active directory rights delegation - overview

7/30/2019 Active Directory Rights Delegation - Overview

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Active Directory rights delegation overview

Very often administrators ask, how to grant other users from IT department some specific

rights in Active Directory without giving them to much permissions.

Microsoft allows us to do that in few ways, using:

default built-in groups Active Directory Delegation wizard ACL of Active Directory objects

The last option may be done over:

Active Directory Users and Computers console ADSI Edit console DSACLS coomand-line tool (out of scope in this article)

The first method is very simple for some predefined tasks but it also grants users much more

permissions than they sometimes need. So, the proper method in this case is granting users

rights over AD Delegation wizard or other mentioned method above. This way also allows us to

more granular permissions assignment.

Some tasks cannot be predefined using mentioned methods but we can do that modifying

appropriate policies in Group Policy Object (GPO).

Note!I can see very often that administrators add users into Domain Admins group to grantthem necessary privileges. This is the most simple way but for sure not the proper one! I know,

delegating rights require some administrative effort but its really worth implementing. After

delegation rights implementation, you can be sure that no one would destroy accidentally your

environment. Give it a try!

Active Directory Delegation wizard

This wizard is available when you open Active Directory Users and Computers console and

select Organizational Unit (OU) or domain on which you want to start delegating privileges.

Click right mouse button and choose Delegate Controll option. You should see a wizard


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Delegation Control wizard

Follow with the wizard and choose desired options. At the first screen, you will be prompted for

user or group to which you want to grant permissions.
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Selecting user or group to grant permissions

Note! It is good practice to not add users directly in Delegation Control wizard. Instead of

adding them directly, please create dedicated group and grant permission to it. Put each user

who requires permissions into that group.

Defined group for task delegation

as you can see on above screen, I have used domain local group named dlg-reset-user-

password. Its name tells, what is the purpose of it. In this case I will grant reset users password

permission in a domain to that group.

Note! I would strongly recommend naming groups the way you can simply evaluate what is its

function (use also description field to put more detailed information about the group).
http://kpytko.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/img0034.png


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Next step of delegating permissions

Now, you need to select appropriate permissions which will be assigned to specified group. You

can use one of predefined roles from the list or select more granular permissions.

To use one of predefined roles, select a checkbox next to it (you can select more than one) and

go to the next step to finish the action.


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Selecting delegated task for group of users

In case that you want to create a custom task to delegate, choose the second option and click

Next button


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Custom task to delegate

choose Only the following objects in this folder option and select appropriate object(s) from

the list

Custom task delegation next step

Now, you need to select granular permissions to assign. Before you will do that tick also

Property-specific option to have more attributes.


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Selecting more attributes

From the list, choose:

Reset password Read lockoutTime Write lockoutTime Read pwdLastSet Write pwdLastSet

and click Next button


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Assigning permissions

and finish the action. Now, you have delegated users password reset to specified group


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Rights delegated

To verify if rights are delegated, you need to check ACL of a location on which you have done

this action. If you want to see ACL (Security tab) on that location, you need to enable

Advanced Fetures option in ADUC console

Advanced Features option in ADUC

After that, you can simply check if task delegation has been finished successfully. Click right

mouse button on a domain or OU (depends where you have done delegation) and chooseProperties. Under the Security tab verify if you can see group to which you assigned

permissions


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Veryfing delegated permissions


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Thats all about this method. Now lets see another way.

ACL of Active Directory objects

As you saw in the previous part of this post, I showed you how to delegate rights using

Delegation Control wizard. This time you will see how to do that using ACL (Security tab).

Open Active Directory Users and Computers console (make sure that Advanced Feature

option in View menu is sel ected) and go to an OU or domain to which you want to grant

permissions. Click right mouse button and choose Properties. Go to Security tab


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Delegating rights over ACL


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click Advancedbutton and group to which you want to assign permissions


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In Permissions Entry window from Apply to drop down list choose This object and all

descendand objects and select Create computer objects


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Thats all in this method. The next option you can use is granting privileges over ACL using

ADSIEdit

ADSI Edit

In Windows Server 2003 to be able to use ADSIEdit you need to install Support Tools from the

first CD. On Windows Server 2008/2008R2 it is automatically available on each Domain

Controller.

Note! Be careful! ADSIEdit is powerful tool and you can destroy your domain environment. Do

not choose any other option, you do not know. First, check that in test environment.

Some options/attributes are unavailable in Security tab over ADUC console then we can set

up them using this tool. Log on to Domain Controller or other domain member server on which

you have available ADSIEdit and run it.


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Running ADSIEdit console

within ADSIEdit connect to Default naming context

Choosing context in ADSIEdit


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Choosing context in ADSIEdit

All other steps are the same as in the previous method (ADUC console).

Thats all in this overview article.

Author: Krzysztof Pytko

active directory rights delegation - overview

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