A PowerShell function and format file for getting Active Directory user management events from the security event logs on domain controllers.

readme.md

Get-ADUserAudit

These files can be used to query the Security eventlog from your domain controllers to find recent user management events. Save the .ps1 and format.ps1xml files in the same folder. You will need to dot source the ps1 file to load the function into your session.

. c:\<your-path>\get-aduseraudit.ps1

Then you can run a command like this which will query all domain controllers for all user accounts created and deleted in the last 12 hours.

Get-ADUserAudit -event created,deleted -since (Get-Date).AddHours(-12)

This function can only retrieve information from the Security eventlog. If you log is too small, you may only be able to capture recent events. You can increase log size with a command like this:

limit-eventlog -LogName security -ComputerName dom2,dom1 -MaximumSize 1024MB

Read More

This solution is described in more detail at https://jdhitsolutions.com/blog/powershell/8132/searching-active-directory-logs-with-powershell/.

DO NOT USE IN A PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT UNTIL YOU HAVE TESTED THOROUGHLY IN A LAB ENVIRONMENT. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS SCRIPT DOES OR HOW IT WORKS, DO NOT USE IT OUTSIDE OF A SECURE, TEST SETTING.

adaudittrail.format.ps1xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!--
Format type data generated 02/04/2021 08:56:49 by COMPANY\ArtD

This file was created using the New-PSFormatXML command that is part
of the PSScriptTools module.
https://github.com/jdhitsolutions/PSScriptTools
-->
<Configuration>
  <ViewDefinitions>
    <View>
      <!--Created 02/04/2021 08:56:49 by COMPANY\ArtD-->
      <Name>default</Name>
      <ViewSelectedBy>
        <TypeName>ADAuditTrail</TypeName>
      </ViewSelectedBy>
      <GroupBy>
        <PropertyName>DomainController</PropertyName>
        <Label>DomainController</Label>
      </GroupBy>
      <ListControl>
        <ListEntries>
          <ListEntry>
            <ListItems>
              <ListItem>
                <Label>EventType</Label>
                <PropertyName>EventType</PropertyName>
              </ListItem>
              <ListItem>
                <Label>Since</Label>
                <PropertyName>Since</PropertyName>
              </ListItem>
              <ListItem>
                <Label>TargetCount</Label>
                <PropertyName>TargetCount</PropertyName>
              </ListItem>
              <ListItem>
                <Label>Targets</Label>
                <PropertyName>Targets</PropertyName>
              </ListItem>
              <ListItem>
                <Label>Administrators</Label>
                <PropertyName>Administrators</PropertyName>
              </ListItem>
            </ListItems>
          </ListEntry>
        </ListEntries>
      </ListControl>
    </View>
  </ViewDefinitions>
</Configuration>

Get-ADUserAudit.ps1

#requires -version 5.1
#requires -module ActiveDirectory

#you might need to increase the size of the Security eventlog
# limit-eventlog -LogName security -ComputerName dom2,dom1 -MaximumSize 1024MB

Function Get-ADUserAudit {
    [cmdletbinding()]
    Param(
        [Parameter(Position=0,HelpMessage = "Specify one or more domain controllers to query.")]
        [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
        [string[]]$DomainController = (Get-ADDomain).ReplicaDirectoryServers,
        [Parameter(HelpMessage = "Find all matching user management events since what date and time?")]
        [Datetime]$Since = (Get-Date).Addhours(-24),
        [Parameter(HelpMessage = "Select one or more user account events")]
        [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
        [ValidateSet("Created","Deleted","Enabled","Disabled","Changed")]
        [string[]]$Events = "Created",
        [Parameter(HelpMessage = "Specify an alterate credential")]
        [PSCredential]$Credential
    )

    Function _getNames {
        # a private helper function to parse out names from the eventlog message
        [cmdletbinding()]
        Param(
            [Parameter(Mandatory, ValueFromPipeline)]
            [System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.EventLogRecord]$Data
        )

        Process {
            #convert the record to XML which makes it easier to parse
            [xml]$r = $data.toxml()

            #Target is the user account
            #Subject is the admin who performed the operation
            $target = "{0}\{1}" -f ($r.Event.EventData.Data.Where({ $_.name -eq 'TargetDomainName'}).'#text'), ($r.Event.EventData.Data.Where({$_.name -eq 'TargetUserName'}).'#text')
            $admin = "{0}\{1}" -f ($r.Event.EventData.Data.Where({ $_.name -eq 'SubjectDomainName'}).'#text'), ($r.Event.EventData.Data.Where({$_.name -eq 'SubjectUserName'}).'#text')
            [pscustomobject]@{
                Target        = $target
                Administrator = $admin
                TimeCreated   = $data.timeCreated
            }
        } #process
    } # close _getNames

    # a hashtable of user management event IDs for the Security event log
    $ADEvent = @{
        UserChanged  = 4738
        UserCreated  = 4720
        UserDeleted  = 4726
        UserEnabled  = 4722
        UserDisabled = 4725
    }

    $EventIDs = @()
    Switch ($events) {
        "Created" { $EventIDs += $adevent.getenumerator().Where({$_.name -match "created"}) }
        "Deleted" { $eventIDs += $adevent.getenumerator().Where({$_.name -match "deleted"}) }
        "Enabled" { $eventIDs += $adevent.getenumerator().Where({$_.name -match "enabled"}) }
        "Disabled" { $eventIDs += $adevent.getenumerator().Where({$_.name -match "disabled"}) }
        "Changed" { $eventIDs += $adevent.getenumerator().Where({$_.name -match "changed"}) }
    }

    #this hashtable filter will be used by Get-WinEvent
    $filter = @{LogName = 'Security'; ID = 0 ; StartTime = $Since }

    #parameters to eventually splat to Get-WinEvent
    $getParams = @{
        ErrorAction = "Stop"
        FilterHashtable = $filter
        Computername = ""
    }
    if ($Credential.UserName) {
        $getParams.add("Credential",$Credential)
    }

    Write-Verbose "Searching for AD log entries since $since"
    #Searching the Security event log on each domain controller
    foreach ($dc in $DomainController) {
        Write-Verbose "Processing $dc"
        foreach ($evt in $eventIDs) {
            $filter.ID = $evt.value
            $getParams.FilterHashtable = $filter
            $getParams.Computername = $DC
            Write-Verbose "...Looking for $($evt.name) events"
            Try {
                $logs = Get-WinEvent @getParams
                Write-Verbose "Found $($logs.count) log records"
            }
            Catch {
                Write-Warning "No matching $($evt.name) events $since found on $dc."
            }

            if ($logs.count -gt 0) {
                $names = $logs | _getnames
                $targets = ($names | Select-Object -Property Target -Unique).target
                $admins = ($names | Select-Object -Property Administrator -Unique).administrator
                [pscustomobject]@{
                    PSTypeName       = "ADAuditTrail"
                    DomainController = $dc
                    ID               = $evt.Value
                    EventType        = $evt.Name
                    LogCount         = $logs.count
                    Since            = $Since
                    Targets          = $targets
                    Administrators   = $admins
                }
                Remove-Variable -Name logs
            }
        }
    }
} #close function

Update-TypeData -TypeName ADAuditTrail -MemberType ScriptProperty -MemberName TargetCount -Value { $($this.targets).count } -Force
#the format file should be in the same folder as this file.
Update-FormatData -AppendPath $psscriptroot\adaudittrail.format.ps1xml

license.txt

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2021 JDH Information Technology Solutions, Inc.


Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:


The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.


THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
THE SOFTWARE.