Conditional Access Lockouts
Emergency recovery when CA policies block legitimate access or create cascading lockouts.
Break-glass procedures, policy diagnostics, and safe remediation.
Exchange Security & Access Control Diagnostics
Professional security diagnostics for Conditional Access incidents, MFA failures, authentication loops, and Zero Trust implementation. Emergency response procedures with audit-friendly remediation and compliance alignment.
Security Problem Categories
MFA Loop & Authentication Failures
Diagnostic procedures for MFA misconfigurations, re-registration loops, and authentication challenges.
Root cause analysis and user re-enablement procedures.
Zero Trust Exchange Implementation
Strategic guidance for implementing Zero Trust architecture in Exchange Online environments.
Phased rollout, policy patterns, and compliance considerations.
Security Diagnostic Framework
- Incident scope: Single user, group, policy scope, or tenant-wide?
- Verify break-glass access: Emergency admin account must bypass all CA policies
- Check sign-in logs: Identify CA policy triggering the failure
- Review policy conditions: Device compliance, location, client app, user risk, sign-in risk
- Assess policy state: Is policy in Report-only or Enforcement mode?
- Validate MFA configuration: Cached credentials, re-registration requirements, device trust
- Review recent changes: Policy scope changes, conditional access assignments
- Plan phased remediation: Emergency access restoration, then controlled re-enablement
Common Security Incidents (By Frequency)
| Incident | Symptom | Response |
|---|---|---|
| CA policy scope expanded too broadly | Mass lockout of user population | Set policy to Report-only, audit scope, re-enable with pilot groups |
| Device compliance enforcement fails | User cannot register compliant device | Verify Intune enrollment, check device registration, allow grace period |
| MFA re-registration required unexpectedly | Users prompted to re-register authenticator | Check MFA enforcement policy, confirm registration method available |
| Sign-in risk policy triggered | Elevated risk detected, user blocked or challenged | Review Entra sign-in risk factors, assess legitimate user activity |
| Break-glass account not properly configured | No emergency admin access during incidents | Create emergency admin account excluded from all CA policies |
Ready for Professional Security Diagnostics?
Our principal engineers provide professional security diagnostics and emergency incident response for mission-critical Exchange and Entra ID environments.