Falcon Onum Unlocked: 5 Critical Use Cases for Modern Identity Defense

In the trenches of 2026, the reality of incident response has shifted. We are no longer just containing malware; we are containing identities. For years, Active Directory (AD) has been the "keys to the kingdom," yet for too many organizations, it remains a black box where attackers dwell for months after an initial foothold.

CrowdStrike's recent focus on Falcon Onum—their Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) solution—is a signal that the industry is finally maturing its approach to identity security. The release of "5 High-Impact Use Cases for Falcon Onum" isn't just a feature list; it is a defensive roadmap. For defenders, this means moving beyond reactive password resets to proactive hunting of credential abuse and lateral movement before privilege escalation occurs.

Technical Analysis

Falcon Onum operates by integrating deeply with the identity fabric of an organization—specifically Active Directory and Entra ID (formerly Azure AD). Unlike traditional SIEM logs that tell you what happened, Onum analyzes the context of identity behavior to determine if it is malicious.

The high-impact use cases center around closing the visibility gaps that traditionally exist between endpoint telemetry and identity controllers:

1. Active Directory Security Posture Management: Onum continuously assesses the health of the AD environment, identifying misconfigurations such as excessive privileges on service accounts or abandoned admin credentials.
2. Lateral Movement Detection: By correlating authentication events with endpoint telemetry, Onum detects Pass-the-Hash (PtH), Pass-the-Ticket (PtT), and Golden Ticket attacks that bypass standard signature-based defenses.
3. Shadow Admin Discovery: It maps "de facto" administrators—users who have high privileges through nested group memberships or direct ACL assignments rather than official admin groups.
4. Hybrid Environment Protection: The solution extends visibility across on-premises AD and cloud identities (Entra ID), crucial for detecting attacks that bridge the hybrid perimeter, such as rogue sync agents or cloud-to-on-prem privilege escalation.
5. Automated Incident Response: Upon detecting a compromised identity, Onum can trigger automated containment actions—such as disabling an account or forcing a password reset—directly from the Falcon console, reducing Mean Time to Respond (MTTR).

Technical Impact: The core value proposition is the unification of endpoint and identity telemetry. Attackers no longer need to deploy malware; they simply abuse native tools (e.g., mimikatz, powershell). Onum detects these "living-off-the-land" (LotL) identity techniques by identifying anomalies in access patterns and session duration.

Detection & Response

Executive Takeaways

Since this release focuses on a platform capability rather than a specific CVE or malware variant, defenders should focus on implementing the strategic pillars of ITDR highlighted in the use cases:

1. Consolidate Identity and Endpoint Telemetry: Stop treating EDR and Identity as separate silos. Ensure your SOC has a unified view (like the Falcon console) where a process spawn on an endpoint is immediately correlated with an authentication logon ID (LogonID) and privileged group membership.
2. Audit for Shadow Administrators Monthly: The most common gap I find in IR engagements is unknown admins. Implement automated queries to detect users who have write permissions on Domain Controllers or AdminSDHolder objects but are not in the Domain Admins group.
3. Deploy Deception for Identity: Use tools like Onum to deploy honeytokens (fake credentials) within your AD structure. Any touch on these objects is an immediate, high-fidelity indicator of compromise (IoC) with zero false positives.
4. Enforce Tiered Administration Strictly: Reduce the blast radius. If an attacker compromises a Help Desk account, they should not have a path to Domain Admin. Use the use case of "Tiering" to enforce administrative boundaries where Workstation Admins cannot manage Server Admins, and Server Admins cannot manage Domain Admins.
5. Automate Containment for High-Risk Events: Manual response is too slow for identity attacks. Configure playbooks that instantly disable accounts or isolate hosts when impossible travel (simultaneous logins from distant locations) or suspicious lateral movement (e.g., PsExec usage from a non-admin host) is detected.

Remediation

To operationalize the defensive capabilities described in the Falcon Onum release, security teams should execute the following hardening steps:

1. Deploy Falcon Onum Sensors: Install the Onum sensor on Domain Controllers and critical member servers to gain deep visibility into LDAP, Kerberos, and NTLM traffic.
2. Run a Security Posture Audit: Immediately upon deployment, run a full assessment to identify "Tier 0" assets (Domain Controllers) and remove any unnecessary administrative delegation rights found on member servers.
3. Eliminate Shadow Admins: Review the "Shadow Admin" report. Revoke direct Access Control Lists (ACLs) that grant non-admin users control over sensitive groups (e.g., Domain Admins, Enterprise Admins).
4. Configure Real-Time Alerts: Set up specific alerts for:
   • Changes to the AdminSDHolder container.
   • Addition of users to high-privilege groups (Schema Admins, Domain Admins).
   • Unusual authentication protocols (e.g., NTLM usage to a Domain Controller).
5. Vendor Guidance: Refer to the official CrowdStrike documentation for integrating Falcon Onum with your existing Identity Provider (IdP) to ensure seamless hybrid protection.

Related Resources

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