Active Directory Lab Setup Tool

7/18/2021 Active Directory Lab Setup Tool
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November 29, 2020
Active Directory Lab Setup Tool

By Sonny in #CyberSecurity
The AD Pentesting tool is a tool created in PowerShell to quickly setup an Active

directory lab for testing purposes. This tool can help setup a Domain controller
and Workstation in a lab environment quickly and effectively. While the tool is
specifically written to configure an Active directory environment in a lab
https://browninfosecguy.com/Active-Directory-Lab-Setup-Tool 1/15
environment the tool can be easily stretched for production environment as its
released under MIT license.
The process to manually configure a domain controller using GUI can be painful
especially if you need to create and teardown the lab frequently. This single tool
can not only configure a domain controller quickly but can also automate
additional configuration such as creating share, creating users, and configuring
group policy object for disabling Windows Defender which is something
desirable especially in a lab environment.
This blog post will provide an overview of the tool and demonstrate how it can
be used to automate configuring a domain controller and workstation.
The tool is a PowerShell script called “ADPentestLab.ps1” and is available on

GitHub under MIT License.
There are few things to keep in mind before using the tool.
1. This tool should be run as an Administrator.

2. The tool takes the liberty to configure passwords where required without
requiring user input. The password we configure is “Password1”, this can be
easily changed if required.
3. The tool was tested on a fresh install of Windows 2019 Server and Windows
10 Enterprise workstation.
When we run the tool, user is presented with following options:
Figure 1: Basic Options of the Tool
As shown at ①, Option 1-5 are applicable to Server except option 3 which is

applicable to both Server and workstation. Option 6 and 7 are exclusively for
configuring workstation. Once you are done installing a Windows Server and
Windows 10 Enterprise, you can use this tool for configuration.
Figure 2 shows a
fresh Windows 2019 server install.
Figure 2: Windows 2019 Server
We begin by configuring the Domain Controller as shown in Figure 3. Option 1

allows us to assign our computer a new name and configure a static IP address.
Although, not required it is always a good practice to name the computer to a
more user-friendly name.
Important thing to note, when we display information about network interfaces,

one can observe our machine has three interfaces, well one is loopback. Our lab
set up has a virtual network using subnet 192.168.25.0/24 the other IP address
10.0.3.15 is from the NAT interface. Why is this important? because we need to
configure our static IP address to correct interface. The displayed information
will help us determine the correct Interface Index which we need to provide at
③. Also important is the Prefix length as shown at ⑤, we need to enter the
length and not the subnet mask. Once we have provided the necessary
configuration details the computer will be restarted.
Figure 3: Configuring Machine name and static IP
If everything went according to plan your server should reflect something like
our lab server as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: New machine name and static IP
The next step is to install the role of Active Directory Domain Services on the
server and configure the Domain controller. As shown in Figure 5, Option 2
installs the role of Active Directory Domain Services and configure the Domain
controller after we supply the forest name.
Figure 5: Setting up Domain controller
Once the role is successfully installed the setup for Domain controller begins as
shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6: Finalizing Domain controller setup
Once the Domain controller configuration finished the machine restarts and if
everything went according to plan our server will be configured as shown in
Figure 7.
Figure 7: Configured Machine name and Domain
The next step is to configure users, create a GPO to disable windows defender
and create a share. Option 3,4 and 5 accomplishes that for us. We can clearly see
our user accounts created correctly in Figure 8.
Figure 8: User accounts
Figure 9 shows user John Conner added to Domain admins group.
Figure 9: John Conner part of Domain Admins
Figure 10 shows the GPO to disable Windows Defender also Figure 11 shows
the network share named “hackMe” configured correctly.
Figure 10: GPO to disable Windows Defender
Figure 11: hackMe Share
Now that our Domain controller is configured and ready. The next step is to
configure our workstation and join the Domain. We start with a fresh install of
Windows 10 Enterprise as sown in Figure 12.
Figure 12: Workstation Name
When we try to run the tool on a fresh install, we get the error as shown in
Figure 13. We can easily fix it by changing the script execution policy.
Figure 13: Configuring Execution Policy
Once the execution policy is changed, our tool start working again. To add the
workstation to the domain we need to configure the domain name server on our
workstation. The domain name server should point to the IP address of our
Domain controller. We start by selecting option 6 as shown at ①, we are then
displayed with network interfaces configured on the machine. As discussed
earlier we need to select the correct network interface to configure the DNS
server. On our lab server we select interface 5 as shown at ③ and then providing
the IP address of our Domain controller as shown at ④. Once we are finished the
machine restarts.
Figure 14: Configuring DNS
We can confirm that the DNS is configured correctly by observing the properties
of network interface as shown in figure.
Figure 15: Configured DNS
The only thing left to do is add our workstation to the Domain. Option 7 help us
add the workstation to the Domain, we need to provide the domain name as
shown at ② we are then prompted for Domain Admin credentials. The system
will restart itself and if everything went according to plan the workstation is
added to the Domain as shown in Figure
Figure 16: Adding workstation to Domain
Figure 17: Workstation is added to the Domain
I hope this tool can help automate the process of confguring an Active Directory
lab for your testing environment quickly and effectively. If you have any
comments or suggestions please feel free to contact me.
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About Sonny
Sonny is a CyberSecurity enthusiast who currently resides in

Halifax, Nova Scotia. Apart from CyberSecurity Sonny is
pasionate about PowerShell.
Nova Scoita, Canada

https://browninfosecguy.com
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7/18/2021 Active Directory Lab Setup Tool

November 29, 2020

Active Directory Lab Setup Tool

The AD Pentesting tool is a tool created in PowerShell to quickly setup an Active

The tool is a PowerShell script called “ADPentestLab.ps1” and is available on

1. This tool should be run as an Administrator.

When we run the tool, user is presented with following options:

Figure 1: Basic Options of the Tool

As shown at ①, Option 1-5 are applicable to Server except option 3 which is

Figure 2: Windows 2019 Server

We begin by configuring the Domain Controller as shown in Figure 3. Option 1

Important thing to note, when we display information about network interfaces,

Figure 3: Configuring Machine name and static IP

Figure 4: New machine name and static IP

Figure 5: Setting up Domain controller

Figure 6: Finalizing Domain controller setup

Figure 7: Configured Machine name and Domain

Figure 8: User accounts

Figure 9 shows user John Conner added to Domain admins group.

Figure 9: John Conner part of Domain Admins

Figure 10: GPO to disable Windows Defender

Figure 11: hackMe Share

Figure 12: Workstation Name

Figure 13: Configuring Execution Policy

Figure 14: Configuring DNS

Figure 15: Configured DNS

Figure 16: Adding workstation to Domain

Figure 17: Workstation is added to the Domain

Sonny is a CyberSecurity enthusiast who currently resides in

Nova Scoita, Canada

© Scriptor all rights reserved. Theme by JustGoodThemes.

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