SV-226160r794499: Group Policies must be refreshed in the background if the user is logged on. | Microsoft Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 Domain Controller STIG SCAP Benchmark

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Assessment Title

Rule Text

Group Policies must be refreshed in the background if the user is logged on.

Description

Discussion Text

If this setting is enabled, then Group Policy settings are not refreshed while a user is currently logged on. This could lead to instances when a user does not have the latest changes to a policy applied and is therefore operating in an insecure context.

How this relates to the STIG checklist: STIG vs SCAP benchmark.

IA Controls

NIST SP 800-53

Not mappedCCI-000366CCE-23622-4SV-52906V-3469

References

DPMS Target Microsoft Windows Server 2012-2012 R2 DC DISA DPMS Target Microsoft Windows Server 2012-2012 R2 DC 4217

Checks

DISA STIG (Manual Reference)

Review the registry.
If the following registry value does not exist, this is not a finding (this is the expected result from configuring the policy as outlined in the Fix section.):
If the following registry value exists but is not configured as specified, this is a finding:

Registry Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Registry Path: \Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\system\

Value Name: DisableBkGndGroupPolicy

Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0

SCC Automation Reference

The reconstructed evaluation script behind this rule's OVAL check(s) — every module a compound check combines, with this rule's own concrete values and DISA's SCC tool's real per-module mechanism curated from static teardown of SCC releases.

# Windows PowerShell
# Reconstructed from oval:mil.disa.fso.windows:def:4989
# Group Policies must be refreshed in the background if the user is logged on.
# Per-module read mechanism curated from static teardown of DISA's SCC tool
# (SCAP Compliance Checker) -- see the SCC Automation Reference above.

# Verifies 'Turn Off Background Refresh of Group Policy' is set to 'Disabled'
# registry_object (registry_test)
function test_1 {
  return (-not ($null -ne (Get-ItemProperty -Path 'Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\system' -Name 'DisableBkGndGroupPolicy')))
}
# Verifies 'DisableBkGndGroupPolicy' registry value is set to '0'
# registry_object (registry_test)
function test_2 {
  return (((Get-ItemProperty -Path 'Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\system' -Name 'DisableBkGndGroupPolicy' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) | Select-Object -ExpandProperty 'DisableBkGndGroupPolicy') -eq 0)
}

if ((test_1 -or test_2)) {
  Write-Output "PASS"
} else {
  Write-Output "FAIL"
}

Assessment Script Powered by AISyntax-verified

A standalone PowerShell script to assess this control automatically. Review before running it in your environment.

Syntax-checked as valid PowerShell. Not executed here — running it for real needs the actual ms_windows_2012_and_2012_r2_dc target this check assesses.

# OVAL Definition: oval:mil.disa.fso.windows:def:4989
$registryPath = "HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\system"
if (-not (Test-Path $registryPath)) { exit 0 }
$disableValue = (Get-ItemProperty -Path $registryPath -Name "DisableBkGndGroupPolicy").DisableBkGndGroupPolicy
if ($disableValue -eq $null) { exit 0 }
if ($disableValue -eq 0) { exit 0 }
exit 1

Remediation

Configure the policy value for Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Group Policy -> "Turn off background refresh of Group Policy" to "Disabled".