3.1.1.6.1 AdminSDHolder
References
Special Objects in section 6.1: Windows NT operating system
Glossary terms: Active Directory, security principal, privileges, PDC, FSMO, SD, transitive membership, RID
LDAP attributes: nTSecurityDescriptor, groupType, objectClass, member, objectSid, dSHeuristics
LDAP classes: container, user, group
Constants
Access mask bits, CARs:
groupType bits: GROUP_TYPE_SECURITY_ENABLED
Constant RIDs: DOMAIN_ALIAS_RID_ADMINS, DOMAIN_ALIAS_RID_ACCOUNT_OPS, DOMAIN_ALIAS_RID_SYSTEM_OPS, DOMAIN_ALIAS_RID_PRINT_OPS, DOMAIN_ALIAS_RID_BACKUP_OPS, DOMAIN_ALIAS_RID_REPLICATOR, DOMAIN_GROUP_RID_SCHEMA_ADMINS, DOMAIN_GROUP_RID_ADMINS, DOMAIN_GROUP_RID_CONTROLLERS, DOMAIN_USER_RID_KRBTGT, DOMAIN_USER_RID_ADMIN
If a security principal object with elevated administrative privileges in Active Directory has a weak SD, Active Directory is vulnerable to straightforward attack. Therefore, Active Directory protects the SDs of such objects from updates that might give them weak SDs.
Each security principal is represented as an object o in Active Directory. For every o there is an attribute o!nTSecurityDescriptor. The value is the SD that defines ownership, permissions, and audited operations for o.
Active Directory protects the SD on certain objects by periodically overwriting any changes. This mechanism loosely establishes an upper bound on the length of time that a protected object can have a weak SD.