maester
Invoke-Maester -Pack ZTA -SkipBuiltIn

Leave out -SkipBuiltIn to run Maester’s own checks in the same run.

About this check

Severity	High
Effort to fix	Medium
Impact on users	Low
Pillar	Identity
Category	Access control
Product	Entra ID
Feature	Password protection
Area	Authentication
ATT&CK	T1110.003 Password Spraying
Licence	P1
Tenant	Workforce

Product, feature, area and ATT&CK are Maester’s: the assessment does not record them, so Maester keeps them in the pack’s taxonomy.json.

A Microsoft check, part of the Zero Trust Assessment pack. Text from ZeroTrustAssessment 3.1.0, © Microsoft, MIT licence.