Cybersecurity Insurance Checklist - Meet Insurance Requirements with BeyondTrust PAM Download for Free

  • Partners
  • Support
  • Careers
  • English
    • Deutsch
    • français
    • español
    • 한국어
    • português
BeyondTrust
  • Products

    Privileged Password Management

    Discover, manage, audit, and monitor privileged accounts and credentials.

    • Password Safe
    • DevOps Secrets Safe
    • Privileged Access Discovery Application

    Endpoint Privilege Management

    Enforce least privilege across Windows, Mac, Linux, and Unix endpoints.

    • Windows and Mac
    • Unix and Linux
    • Active Directory Bridge

    Secure Remote Access

    Centrally manage remote access for service desks, vendors, and operators.

    • Remote Support
    • Privileged Remote Access
    • Privileged Access Discovery Application

    Cloud Security Management

    Automate the management of identities and assets across your multicloud footprint.

    • Cloud Privilege Broker

    BeyondInsight

    Experience the industry’s most innovative, comprehensive platform for privileged access management.

  • Solutions

    Use Cases

    • Cloud Security
    • Compliance
    • Cyber Insurance
    • Digital Transformation
    • Endpoint Security
    • Operational Technology
    • Ransomware
    • Service Desk Efficiency
    • Zero Trust

    Industry Applications

    • Financial Services
    • Government Agencies
    • Healthcare
    • Law Enforcement
    • Manufacturing
    • Schools & Universities

    Solutions

    The BeyondTrust Privileged Access Management portfolio is an integrated solution that provides visibility and control over all privileged accounts and users.

  • Resources

    Learn

    • Blog
    • Customer Stories
    • Competitor Comparisons
    • Datasheets
    • Demos
    • Glossary
    • Podcast
    • Whitepapers

    Attend

    • Events
    • Go Beyond
    • Training
    • Webinars

    Support

    • Changelog
    • Professional Services
    • Technical Documentation

    Universal Privilege Management

    Our innovative Universal Privilege Management approach secures every user, asset, and session across your entire enterprise.

  • Company
    • About
    • Leadership
    • Core Values
    • Partners
    • Careers
  • Watch Demo
  • Contact Sales

How Endpoint Privilege Management Helps System Administrators

June 18, 2018

  • Blog
  • Archive

blog-how-endpoint-privilege-management.jpg

System Administrators routinely need access to network/remote resources to manage, troubleshoot, or stand up networks, as well as maintaining a stable internet connection. They are also responsible for monitoring data to proactively detect anomalies or other issues. As a company, you want your System Administrators to have the ability to run or install diagnostic applications and troubleshoot network-related issues on employees’ systems. These activities can be performed either at the console level or remotely. In many companies, the terms System and Network Administrators are used interchangeably.

System Administrators are often granted administrator rights or have the credentials for a secondary account with them (e.g. adm%username%, admHelpDesk1). This practice makes your organization susceptible to security threats. If a malicious user/attacker retrieves these credentials, your organization’s networks, infrastructure, and data would all be compromised.

Given the breadth of the System Admins’ responsibilities, there isn’t one list of network admin tools that satisfy all. Some admins may prefer to use Wireshark, while others get what they need from WinPCap. I’ve known admins who love CLI/PowerShell and some who just feel more comfortable using a GUI. At the end of the day, they all have similar goals and your company’s security policy shouldn’t be the reason they can’t achieve them. Let’s take a look at a few examples and what that looks like from a least privilege perspective.

Configuring a Network

Network Configuration is among the most common tasks in an admin’s life. Whether they need to make a simple settings change or diagnose a network outage, these operations require the process, at least in part, to be run as an administrative user.

Using PowerBroker for Windows’ Logging capabilities, we can see the process, ‘Netshell.dll' prompted for administrative credentials, which, in the least privilege model a user would not have the authority to move past.

blog-enpoint-management.jpg

Allowing approved users to run this application is easy — all that’s needed is to create a rule that targets netshell.dll for these users.

blog-endpoint-management.jpg

And now when they attempt to view or change network configuration settings, they can. This operation doesn’t require having access to secondary admin or additional service accounts on the system.

blog-how-endpoint-privilege-management-d.jpg

Installing Network Software

Often a Sys Admin needs additional software to assist in troubleshooting issues on user machines or servers. Most of these installs require administrative rights to run properly. When we run an install that requires admin rights while logged in as a standard user, we see a similar result as with Network Configuration.

blog-how-endpoint-privilege-management-a.jpg

Even though this is an installer, whereas running Network Config was an application, the process is the same to allow users to run it. We see in the logging where UAC prompted and can easily create a rule to allow this.

blog-enpoint-management.jpg

blog-endpoint-management.jpg

With the rule in place, WinPCap installs the same as if the user had administrative rights, but everything is still run in the logged-on user’s context.

blog-how-endpoint-privilege-management-d.jpg

With the rule in place, WinPCap installs the same as if the user had administrative rights, but everything is still run in the logged-on user’s context.

blog-endpoint-management-3.jpgRunning PowerShell Scripts

Running PowerShell scripts to diagnose issues can be different than running other applications or installers. With other diagnostic applications, they are focused on the local machine. With PowerShell, this is not always the case. Sometimes, information from a remote machine needs to be gathered, or changes must be made. In these cases, a standard rule may not be enough. The script needs to be launched as a user with the appropriate permissions on the remote host.

Let’s look at a simple example. I just want to list all services from a remote host that are stopped. When I launch this as a user with limited rights on the remote computer it fails.

blog-endpoint-management-4.jpg

Because the elevated rights are required on the remote machine, I can’t use a default rule action in PowerBroker for Windows. Instead, in combination with PowerBroker Password Safe, I will ask for the script to be launched with alternate credentials. Please note, the user will not need to know what these credentials are, nor will they be exposed during this process.

blog-endpoint-management-5.jpg

And the result is a successful launch of the script:

blog-endpoint-management-6.jpg

These are a few examples of how PowerBroker for Windows can help protect privileged access to common System Admin activities. To learn more about PowerBroker for Windows can help eliminate the need for administrative access, even for the most complex of use cases, download our latest white paper, “The CISO’s Guide to Managing Risk for Privileged Access & Credentials in Windows Environments”. Additionally, you can watch our recent webinar on best practices for managing windows privileged accounts via on-demand.

Photograph of Jason Silva

Jason Silva, Sr. Solutions Engineer, BeyondTrust

Jason Silva brings over 25 years of solutions and management experience to the industry. Currently serving as Senior Solutions Engineer for BeyondTrusts' Universal Privilege Management Platform, he uses this knowledge to help customers realize the value of our solutions throughout the product lifecycle. Earlier in his career, he found success as a software developer in a global consulting company and spent over four years managing IT and Regulatory Compliance in the banking industry.

Specialties: Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft Group Policy, Pre and Post Sales Training, Sales Engineering, Enterprise Security Tools, Privileged Access Management

Stay Up To Date

Get the latest news, ideas, and tactics from BeyondTrust. You may unsubscribe at any time.

I agree to receive product related communications from BeyondTrust as detailed in the Privacy Policy, and I may manage my preferences or withdraw my consent at any time.

You May Also Be Interested In:

Whitepapers

Cybersecurity Insurance Checklist

Whitepapers

Microsoft Vulnerabilities Report 2021

Whitepapers

Privileged Access Management: PAM Checklist

Keep up with BeyondTrust

I agree to receive product related communications from BeyondTrust as detailed in the Privacy Policy, and I may manage my preferences or withdraw my consent at any time.

Customer Support
Contact Sales

Products

  • Endpoint Privilege Management
  • Password Management
  • Privileged Remote Access
  • DevOps Secrets Safe
  • Remote Support
  • Cloud Privilege Broker

Resources

  • Blog
  • Case Studies
  • Competitor Comparisons
  • Datasheets
  • Glossary
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Webcasts
  • Whitepapers

About

  • Company
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Events
  • Leadership Team
  • Partner Program
  • Press
BeyondTrust Logo
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Privacy
  • Security
  • Manage Cookies
  • WEEE Compliance

Copyright © 1999 — 2022 BeyondTrust Corporation. All rights reserved. Other trademarks identified on this page are owned by their respective owners. BeyondTrust Corporation is not a chartered bank or trust company, or depository institution. It is not authorized to accept deposits or trust accounts and is not licensed or regulated by any state or federal banking authority.