ActiveDirectory-Homelab

Abdullah’s Active Directory Home Lab is a virtualized, self-contained environment built for cybersecurity learning and testing. This lab is designed to help develop hands-on skills in Windows system administration, domain configuration, network management, and offensive security techniques like lateral movement and Active Directory exploitation.

The environment consists of:

• A Windows Server 2022 Domain Controller configured with Active Directory, DNS, and core services
• A Windows 11 Client machine joined to the domain for testing authentication, GPOs, and user management
• A Kali Linux Attacker machine used to perform ethical hacking techniques, AD enumeration, and privilege escalation

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🧱 Lab Topology

Role	Hostname	IP Address	OS
Domain Controller	Abdullah_DC	192.168.10.10	Windows Server 2022
AD Client	CLIENT01	192.168.10.20	Windows 11 Pro
Attacker	KALI	192.168.10.150	Kali Linux Rolling

⚙️ Lab Setup

• Hypervisor: VMware Workstation 17.x
• Networking: Host-Only + NAT (for Kali)
• OS Images:
  • Windows Server 2022 ISO
  • Windows 11 ISO
  • Kali Linux ISO

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🖥️ Domain Controller Configuration

This section explains how I installed and configured Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) and DNS on a Windows Server 2022 machine to promote it as the domain controller for the Abdullah-AD.local domain.

🔧 Server Basics

• Hostname: Abdullah_DC
• IP Address: 192.168.10.10
• OS: Windows Server 2022 (Desktop Experience)
• Role: Domain Controller + DNS Server

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Static IP configuration

Open Ethernet0 → Properties → Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) → Properties and fill in:

Setting	Value
IP address	192.168.10.10
Subnet mask	255.255.255.0
Default gateway	192.168.10.1
Preferred DNS server	127.0.0.1

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Install AD DS & DNS

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Selecting Add Roles and Features to begin installing AD DS and DNS roles.

Role Selection screen Active Directory Domain Services and DNS Server are checked here.

Choosing Add a new forest and entering the domain name: Abdullah-AD.local. This creates your top-level AD forest.

NetBIOS domain name auto-populated as ABDULLAH-AD. This will be used in domain logins like ABDULLAH-AD\Administrator.

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Create OUs & Users

You can use either the Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) GUI or PowerShell. Example PowerShell snippet:

Launch Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC)

Manually adding OU and adding users

Using Powershell

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import-Module ActiveDirectory

Adding a single user

New-ADUser -Name "John Doe"
-GivenName "John' -Surname "Doe"
-SamAccountName "jdoe"
-UserPrincipalName "jode@abdullah-AS.local'
-AccountPassword (ConvertTo-SecureString "Password123!" -AsPlainText -Force)
-Enabled $true
-Path "CN=Users, DC=Abdullah-AD, DC=local"

Create a Bulk of Users

$users = @(
    @{Name="John Doe"; Username="jdoe"; Password="Password123!"},
    @{Name="Jane Smith"; Username="jsmith"; Password="Password123!"},
    @{Name="Alice Admin"; Username="alice"; Password="AdminPass123!"},
    @{Name="sqlsvc Service Account"; Username="sqlsvc"; Password="Service123!"},
    @{Name="ASREP Roasting"; Username="asrep"; Password="WeakPass123!"}
)

foreach ($u in $users) {
    New-ADUser -Name $u.Name `
        -SamAccountName $u.Username `
        -UserPrincipalName "$($u.Username)@Abdullah-AD.local" `
        -AccountPassword (ConvertTo-SecureString $u.Password -AsPlainText -Force) `
        -Enabled $true `
        -Path "OU=CompanyUsers,DC=Abdullah-AD,DC=local"

🖥️ AD Client Configuration

This section outlines the configuration of the Windows 11 client machine and its successful integration into the Active Directory domain Abdullah-AD.local.

💻 Client Details

• Hostname: CLIENT01
• IP Address: 192.168.10.20
• OS: Windows 11 Pro
• Network: Static IP on the same subnet as the Domain Controller (192.168.10.0/24)
• DNS: Points to DC (192.168.10.10) to resolve the domain name

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Step-by-Step Setup

Navigate to System Properties to change the computer name and domain settings.

• This is accessed via Control Panel > System

Clicking Change settings and setting the hostname to CLIENT01. This helps identify the machine within the domain. In the Domain field, enter Abdullah-AD.local to begin joining the client to the AD environment.

Prompt appears requesting credentials, this is where you enter Administrator and the domain admin password.

Reboot, then log in for any user you created

Verify with whoami that you should see the domain prefix.

Success! The machine is now joined to the domain. You receive a confirmation message and must restart the computer.

👨‍💻 Author

Made by Abdullah Banwair — feel free to reach out!

Suggestions, contributions, and pull requests are welcome!