Microsoft Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 Domain Controller STIG SCAP Benchmark

SMBv1 is a legacy protocol that uses the MD5 algorithm as part of SMB. MD5 is known to be vulnerable to a number of attacks such as collision and preimage attacks as well as not being FIPS compliant. Disabling SMBv1 support may prevent access to file or print sharing resources with systems or devices that only support SMBv1. File shares and print services hosted on Windows Server 2003 are an example, however Windows Server 2003 is no longer a supported operating system. Some older network attached devices may only support SMBv1.

SMBv1 is a legacy protocol that uses the MD5 algorithm as part of SMB. MD5 is known to be vulnerable to a number of attacks such as collision and preimage attacks as well as not being FIPS compliant. Disabling SMBv1 support may prevent access to file or print sharing resources with systems or devices that only support SMBv1. File shares and print services hosted on Windows Server 2003 are an example, however Windows Server 2003 is no longer a supported operating system. Some older network attached devices may only support SMBv1.

The account lockout feature, when enabled, prevents brute-force password attacks on the system. This parameter specifies the period of time that an account will remain locked after the specified number of failed logon attempts.

The account lockout feature, when enabled, prevents brute-force password attacks on the system. This parameter specifies the period of time that must pass after failed logon attempts before the counter is reset to "0". The smaller this value is, the less effective the account lockout feature will be in protecting the local system.

The longer a password is in use, the greater the opportunity for someone to gain unauthorized knowledge of the passwords. Scheduled changing of passwords hinders the ability of unauthorized system users to crack passwords and gain access to a system.

Information systems not protected with strong password schemes (including passwords of minimum length) provide the opportunity for anyone to crack the password, thus gaining access to the system and compromising the device, information, or the local network.

Storing passwords using reversible encryption is essentially the same as storing clear-text versions of the passwords. For this reason, this policy must never be enabled.

This setting determines the maximum amount of time (in minutes) that a granted session ticket can be used to access a particular service. Session tickets are used only to authenticate new connections with servers. Ongoing operations are not interrupted if the session ticket used to authenticate the connection expires during the connection.

This setting determines the period of time (in days) during which a user's TGT may be renewed. This security configuration limits the amount of time an attacker has to crack the TGT and gain access.

Improper access permissions for directory data related files could allow unauthorized users to read, modify, or delete directory data or audit trails.

Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detect attacks. Audit logs are necessary to provide a trail of evidence in case the system or network is compromised. Collecting this data is essential for analyzing the security of information assets and detecting signs of suspicious and unexpected behavior. Credential validation records events related to validation tests on credentials for a user account logon.

Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detect attacks. Audit logs are necessary to provide a trail of evidence in case the system or network is compromised. Collecting this data is essential for analyzing the security of information assets and detecting signs of suspicious and unexpected behavior. Other Account Management Events records events such as the access of a password hash or the Password Policy Checking API being called.

Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detect attacks. Audit logs are necessary to provide a trail of evidence in case the system or network is compromised. Collecting this data is essential for analyzing the security of information assets and detecting signs of suspicious and unexpected behavior. User Account Management records events such as creating, changing, deleting, renaming, disabling, or enabling user accounts.

Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detect attacks. Audit logs are necessary to provide a trail of evidence in case the system or network is compromised. Collecting this data is essential for analyzing the security of information assets and detecting signs of suspicious and unexpected behavior. Process Creation records events related to the creation of a process and the source.

Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detecting attacks. Audit logs are necessary to provide a trail of evidence in case the system or network is compromised. Collecting this data is essential for analyzing the security of information assets and detecting signs of suspicious and unexpected behavior. Audit directory service access records events related to users accessing an Active Directory object.

Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detecting attacks. Audit logs are necessary to provide a trail of evidence in case the system or network is compromised. Collecting this data is essential for analyzing the security of information assets and detecting signs of suspicious and unexpected behavior. Audit directory service changes records events related to changes made to objects in Active Directory Domain Services.

Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detect attacks. Audit logs are necessary to provide a trail of evidence in case the system or network is compromised. Collecting this data is essential for analyzing the security of information assets and detecting signs of suspicious and unexpected behavior. Logon records user logons. If this is an interactive logon, it is recorded on the local system. If it is to a network share, it is recorded on the system accessed.

Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detect attacks. Audit logs are necessary to provide a trail of evidence in case the system or network is compromised. Collecting this data is essential for analyzing the security of information assets and detecting signs of suspicious and unexpected behavior. Special Logon records special logons which have administrative privileges and can be used to elevate processes.

Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detect attacks. Audit logs are necessary to provide a trail of evidence in case the system or network is compromised. Collecting this data is essential for analyzing the security of information assets and detecting signs of suspicious and unexpected behavior. Audit Policy Change records events related to changes in audit policy.

Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detect attacks. Audit logs are necessary to provide a trail of evidence in case the system or network is compromised. Collecting this data is essential for analyzing the security of information assets and detecting signs of suspicious and unexpected behavior. Authorization Policy Change records events related to changes in user rights, such as Create a token object.

Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detect attacks. Audit logs are necessary to provide a trail of evidence in case the system or network is compromised. Collecting this data is essential for analyzing the security of information assets and detecting signs of suspicious and unexpected behavior. Sensitive Privilege Use records events related to use of sensitive privileges, such as "Act as part of the operating system" or "Debug programs".

Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detect attacks. Audit logs are necessary to provide a trail of evidence in case the system or network is compromised. Collecting this data is essential for analyzing the security of information assets and detecting signs of suspicious and unexpected behavior. IPsec Driver records events related to the IPsec Driver such as dropped packets.

Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detect attacks. Audit logs are necessary to provide a trail of evidence in case the system or network is compromised. Collecting this data is essential for analyzing the security of information assets and detecting signs of suspicious and unexpected behavior. Audit Other System Events records information related to cryptographic key operations and the Windows Firewall service. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000458-GPOS-00203

Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detect attacks. Audit logs are necessary to provide a trail of evidence in case the system or network is compromised. Collecting this data is essential for analyzing the security of information assets and detecting signs of suspicious and unexpected behavior. Security System Extension records events related to extension code being loaded by the security subsystem.

Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detect attacks. Audit logs are necessary to provide a trail of evidence in case the system or network is compromised. Collecting this data is essential for analyzing the security of information assets and detecting signs of suspicious and unexpected behavior. System Integrity records events related to violations of integrity to the security subsystem.

The Mapper I/O network protocol (LLTDIO) driver allows the discovery of the connected network and allows various options to be enabled. Disabling this helps protect the system from potentially discovering and connecting to unauthorized devices.

Peer-to-Peer applications can allow unauthorized access to a system and exposure of sensitive data. This setting will turn off the Microsoft Peer-to-Peer Networking Service.

Selecting an incorrect network location may allow greater exposure of a system. Elevation is required by default on nondomain systems to change network location. This setting configures elevation to also be required on domain-joined systems.

IP stateless autoconfiguration could configure routes that circumvent preferred routes if not limited.

Windows Connect Now provides wizards for tasks such as "Set up a wireless router or access point" and must not be available to users. Functions such as these may allow unauthorized connections to a system and the potential for sensitive information to be compromised.

Uncontrolled system updates can introduce issues to a system. Obtaining update components from an outside source may also potentially provide sensitive information outside of the enterprise. Optional component installation or repair must be obtained from an internal source.

Some features may communicate with the vendor, sending system information or downloading data or components for the feature. Turning off this capability will prevent potentially sensitive information from being sent outside the enterprise and uncontrolled updates to the system. This setting prevents an error report from being sent when a generic device driver is installed.

Some features may communicate with the vendor, sending system information or downloading data or components for the feature. Turning off this capability will prevent potentially sensitive information from being sent outside the enterprise and uncontrolled updates to the system. This setting will prevent Windows from retrieving device metadata from the Internet.

Some features may communicate with the vendor, sending system information or downloading data or components for the feature. Turning off this capability will prevent potentially sensitive information from being sent outside the enterprise and uncontrolled updates to the system. This setting will prevent the system from searching Windows Update for device drivers.

Some features may communicate with the vendor, sending system information or downloading data or components for the feature. Turning off this capability will prevent potentially sensitive information from being sent outside the enterprise and uncontrolled updates to the system. This setting prevents users from being prompted to search Windows Update for device drivers.

Enabling this setting and then selecting the "Process even if the Group Policy objects have not changed" option ensures that the policies will be reprocessed even if none have been changed. This way, any unauthorized changes are forced to match the domain-based group policy settings again.

Uncontrolled installation of applications can introduce various issues, including system instability, and allow access to sensitive information. Installation of applications must be controlled by the enterprise. Turning off access to the Windows Store will limit access to publicly available applications.

Viewing events is a function of administrators, who must not access the internet with privileged accounts. This setting will disable Events.asp hyperlinks in Event Viewer to prevent links to the internet from within events.

Some features may communicate with the vendor, sending system information or downloading data or components for the feature. Turning off this capability will prevent potentially sensitive information from being sent outside the enterprise and uncontrolled updates to the system. This setting prevents unhandled file associations from using the Microsoft Web service to find an application.

Some features may communicate with the vendor, sending system information or downloading data or components for the feature. Turning off this capability will prevent potentially sensitive information from being sent outside the enterprise and uncontrolled updates to the system. This setting ensures the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program is disabled so information is not passed to the vendor.

Allowing different input methods for sign-in could open different avenues of attack. User input methods must be restricted to those enabled for the system account at sign-in.

App notifications that are displayed on the lock screen could display sensitive information to unauthorized personnel. Turning off this feature will limit access to the information to a logged on user.

Authentication must always be required when accessing a system. This setting ensures the user is prompted for a password on resume from sleep (plugged in).

Remote assistance allows another user to view or take control of the local session of a user. Solicited assistance is help that is specifically requested by the local user. This may allow unauthorized parties access to the resources on the computer.

Some features may communicate with the vendor, sending system information or downloading data or components for the feature. Turning off this feature will prevent potentially sensitive information from being sent outside the enterprise and uncontrolled updates to the system.

Some features may communicate with the vendor, sending system information or downloading data or components for the feature. Turning off this capability will prevent potentially sensitive information from being sent outside the enterprise and uncontrolled updates to the system. This setting prevents users from searching troubleshooting content on Microsoft servers. Only local content will be available.

Enabling trusted app installation allows for enterprise line of business Windows 8 type apps. A trusted app package is one that is signed with a certificate chain that can be successfully validated in the enterprise. Configuring this ensures enterprise line of business apps are accessible.

Allowing Autoplay to execute may introduce malicious code to a system. Autoplay begins reading from a drive as soon as media is inserted into the drive. As a result, the setup file of programs or music on audio media may start. This setting will disable Autoplay for non-volume devices (such as Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) devices).

Allowing Autoplay to execute may introduce malicious code to a system. Autoplay begins reading from a drive as soon media is inserted into the drive. As a result, the setup file of programs or music on audio media may start. By default, Autoplay is disabled on removable drives, such as the floppy disk drive (but not the CD-ROM drive) and on network drives. Enabling this policy disables Autoplay on all drives.

Visible passwords may be seen by nearby persons, compromising them. The password reveal button can be used to display an entered password and must not be allowed.

Inadequate log size will cause the log to fill up quickly. This may prevent audit events from being recorded properly and require frequent attention by administrative personnel.

Inadequate log size will cause the log to fill up quickly. This may prevent audit events from being recorded properly and require frequent attention by administrative personnel.

Windows SmartScreen helps protect systems from programs downloaded from the Internet that may be malicious. Warning a user before running downloaded unknown software, at minimum, will help prevent potentially malicious programs from executing.

Legacy plug-in applications may continue to function when a File Explorer session has become corrupt. Disabling this feature will prevent this.

The location service on systems may allow sensitive data to be used by applications on the system. This should be turned off unless explicitly allowed for approved systems/applications.

Preventing users from sharing the local drives on their client computers to Remote Session Hosts that they access helps reduce possible exposure of sensitive data.

Remote connections must be encrypted to prevent interception of data or sensitive information. Selecting "High Level" will ensure encryption of Remote Desktop Services sessions in both directions.

If a communal temporary folder is used for remote desktop sessions, it might be possible for users to access other users' temporary folders. If this setting is enabled, only one temporary folder is used for all remote desktop sessions. Per session temporary folders must be established.

Basic authentication uses plain text passwords that could be used to compromise a system.

Standard user accounts must not be granted elevated privileges. Enabling Windows Installer to elevate privileges when installing applications can allow malicious persons and applications to gain full control of a system.

Uncontrolled system updates can introduce issues to a system. This setting will prevent users from applying vendor-signed updates (though they may be from a trusted source).

Some features may communicate with the vendor, sending system information or downloading data or components for the feature. Turning off this capability will prevent potentially sensitive information from being sent outside the enterprise and uncontrolled updates to the system. This setting prevents users from being presented with Privacy and Installation options on first use of Windows Media Player, which could enable some communication with the vendor.

Basic authentication uses plain text passwords that could be used to compromise a system.

Digest authentication is not as strong as other options and may be subject to man-in-the-middle attacks.

Unencrypted remote access to a system can allow sensitive information to be compromised. Windows remote management connections must be encrypted to prevent this.

Allowing unsecure RPC communication exposes the system to man-in-the-middle attacks and data disclosure attacks. A man-in-the-middle attack occurs when an intruder captures packets between a client and server and modifies them before allowing the packets to be exchanged. Usually the attacker will modify the information in the packets in an attempt to cause either the client or server to reveal sensitive information.

Preventing the redirection of Remote Desktop session data to a client computer's LPT ports helps reduce possible exposure of sensitive data.

Preventing the redirection of Plug and Play devices in Remote Desktop sessions helps reduce possible exposure of sensitive data.

To ensure secure DoD websites and DoD-signed code are properly validated, the system must trust the DoD Root Certificate Authorities (CAs). The DoD root certificates will ensure that the trust chain is established for server certificates issued from the DoD CAs.

To ensure users do not experience denial of service when performing certificate-based authentication to DoD websites due to the system chaining to a root other than DoD Root CAs, the US DoD CCEB Interoperability Root CA cross-certificates must be installed in the Untrusted Certificate Store. This requirement only applies to unclassified systems.

Permissions on the Active Setup\Installed Components registry key must only allow privileged accounts to add or change registry values. If standard user accounts have these permissions, there is a potential for programs to run with elevated privileges when a privileged user logs on to the system.

A system faces an increased vulnerability threat if the built-in guest account is not disabled. This account is a known account that exists on all Windows systems and cannot be deleted. This account is initialized during the installation of the operating system with no password assigned.

The built-in administrator account is a well-known account subject to attack. Renaming this account to an unidentified name improves the protection of this account and the system.

Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detect attacks. Audit logs are necessary to provide a trail of evidence in case the system or network is compromised. Collecting this data is essential for analyzing the security of information assets and detecting signs of suspicious and unexpected behavior. This setting prevents the system from setting up a default system access control list for certain system objects, which could create a very large number of security events, filling the security log in Windows and making it difficult to identify actual issues.

Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detect attacks. Audit logs are necessary to provide a trail of evidence in case the system or network is compromised. Collecting this data is essential for analyzing the security of information assets and detecting signs of suspicious and unexpected behavior. This setting allows administrators to enable more precise auditing capabilities.

Requests sent on the secure channel are authenticated, and sensitive information (such as passwords) is encrypted, but not all information is encrypted. If this policy is enabled, outgoing secure channel traffic will be encrypted and signed.

Requests sent on the secure channel are authenticated, and sensitive information (such as passwords) is encrypted, but the channel is not integrity checked. If this policy is enabled, outgoing secure channel traffic will be signed.

Computer account passwords are changed automatically on a regular basis. This setting controls the maximum password age that a machine account may have. This setting must be set to no more than 30 days, ensuring the machine changes its password monthly.

Displaying the username of the last logged on user provides half of the userid/password equation that an unauthorized person would need to gain access. The username of the last user to log on to a system must not be displayed.

Unattended systems are susceptible to unauthorized use and should be locked when unattended. The screen saver should be set at a maximum of 15 minutes and be password protected. This protects critical and sensitive data from exposure to unauthorized personnel with physical access to the computer.

Creating strong passwords that can be remembered by users requires some thought. By giving the user advance warning, the user has time to construct a sufficiently strong password. This setting configures the system to display a warning to users telling them how many days are left before their password expires.

The server message block (SMB) protocol provides the basis for many network operations. Digitally signed SMB packets aid in preventing man-in-the-middle attacks. If this policy is enabled, the SMB client will only communicate with an SMB server that performs SMB packet signing.

Some non-Microsoft SMB servers only support unencrypted (plain text) password authentication. Sending plain text passwords across the network, when authenticating to an SMB server, reduces the overall security of the environment. Check with the vendor of the SMB server to see if there is a way to support encrypted password authentication.

The server message block (SMB) protocol provides the basis for many network operations. Digitally signed SMB packets aid in preventing man-in-the-middle attacks. If this policy is enabled, the SMB server will only communicate with an SMB client that performs SMB packet signing.

Users must not be permitted to remain logged on to the network after they have exceeded their permitted logon hours. In many cases, this indicates that a user forgot to log off before leaving for the day. However, it may also indicate that a user is attempting unauthorized access at a time when the system may be less closely monitored. Forcibly disconnecting users when logon hours expire protects critical and sensitive network data from exposure to unauthorized personnel with physical access to the computer.

Allowing a system to automatically log on when the machine is booted could give access to any unauthorized individual who restarts the computer. Automatic logon with administrator privileges would give full access to an unauthorized individual.

Configuring the system to disable IP source routing protects against spoofing.

This setting controls how often TCP sends a keep-alive packet in attempting to verify that an idle connection is still intact. A higher value could allow an attacker to cause a denial of service with numerous connections.

Configuring the system to ignore name release requests, except from WINS servers, prevents a denial of service (DoS) attack. The DoS consists of sending a NetBIOS name release request to the server for each entry in the server's cache, causing a response delay in the normal operation of the servers WINS resolution capability.

The default search behavior, when an application calls a function in a Dynamic Link Library (DLL), is to search the current directory, followed by the directories contained in the system's path environment variable. An unauthorized DLL, inserted into an application's working directory, could allow malicious code to be run on the system. Setting this policy value forces the system to search the %Systemroot% for the DLL before searching the current directory or the rest of the path.

Configuring Windows to limit the number of times that IPv6 TCP retransmits unacknowledged data segments before aborting the attempt helps prevent resources from becoming exhausted.

When the audit log reaches a given percent full, an audit event is written to the security log. It is recorded as a successful audit event under the category of System. This option may be especially useful if the audit logs are set to be cleared manually.

Allowing anonymous logon users (null session connections) to list all account names and enumerate all shared resources can provide a map of potential points to attack the system.

Named pipes that can be accessed anonymously provide the potential for gaining unauthorized system access. Pipes are internal system communications processes. They are identified internally by ID numbers that vary between systems. To make access to these processes easier, these pipes are given names that do not vary between systems. This setting controls which of these pipes anonymous users may access.

The registry is integral to the function, security, and stability of the Windows system. Some processes may require remote access to the registry. This setting controls which registry paths and sub-paths are accessible from a remote computer. These registry paths must be limited, as they could give unauthorized individuals access to the registry.

Anonymous access to network shares provides the potential for gaining unauthorized system access by network users. This could lead to the exposure or corruption of sensitive data.

Services using Local System that use Negotiate when reverting to NTLM authentication may gain unauthorized access if allowed to authenticate anonymously vs. using the computer identity.

PKU2U is a peer-to-peer authentication protocol. This setting prevents online identities from authenticating to domain-joined systems. Authentication will be centrally managed with Windows user accounts.

The LAN Manager hash uses a weak encryption algorithm and there are several tools available that use this hash to retrieve account passwords. This setting controls whether or not a LAN Manager hash of the password is stored in the SAM the next time the password is changed.

The Kerberos v5 authentication protocol is the default for authentication of users who are logging on to domain accounts. NTLM, which is less secure, is retained in later Windows versions for compatibility with clients and servers that are running earlier versions of Windows or applications that still use it. It is also used to authenticate logons to stand-alone computers that are running later versions.

Microsoft has implemented a variety of security support providers for use with RPC sessions. All of the options must be enabled to ensure the maximum security level.

Displaying the shutdown button may allow individuals to shut down a system anonymously. Only authenticated users should be allowed to shut down the system. Preventing display of this button in the logon dialog box ensures that individuals who shut down the system are authorized and tracked in the system's Security event log.

This setting controls the behavior of non-Windows subsystems when dealing with the case of arguments or commands. Case sensitivity could lead to the access of files or commands that must be restricted. To prevent this from happening, case insensitivity restrictions must be required.

User Account Control (UAC) is a security mechanism for limiting the elevation of privileges, including administrative accounts, unless authorized. This setting configures the built-in Administrator account so that it runs in Admin Approval Mode. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000373-GPOS-00158

User Account Control (UAC) is a security mechanism for limiting the elevation of privileges, including administrative accounts, unless authorized. This setting controls the behavior of elevation when requested by a standard user account. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000373-GPOS-00158

User Account Control (UAC) is a security mechanism for limiting the elevation of privileges, including administrative accounts, unless authorized. This setting configures whether Windows elevates all applications, or only signed ones.

User Account Control (UAC) is a security mechanism for limiting the elevation of privileges, including administrative accounts, unless authorized. This setting enables UAC. Satisfies: SRG-OS-000373-GPOS-00158

User Account Control (UAC) is a security mechanism for limiting the elevation of privileges, including administrative accounts, unless authorized. This setting configures non-UAC-compliant applications to run in virtualized file and registry entries in per-user locations, allowing them to run.

The POSIX subsystem is an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) standard that defines a set of operating system services. The POSIX Subsystem is required if the server supports applications that use that subsystem. The subsystem introduces a security risk relating to processes that can potentially persist across logins. That is, if a user starts a process and then logs out, there is a potential that the next user who logs in to the system could access the previous users process. This is dangerous because the process started by the first user may retain that users system privileges, and anything the second user does with that process will be performed with the privileges of the first user.

Unsigned network traffic is susceptible to man in the middle attacks where an intruder captures packets between the server and the client and modifies them before forwarding them to the client. In the case of an LDAP server, this means that an attacker could cause a client to make decisions based on false records from the LDAP directory. You can lower the risk of an attacker pulling this off in a corporate network by implementing strong physical security measures to protect the network infrastructure. Furthermore, implementing Internet Protocol security (IPSec) authentication header mode (AH), which performs mutual authentication and packet integrity for Internet Protocol (IP) traffic, can make all types of man in the middle attacks extremely difficult.

If the private key is discovered, an attacker can use the key to authenticate as an authorized user and gain access to the network infrastructure. The cornerstone of the PKI is the private key used to encrypt or digitally sign information. If the private key is stolen, this will lead to the compromise of the authentication and non-repudiation gained through PKI because the attacker can use the private key to digitally sign documents and pretend to be the authorized user. Both the holders of a digital certificate and the issuing authority must protect the computers, storage devices, or whatever they use to keep the private keys.

Unnecessary services increase the attack surface of a system. Some of these services may not support required levels of authentication or encryption.

Unnecessary services increase the attack surface of a system. Some of these services may not support required levels of authentication or encryption.

The automatic start of the Smart Card Removal Policy service is required to support the smart card removal behavior requirement.

Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities. Accounts with the "Access this computer from the network" right may access resources on the system and should be limited to those requiring it.

Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities. Accounts with the "Allow log on locally" user right can log on interactively to a system.

Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities. Accounts with the "Create a pagefile" user right can change the size of a pagefile, which could affect system performance.

Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities. Accounts with the "Create global objects" user right can create objects that are available to all sessions, which could affect processes in other users' sessions.

Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities. Accounts with the "Create symbolic links" user right can create pointers to other objects, which could potentially expose the system to attack.

Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities. The "Deny access to this computer from the network" user right defines the accounts that are prevented from logging on from the network. The Guests group must be assigned this right to prevent unauthenticated access.

Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities. The "Deny log on as a service" user right defines accounts that are denied log on as a service. Incorrect configurations could prevent services from starting and result in a DoS.

Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities. The "Deny log on through Remote Desktop Services" user right defines the accounts that are prevented from logging on using Remote Desktop Services. The Guests group must be assigned this right to prevent unauthenticated access.

Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities. Accounts with the "Force shutdown from a remote system" user right can remotely shut down a system, which could result in a DoS.

Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities. The "Impersonate a client after authentication" user right allows a program to impersonate another user or account to run on their behalf. An attacker could potentially use this to elevate privileges.

Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities. The "Load and unload device drivers" user right allows device drivers to dynamically be loaded on a system by a user. This could potentially be used to install malicious code by an attacker.

Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities. Accounts with the "Manage auditing and security log" user right can manage the security log and change auditing configurations. This could be used to clear evidence of tampering.

Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities. Accounts with the "Perform volume maintenance tasks" user right can manage volume and disk configurations. They could potentially delete volumes, resulting in data loss or a DoS.

Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities. Accounts with the "Restore files and directories" user right can circumvent file and directory permissions and could allow access to sensitive data. It could also be used to overwrite more current data.

Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities. Accounts with the "Add workstations to domain" right may add computers to a domain. This could result in unapproved or incorrectly configured systems being added to a domain.