Snippet Name: Discovering_User_Group_Membership

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Created Date: 2025-06-16 13:12:40
Last Modified Date: 2025-05-31 10:32:12

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Title: Discovering User Group Membership
Author: user
i have3 a remote desktop that is on a clients domain called wilnet. Powershell is ocked down, but i need to discover what groups via an LDAP query that the user wilnet\sqlservice belongs to

Author: ChatGPT
Since PowerShell is locked down, you'll need to use an alternative method to query Active Directory (AD) for group membership. Here's an approach using a basic command-line tool available on most Windows systems: **`dsquery` and `dsget`**.

### Steps to Discover Group Membership for `wilnet\sqlservice`:

#### 1. **Open Command Prompt**
   - Use `cmd.exe` since PowerShell is not an option.

#### 2. **Run the Following Commands**
   
   Replace `sqlservice` with the appropriate username.

   ```cmd
   dsquery user -name sqlservice | dsget user -memberof -expand
   ```

   - **Explanation**:
     - `dsquery user -name sqlservice`: Finds the distinguished name (DN) of the user in AD.
     - `dsget user -memberof -expand`: Lists all groups the user belongs to, including nested groups.

#### 3. **Check for Results**
   - The output will list the distinguished names of the groups.

#### 4. **If `dsquery` Is Not Available**
   - If `dsquery` is not installed or functional, you may use **`whoami`** as an alternative to get basic group membership (this won't include nested groups):
     
     ```cmd
     whoami /groups
     ```

   - **Explanation**:
     - `whoami /groups`: Lists all groups the currently logged-in user belongs to, but for `sqlservice`, you need to log in as that user or run the query on its behalf.

#### 5. **For Remote Queries**
   If you have remote access to a domain controller or another tool like LDAP Explorer, you can run LDAP queries remotely to retrieve the group memberships.

---

If you encounter any restrictions or need help with remote queries, let me know for further guidance!

Author: user
can i get the ou from whoami

Author: ChatGPT
The `whoami` command doesn't provide the Organizational Unit (OU) of a user in Active Directory. However, you can infer some information from the domain and user group memberships that it displays. To explicitly retrieve the OU, you would typically need to perform an LDAP query or use tools like `dsquery` or `ADSI`.

Since PowerShell is locked down and you mentioned `whoami`, here???s a workaround:

### 1. **Using `whoami /fqdn`**
Run the following in Command Prompt:

```cmd
whoami /fqdn
```

- This provides the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) of the user in the format:
  ```
  CN=sqlservice,CN=Users,DC=wilnet,DC=local
  ```

### 2. **Manually Extracting the OU**
If the `whoami /fqdn` command gives you the canonical name or user DN, you can parse the Organizational Unit (OU) from the result:
- For example: `CN=sqlservice,CN=Users,DC=wilnet,DC=local`
  - The `CN=Users` indicates the default container.
  - If the user is in an OU, you would see something like: `OU=Finance,OU=Departments,DC=wilnet,DC=local`.

### 3. **Alternative: Log in and Check in AD Tools**
If you have access to Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) or a similar GUI tool, you can search for the `sqlservice` account and view its exact OU path.

### 4. **If `dsquery` Is Available**
Run this to get the full Distinguished Name (including the OU):
```cmd
dsquery user -name sqlservice
```
This will return the full DN of the user, which includes their OU.

If you need further assistance, let me know!