How to Perform Active Directory Access Reviews with SecurEnds

Risks of over-provisioning and dormant accounts

Privilege creep is real. Someone moves from finance to marketing, but their finance access never goes away. Contractors finish a project and keep their VPN rights for months. These dormant accounts are open doors. Without frequent Active Directory access reviews, you won’t know who’s carrying keys they shouldn’t.

Audit fatigue and manual errors

Ask anyone who’s prepped for a SOX or HIPAA audit. They’ll tell you about nights hunched over Excel sheets, double-checking permissions line by line. And still—something gets missed. Manual access review in Active Directory isn’t just painful, it’s risky.

Compliance drivers (SOX, HIPAA, ISO 27001)

Regulators aren’t gentle. SOX demands quarterly certifications, HIPAA enforces strict PHI controls, and ISO 27001 expects evidence of reviews. That’s not a suggestion—it’s a requirement. If you can’t prove you’ve run proper Active Directory access reviews, you’re already behind.

Definition and importance

Put simply: an Active Directory access review is a gut check on your directory. It asks, “Does this person still need this access?” The answer can’t be guesswork. Without it, overprivileged accounts pile up, waiting for an attacker—or an auditor—to find them.

Who should conduct reviews and how often

This isn’t just an IT chore. Managers know if their employees need access. App owners know which groups matter. Security teams know which rights carry risk. A good Active Directory user access review brings them all to the table. Quarterly reviews are the norm, but high-risk roles? Monthly is smarter.

Key components: users, roles, groups, entitlements

A complete review looks at:

• Users – employees, vendors, contractors 
• Groups – especially those messy nested AD groups 
• Roles – what rights are tied to job functions 

Entitlements – the actual privileges being granted

If you’ve ever tried running one by hand, you already know the issues.

Manual Excel-based workflows

Export AD data. Dump it in Excel. Email it out. Hope managers reply. Usually, they don’t. Meanwhile, your Active Directory access review drags on, and auditors keep asking.

Limited visibility into nested AD groups

Here’s the problem: accessing Active Directory isn’t always transparent. One top-level group can cascade rights across dozens of systems. On paper, it looks clean. In reality, a user has five times the access you thought.

Delayed deprovisioning

Even if a review gets done, action is often slow. “Remove” decisions sit idle for weeks. That orphaned contractor account? Still live. That’s how breaches happen.

Lack of accountability

Who approved this entitlement? Why is this user in Domain Admins? Nobody remembers. Without audit trails, every access review in Active Directory feels like guesswork.

Nested groups & transitive access issues

It’s like Russian nesting dolls. Groups inside groups inside groups. Unless you peel them all back, you never see the full picture.

Lack of role clarity

When reviewers shrug at questions like, “Does this person need finance folder access?”—that’s not a review. That’s gambling.

This is where automation changes everything. SecurEnds was built to replace spreadsheet chaos with structured, trackable reviews.

• Access Review Module – Dedicated workflows for AD and Azure AD. 
• Real-time integration – No stale exports; data stays live with Active Directory access. 
• Pre-built templates – Kick off reviews by role, group, or OU. 
• Campaign management – Notify reviewers, escalate late responses, and track progress. 

Audit-ready reporting – Export clean logs that pass audits without drama.

Step 1: Connect your AD / Azure AD instance

Sync your environment. One setup, continuous visibility.

Step 2: Define scope (OUs, groups, applications)

Review everything or just a slice. A single OU, a specific app, or enterprise-wide.

Step 3: Launch access review campaign

With a few clicks, start your Active Directory user access review. Assign reviewers automatically.

Step 4: Notify reviewers & monitor progress

Built-in notifications keep campaigns moving. Dashboards show who’s late.

Step 5: Take action (approve, revoke, flag)

Each entitlement gets a decision. Keep it, remove it, or investigate further.

Step 6: Export audit report

End with a complete access review Active Directory report. Auditors love this part.

How to customize access review questions

Need managers to verify project-specific access? Add it as a required question.

Delegation & escalation logic

If managers don’t act, reviews escalate automatically. Accountability stays intact.

• Automated entitlement mapping – No more guesswork on who has what. 
• Cross-domain visibility – Cover hybrid setups and multiple forests. 
• Risk-based prioritization – Domain admins get flagged before interns. 

Role mining & outlier detection – Spot accounts with unusual access patterns

A financial services company ran reviews manually for years. With 5,000 users across three AD forests, campaigns dragged for weeks and often ended incomplete.

After moving to SecurEnds:

• 40% orphaned access revoked 
• Audits completed three times faster 
• Managers actually finished their reviews 

The difference? Automation did the heavy lifting.

Access review Active Directory isn’t a silo. In SecurEnds, it connects to:

• Just-in-Time Access – Grant temporary rights when needed. 
• RBAC – Align entitlements with standardized roles. 

Non-AD systems – Extend reviews to SaaS, databases, and cloud apps.

• Quarterly vs. event-driven reviews – Do both. Scheduled and triggered. 
• Involve the right people – Managers, app owners, auditors. IT alone can’t do it. 
• Establish policies – Frequency, scope, escalation. No surprises. 

Without this, even the best Active Directory user access review turns into a one-off clean-up instead of a governance program.

“SecurEnds enables us to perform enterprise-wide AD reviews in days, not weeks—while ensuring 100% compliance.” – IT Security Manager, Financial Services

Q1: Can SecurEnds review both AD and Azure AD accounts?
Yes. It supports Active Directory access reviews across on-prem and cloud environments.

Q2: How often should I run access reviews in AD?
Quarterly at a minimum. High-risk groups benefit from monthly Active Directory user access reviews.

Q3: Can I schedule recurring campaigns?
Absolutely. You can automate recurring access review Active Directory campaigns with no manual setup.

Q4: What happens when access is flagged or unapproved?
Flagged entitlements get routed for investigation. Unapproved ones are revoked automatically in AD.

Skipping Active Directory access reviews isn’t an option anymore. Regulators demand them, auditors check for them, and attackers exploit their absence. Manual spreadsheets can’t keep up with hybrid AD complexity.

With SecurEnds, reviews stop being a burden. IT and compliance teams get automation, visibility, and audit-ready proof—all without the 2 a.m. Excel grind.

If you’re ready to move past spreadsheets and finally govern Active Directory access with confidence, SecurEnds is the way forward.