SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the capabilities of Microsoft security solutions
A company has a hybrid environment with on-premises Active Directory. The security team wants to detect advanced attacks such as pass-the-hash, malicious Kerberos ticket activity, and abnormal service account behavior. They want alerts from the on-premises environment to be integrated into Microsoft Defender for Cloud for centralized monitoring. Which Microsoft security solution should they deploy on their domain controllers?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse Microsoft Defender for Cloud (agentless) with Microsoft Defender for Identity, assuming the cloud-based solution can monitor on-premises AD attacks without understanding that MDI is the dedicated on-premises identity threat detection tool.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Microsoft Defender for Identity
Microsoft Defender for Identity (MDI) is the correct solution because it is specifically designed to detect advanced on-premises Active Directory attacks like pass-the-hash, malicious Kerberos ticket activity (e.g., Golden Ticket, Silver Ticket), and abnormal service account behavior. It integrates directly with Microsoft Defender for Cloud to provide centralized monitoring and alerting, fulfilling the requirement for on-premises domain controller protection.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Microsoft Defender for Cloud (agentless)
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Defender for Cloud primarily focuses on cloud security posture management (CSPM) and cloud workload protection (CWP) for Azure, AWS, and GCP environments. While it offers agent-based and some agentless capabilities for cloud resources, its agentless features are not designed to monitor or detect advanced identity-based attacks like pass-the-hash or Kerberos attacks directly within an on-premises Active Directory domain. It lacks the necessary deep visibility into on-premises domain controller traffic for such specific threats.
- ✓
Microsoft Defender for Identity
Why this is correct
Microsoft Defender for Identity (MDI) is specifically engineered to protect hybrid identity environments by monitoring on-premises Active Directory. It deploys lightweight sensors directly on domain controllers, which passively analyze network traffic and Windows events to detect suspicious user and entity behavior, including advanced attacks like pass-the-hash, Kerberos attacks, and Golden Ticket exploits. MDI provides real-time threat detection and security alerts, making it the ideal solution for securing on-premises AD from sophisticated identity-based threats.
- ✗
Microsoft Defender for Office 365
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a cloud-based security service focused on protecting an organization's email, documents, and collaboration tools within the Microsoft 365 suite. Its primary functions include safeguarding against phishing, malware, spam, and other threats delivered via email or shared files in SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams. This solution does not provide any monitoring or protection capabilities for on-premises Active Directory infrastructure or detect identity-based attacks occurring within that environment.
- ✗
Microsoft Entra ID Protection
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Entra ID Protection is a feature of Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) designed to detect and remediate identity-based risks in the cloud. It analyzes signals from Entra ID sign-ins and user accounts to identify threats such as leaked credentials, sign-ins from unfamiliar locations or anonymous IP addresses, and impossible travel. While crucial for cloud identity security, Entra ID Protection does not directly monitor or protect on-premises Active Directory domain controllers or detect attacks like pass-the-hash that target the on-premises environment.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Core Security Concepts
Key term
Kerberos
Kerberos is a network authentication protocol that uses tickets and symmetric-key cryptography to verify the identity of users and services in a secure, non-repudiable way.
Key term
Pass-the-hash
Pass-the-hash is a cyberattack where an attacker captures the hash of a user's password and uses it to authenticate to other systems without ever knowing the actual password.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SC-900 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the SC-900 exam.