Search filters the loaded rule list locally. Separate terms must all match (use quotes for an exact phrase).
Objective ID
Severity
Discussion
high
Systems at unsupported versions or releases of an operating system will not receive security updates for new vulnerabilities which leaves them subject to exploitation. Systems must be maintained at a version of the operating system supported by the vendor with new security updates.
low
Preventing display of the shutdown button in the logon dialog box may encourage a hard shut down with the power button. (However, displaying the shutdown button may allow individuals to shut down a system anonymously.)
high
The ability to set access permissions and auditing is critical to maintaining the security and proper access controls of a system. To support this, volumes must be formatted using the NTFS file system.
medium
Failure to display the logon banner prior to a logon attempt will negate legal proceedings resulting from unauthorized access to system resources.
low
The default Windows configuration caches the last logon credentials for users who log on interactively to a system. This feature is provided for system availability reasons, such as the user's machine being disconnected from the network or domain controllers being unavailable. Even though the credential cache is well-protected, if a system is attacked, an unauthorized individual may isolate the password to a domain user account using a password-cracking program and gain access to the domain.
high
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.
medium
The account lockout feature, when enabled, prevents brute-force password attacks on the system. The higher this value is, the less effective the account lockout feature will be in protecting the local system. The number of bad logon attempts must be reasonably small to minimize the possibility of a successful password attack, while allowing for honest errors made during a normal user logon.
medium
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.
medium
The account lockout feature, when enabled, prevents brute-force password attacks on the system. This parameter specifies the amount of time that an account will remain locked after the specified number of failed logon attempts.
high
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Act as part of the operating system" user right can assume the identity of any user and gain access to resources that user is authorized to access. Any accounts with this right can take complete control of a system.
medium
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.
medium
Permitting passwords to be changed in immediate succession within the same day allows users to cycle passwords through their history database. This enables users to effectively negate the purpose of mandating periodic password changes.
medium
A system is more vulnerable to unauthorized access when system users recycle the same password several times without being required to change a password to a unique password on a regularly scheduled basis. This enables users to effectively negate the purpose of mandating periodic password changes. The default value is 24 for Windows domain systems. DoD has decided this is the appropriate value for all Windows systems.
medium
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.
medium
The built-in guest account is a well known user account on all Windows systems and, as initially installed, does not require a password. This can allow access to system resources by unauthorized users. Renaming this account to an unidentified name improves the protection of this account and the system.
medium
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.
low
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.
medium
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.
medium
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.
medium
The use of complex passwords increases their strength against attack. The built-in Windows password complexity policy requires passwords to contain at least 3 of the 4 types of characters (numbers, upper- and lower-case letters, and special characters), as well as preventing the inclusion of user names or parts of.
high
The registry is integral to the function, security, and stability of the Windows system. Some processes may require anonymous access to the registry. This must be limited to properly protect the system.
high
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.
medium
Disabling the Ctrl+Alt+Del security attention sequence can compromise system security. Because only Windows responds to the Ctrl+Alt+Del security sequence, you can be assured that any passwords you enter following that sequence are sent only to Windows. If you eliminate the sequence requirement, malicious programs can request and receive your Windows password. Disabling this sequence also suppresses a custom logon banner.
medium
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
The "Deny access to this computer from the network" right defines the accounts that are prevented from logging on from the network.
In an Active Directory Domain, denying logons to the Enterprise Admins and Domain Admins groups on lower trust systems helps mitigate the risk of privilege escalation from credential theft attacks which could lead to the compromise of an entire domain.
Local accounts on domain-joined systems must also be assigned this right to decrease the risk of lateral movement resulting from credential theft attacks.
The Guests group must be assigned this right to prevent unauthenticated access.
medium
Unattended systems are susceptible to unauthorized use and must be locked. Configuring a system to lock when a smart card is removed will ensure the system is inaccessible when unattended.
medium
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 negotiate SMB packet signing as requested by the client.
medium
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.
medium
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.
low
Computer account passwords are changed automatically on a regular basis. Disabling automatic password changes can make the system more vulnerable to malicious access. Frequent password changes can be a significant safeguard for your system. A new password for the computer account will be generated every 30 days.
medium
The server message block (SMB) protocol provides the basis for many network operations. If this policy is enabled, the SMB client will request packet signing when communicating with an SMB server that is enabled or required to perform SMB packet signing.
medium
Removable hard drives can be formatted and ejected by others who are not members of the Administrators Group, if they are not properly configured. Formatting and ejecting removable NTFS media must only be done by administrators.
low
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.
low
Windows systems maintain a global list of shared system resources such as DOS device names, mutexes, and semaphores. Each type of object is created with a default DACL that specifies who can access the objects with what permissions. If this policy is enabled, the default DACL is stronger, allowing non-admin users to read shared objects, but not modify shared objects that they did not create.
low
Open sessions can increase the avenues of attack on a system. This setting is used to control when a computer disconnects an inactive SMB session. If client activity resumes, the session is automatically re-established. This protects critical and sensitive network data from exposure to unauthorized personnel with physical access to the computer.
high
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.
high
Allowing autoplay to execute may introduce malicious code to a system. Autoplay begins reading from a drive as soon as you insert media in 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. If you enable this policy, you can also disable autoplay on all drives.
high
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.
high
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 are accessible from a remote computer. These registry paths must be limited, as they could give unauthorized individuals access to the registry.
high
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.
high
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.
high
An account without a password can allow unauthorized access to a system as only the username would be required. Password policies should prevent accounts with blank passwords from existing on a system. However, if a local account with a blank password did exist, enabling this setting will prevent network access, limiting the account to local console logon only.
high
Installation of Internet Information System (IIS) may allow unauthorized internet services to be hosted. Websites must only be hosted on servers that have been designed for that purpose and can be adequately secured.
low
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.
medium
A computer connecting to a domain controller will establish a secure channel. Requiring strong session keys enforces 128-bit encryption between systems.
low
This setting controls the behavior of the system when there is an attempt to unlock the workstation. If this setting is enabled, the system will pass the credentials to the domain controller (if in a domain) for authentication before allowing the system to be unlocked. This may cause a denial of service if the workstation loses connectivity to the domain controller.
medium
This setting controls the storage of passwords and credentials for network authentication on the local system. Such credentials must not be stored on the local machine as that may lead to account compromise.
medium
Access by anonymous users must be restricted. If this setting is enabled, then anonymous users have the same rights and permissions as the built-in Everyone group. Anonymous users must not have these permissions or rights.
medium
Windows includes two network-sharing security models - Classic and Guest only. With the Classic model, local accounts must be password protected; otherwise, anyone can use guest user accounts to access shared system resources.
high
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.
medium
Limiting logon hours can help protect data by only allowing access during specified times. This setting controls whether or not users are forced to log off when their allowed logon hours expire. If logon hours are set for users, then this must be enforced.
medium
This setting controls the signing requirements for LDAP clients. This setting must be set to Negotiate signing or Require signing, depending on the environment and type of LDAP server in use.
medium
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.
medium
This setting ensures that the system uses algorithms that are FIPS-compliant for encryption, hashing, and signing. FIPS-compliant algorithms meet specific standards established by the U.S. Government and must be the algorithms used for all OS encryption functions.
medium
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.
medium
This setting controls the ability of users to supply passwords automatically as part of their remote desktop connection. Disabling this setting would allow anyone to use the stored credentials in a connection item to connect to the terminal server.
medium
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.
medium
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.
medium
Remote desktop session temporary folders must always be deleted after a session is over to prevent hard disk clutter and potential leakage of information. This setting controls the deletion of the temporary folders when the session is terminated.
medium
Remote assistance allows another user to view or take control of the local session of a user. Unsolicited remote assistance is help that is offered by the remote user. This may allow unauthorized parties access to the resources on the computer.
medium
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.
medium
Uncontrolled system updates can introduce issues to a system. The automatic check for updates performed by Windows Media Player must be disabled to ensure a constant platform and to prevent the introduction of unknown\untested software on the system.
medium
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.
low
Audit records may be lost if the security log becomes full. When the audit log reaches a given percent full, an audit event is written to the security log. An event is recorded as a success audit under the category of System. This option may be especially useful if the audit logs are set to be cleared manually.
low
Allowing ICMP redirect of routes can lead to traffic not being routed properly. When disabled, this forces ICMP to be routed via shortest path first.
low
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.
low
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.
low
In a SYN flood attack, the attacker sends a continuous stream of SYN packets to a server, and the server leaves the half-open connections open until it is overwhelmed and is no longer able to respond to legitimate requests.
low
Allowing more than several seconds makes the computer vulnerable to a potential attack from someone walking up to the console to attempt to log onto the system before the lock takes effect.
high
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.
medium
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.
medium
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.
medium
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.
medium
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.
high
Allowing anonymous access to named pipes or shares provides the potential for unauthorized system access. This setting restricts access to those defined in "Network access: Named Pipes that can be accessed anonymously" and "Network access: Shares that can be accessed anonymously", both of which must be blank under other requirements.
medium
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.
high
The lack of password protection enables anyone to gain access to the information system, which opens a backdoor opportunity for intruders to compromise the system as well as other resources. Local accounts on a system must require passwords.
low
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 onto a system must not be displayed.
medium
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.
medium
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 generating audit events for every file backed up or restored which could fill the security log in Windows, making it difficult to identify actual issues.
medium
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.
low
Identifying the computer name on a network could provide an attacker with information useful in gaining access. This setting prevents the computer name from displaying in the browse list.
low
IPSec exemption filters allow specific traffic that may be needed by the system for such things as Kerberos authentication. This setting configures Windows for specific IPSec exemptions.
medium
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.
medium
User Account Control (UAC) is a security mechanism for limiting the elevation of privileges, including administrative accounts, unless authorized. This setting configures the elevation requirements for logged on administrators to complete a task that requires raised privileges.
medium
User Account Control (UAC) is a security mechanism for limiting the elevation of privileges, including administrative accounts, unless authorized. Denying elevation requests from standard user accounts requires tasks that need elevation to be initiated by accounts with administrative privileges. This prevents privileged account credentials from being cached with standard user profile information to help mitigate credential theft.
medium
User Account Control (UAC) is a security mechanism for limiting the elevation of privileges, including administrative accounts, unless authorized. This setting requires Windows to respond to application installation requests by prompting for credentials.
medium
User Account Control (UAC) is a security mechanism for limiting the elevation of privileges, including administrative accounts, unless authorized. This setting configures Windows to only allow applications installed in a secure location on the file system, such as the Program Files or the Windows\System32 folders, to run with elevated privileges.
medium
User Account Control (UAC) is a security mechanism for limiting the elevation of privileges, including administrative accounts, unless authorized. This setting enables UAC.
medium
User Account Control (UAC) is a security mechanism for limiting the elevation of privileges, including administrative accounts, unless authorized. This setting ensures that the elevation prompt is only used in secure desktop mode.
medium
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.
medium
Enumeration of administrator accounts when elevating can provide part of the logon information to an unauthorized user. This setting configures the system to always require users to type in a username and password to elevate a running application.
medium
Saving passwords in the Remote Desktop Client could allow an unauthorized user to establish a remote desktop session to another system. The system must be configured to prevent users from saving passwords in the Remote Desktop Client.
medium
Allowing a remote desktop session to a workstation enables another avenue of access that could be exploited. The system must be configured to prevent users from connecting to a computer using Remote Desktop Services.
medium
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.
medium
Configuring RPC to restrict unauthenticated RPC clients from connecting to the RPC server will prevent anonymous connections.
medium
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 Windows from downloading a list of providers for the Web publishing and online ordering wizards.
medium
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 the client computer from printing over HTTP, which allows the computer to print to printers on the intranet as well as the Internet.
medium
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 the computer from downloading print driver packages over HTTP.
medium
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 Windows from searching Windows Update for device drivers when no local drivers for a device are present.
medium
The McAfee Agent is the client side distributed component of McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator (McAfee ePO) which provides a secure communication channel between the ePO server and managed point products.
medium
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.
medium
A Network Bridge can connect two or more network segments allowing unauthorized access or exposure of sensitive data. This setting prevents a Network Bridge from being installed and configured.
low
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.
medium
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.
low
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 "Order Prints Online" task is not available in File Explorer.
low
The classic logon screen requires users to enter a logon name and password to access a system. The simple logon screen or Welcome screen displays usernames for selection, providing part of the necessary logon information.
medium
Attachments from RSS feeds may not be secure. This setting will prevent attachments from being downloaded from RSS feeds.
medium
The shell protocol will limit the set of folders applications can open when run in protected mode. Restricting files an application can open, to a limited set of folders, increases the security of Windows.
medium
Users must be aware of attempted program installations. This setting ensures users are notified if a web-based program attempts to install software.
medium
Installation options for applications are typically controlled by administrators. This setting prevents users from changing installation options that may bypass security features.
low
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).
low
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.
medium
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.
medium
The Responder network protocol driver allows a computer to be discovered and located on a network. Disabling this helps protect the system from potentially being discovered and connected to by unauthorized devices.
medium
Windows Connect Now allows the discovery and configuration of devices over wireless. Wireless devices must be managed. If a rogue device is connected to a system, there is potential for sensitive information to be compromised.
medium
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.
medium
Remote access to the Plug and Play interface could potentially allow connections by unauthorized devices. This setting configures remote access to the Plug and Play interface and must be disabled.
low
A system restore point allows a rollback if an issue is encountered when a new device driver is installed.
low
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.
low
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.
low
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 errors in handwriting recognition on tablet PCs from being reported to Microsoft.
medium
Authentication must always be required when accessing a system. This setting ensures the user is prompted for a password on resume from sleep (on battery).
medium
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).
low
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. This setting will turn on session logging for Remote Assistance connections.
low
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 game information from being downloaded from Windows Metadata Services.
medium
Indexing of encrypted files may expose sensitive data. This setting prevents encrypted files from being indexed.
low
Indexing of encrypted items may expose sensitive data. This setting prevents mail items in a Microsoft Exchange folder from being indexed when Outlook is running in uncached mode.
medium
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 disables Microsoft Active Protection Service membership and reporting.
low
Legacy plug-in applications may continue to function when a File Explorer session has become corrupt. Disabling this feature will prevent this.
medium
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, not just signed ones.
medium
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.
medium
The built-in administrator account is a well-known account subject to attack. It also provides no accountability to individual administrators on a system. It must be disabled to prevent its use.
medium
Multiple network connections can provide additional attack vectors to a system and must be limited. The "Minimize the number of simultaneous connections to the Internet or a Windows Domain" setting prevents systems from automatically establishing multiple connections. When both wired and wireless connections are available, for example, the less preferred connection (typically wireless) will be disconnected.
medium
Multiple network connections can provide additional attack vectors to a system and should be limited. When connected to a domain, communication must go through the domain connection.
low
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. Configuring this setting will restrict, but allow users to obtain print drivers for printers in their forest.
high
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 this capability, there is a potential for programs to run with elevated privileges when a privileged user logs on to the system.
low
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.
low
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. Device driver updates must be obtained from an internal source.
medium
Compromised boot drivers can introduce malware prior to some protection mechanisms that load after initialization. The Early Launch Antimalware driver can limit allowed drivers based on classifications determined by the malware protection application. At a minimum, drivers determined to be bad must not be allowed.
medium
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.
medium
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.
medium
The username is one part of logon credentials that could be used to gain access to a system. Preventing the enumeration of users limits this information to unauthorized personnel.
medium
The username is one part of logon credentials that could be used to gain access to a system. Preventing the enumeration of users limits this information to authorized personnel.
medium
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.
medium
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 DoD Interoperability Root CA cross-certificates must be installed in the Untrusted Certificate Store. This requirement only applies to unclassified systems.
medium
To ensure secure websites protected with External Certificate Authority (ECA) server certificates are properly validated, the system must trust the ECA Root CAs. The ECA root certificates will ensure the trust chain is established for server certificates issued from the External CAs. This requirement only applies to unclassified systems.
medium
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.
medium
Strong sign-on must be used to protect a system. The PIN feature is limited to 4 numbers and caches the domain password in the system vault.
low
Requiring warning text to display when allowing helpdesk personnel to control remote assistance sessions ensures personnel of the activity and enforces the need to monitor the activity.
low
Requiring warning text to display when allowing helpdesk personnel to connect to a system with remote assistance ensures personnel are aware of the activity and enforces the need to monitor the activity.
low
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.
low
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.
medium
Allowing biometrics may bypass required authentication methods. Biometrics may only be used as an additional authentication factor where an enhanced strength of identity credential is necessary or desirable. Additional factors must be met per DoD policy.
medium
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.
medium
Attackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in systems and applications. The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit can enable several mechanisms, such as Data Execution Prevention (DEP), Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), and Structured Exception Handler Overwrite Protection (SEHOP) on the system and applications adding additional levels of protection.
medium
Attackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in systems and applications. The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit can enable several mechanisms, such as Data Execution Prevention (DEP), Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), and Structured Exception Handler Overwrite Protection (SEHOP) on the system and applications adding additional levels of protection.
medium
Attackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in systems and applications. The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit can enable several mechanisms, such as Data Execution Prevention (DEP), Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), and Structured Exception Handler Overwrite Protection (SEHOP) on the system and applications adding additional levels of protection.
medium
Attackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in systems and applications. The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit can enable several mechanisms, such as Data Execution Prevention (DEP), Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), and Structured Exception Handler Overwrite Protection (SEHOP) on the system and applications adding additional levels of protection.
medium
Attackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in systems and applications. The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit can enable several mechanisms, such as Data Execution Prevention (DEP), Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), and Structured Exception Handler Overwrite Protection (SEHOP) on the system and applications adding additional levels of protection.
medium
Attackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in systems and applications. The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit can enable several mechanisms, such as Data Execution Prevention (DEP), Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), and Structured Exception Handler Overwrite Protection (SEHOP) on the system and applications adding additional levels of protection.
medium
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.
medium
Windows SmartScreen helps protect systems from programs downloaded from the Internet that may be malicious. Requiring administrator approval before running unknown software will prevent users from executing potentially malicious programs.
medium
The location service on mobile devices may allow sensitive data to be used by applications on the system. This should be turned off unless explicitly allowed for approved systems/applications.
medium
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.
medium
Basic authentication uses plain text passwords that could be used to compromise a system.
low
Uncontrolled system updates can introduce issues to a system. Obtaining update components from an outside source may also potentially allow sensitive information outside of the enterprise. Application updates must be obtained from an internal source.
medium
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.
medium
Uncontrolled installation of applications can introduce various issues including system instability, and provide 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.
medium
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.
high
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.
high
Basic authentication uses plain text passwords that could be used to compromise a system.
medium
IPv6 transition technologies, which tunnel packets through other protocols, do not provide visibility.
medium
Unencrypted remote access to a system can allow sensitive information to be compromised. Windows remote management connections must be encrypted to prevent this.
medium
Digest authentication is not as strong as other options and may be subject to man-in-the-middle attacks.
medium
IPv6 transition technologies, which tunnel packets through other protocols, do not provide visibility.
medium
IPv6 transition technologies, which tunnel packets through other protocols, do not provide visibility.
medium
IPv6 transition technologies, which tunnel packets through other protocols, do not provide visibility.
medium
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.
medium
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.
medium
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.
high
Basic authentication uses plain text passwords that could be used to compromise a system.
medium
Unencrypted remote access to a system can allow sensitive information to be compromised. Windows remote management connections must be encrypted to prevent this.
medium
Storage of administrative credentials could allow unauthorized access. Disallowing the storage of RunAs credentials for Windows Remote Management will prevent them from being used with plug-ins.
medium
"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 State Change records events related to changes in the security state such as startup and shutdown of the system."
medium
"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 State Change records events related to changes in the security state, such as startup and shutdown of the system."
medium
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.
medium
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.
medium
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".
medium
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".
medium
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.
Authentication Policy Change records events related to changes in authentication policy including Kerberos policy and Trust changes.
high
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Debug Programs" user right can attach a debugger to any process or to the kernel, providing complete access to sensitive and critical operating system components. This right is given to Administrators in the default configuration.
medium
If a service principle name (SPN) is provided by the client, it is validated against the server's list of SPNs, aiding in the prevention of spoofing.
medium
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.
medium
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.
medium
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.
medium
NTLM sessions that are allowed to fall back to Null (unauthenticated) sessions may gain unauthorized access.
medium
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.
medium
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.
medium
Certain encryption types are no longer considered secure. This setting configures a minimum encryption type for Kerberos, preventing the use of the DES encryption suites.
low
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.
low
Selecting an incorrect network location may allow greater exposure of a system. Elevation is required by default on non-domain systems to change network location. This setting configures elevation to also be required on domain-joined systems.
low
Routing all Direct Access traffic through the internal network allows monitoring and prevents split tunneling.
medium
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.
medium
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.
low
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.
low
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.
low
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 data from the handwriting recognition personalization tool being shared with Microsoft.
medium
A compromised local administrator account can provide means for an attacker to move laterally between domain systems.
With User Account Control enabled, filtering the privileged token for built-in administrator accounts will prevent the elevated privileges of these accounts from being used over the network.
low
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 the MSDT from communicating with and sending collected data to Microsoft, the default support provider.
low
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.
medium
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.
low
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 responsiveness events from being aggregated and sent to Microsoft.
medium
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.
medium
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.
low
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 Program Inventory from collecting data about a system and sending the information to Microsoft.
high
Allowing autoplay to execute may introduce malicious code to a system. Autoplay begins reading from a drive as soon as you insert media in 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).
medium
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 Group Management records events such as creating, deleting or changing of security groups, including changes in group members.
low
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 downloading game update information from Windows Metadata Services.
medium
Homegroups are a method of sharing data and printers on a home network. This setting will prevent a system from being joined to a homegroup.
medium
Data Execution Prevention (DEP) provides additional protection by performing checks on memory to help prevent malicious code from running. This setting will prevent Data Execution Prevention from being turned off for File Explorer.
high
Allowing autorun commands to execute may introduce malicious code to a system. Configuring this setting prevents autorun commands from executing.
medium
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 records events such as the access of a password hash or the Password Policy Checking API being called.
medium
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.
medium
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.
Logoff records user logoffs. If this is an interactive logoff, it is recorded on the local system. If it is to a network share, it is recorded on the system accessed.
medium
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Create permanent shared objects" user right could expose sensitive data by creating shared objects.
medium
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.
low
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 sending an error report to Microsoft when a device driver requests additional software during installation.
medium
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
The "Deny log on as a batch job" right defines accounts that are prevented from logging on to the system as a batch job, such as Task Scheduler.
In an Active Directory Domain, denying logons to the Enterprise Admins and Domain Admins groups on lower trust systems helps mitigate the risk of privilege escalation from credential theft attacks which could lead to the compromise of an entire domain.
The Guests group must be assigned to prevent unauthenticated access.
medium
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
The "Deny log on as a service" right defines accounts that are denied log on as a service.
In an Active Directory Domain, denying logons to the Enterprise Admins and Domain Admins groups on lower trust systems helps mitigate the risk of privilege escalation from credential theft attacks which could lead to the compromise of an entire domain.
Incorrect configurations could prevent services from starting and result in a DoS.
high
Permissions on the Winlogon registry key must only allow privileged accounts to change registry values. If standard users have this capability, there is a potential for programs to run with elevated privileges when a privileged user logs on to the system.
medium
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.
medium
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
The "Deny log on locally" right defines accounts that are prevented from logging on interactively.
In an Active Directory Domain, denying logons to the Enterprise Admins and Domain Admins groups on lower trust systems helps mitigate the risk of privilege escalation from credential theft attacks which could lead to the compromise of an entire domain.
The Guests group must be assigned this right to prevent unauthenticated access.
medium
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Take ownership of files or other objects" user right can take ownership of objects and make changes.
high
Anonymous enumeration of SAM accounts allows anonymous log on users (null session connections) to list all accounts names, thus providing a list of potential points to attack the system.
low
Failure to display the logon banner prior to a logon attempt will negate legal proceedings resulting from unauthorized access to system resources.
medium
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 over-write more current data.
medium
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
The "Replace a process level token" user right allows one process or service to start another process or service with a different security access token. A user with this right could use this to impersonate another account.
medium
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Access this computer from the network" user right may access resources on the system, and must be limited to those that require it.
medium
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Profile system performance" user right can monitor system processes performance. An attacker could potentially use this to identify processes to attack.
medium
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Profile single process" user right can monitor non-system processes performance. An attacker could potentially use this to identify processes to attack.
medium
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.
medium
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Modify firmware environment values" user right can change hardware configuration environment variables. This could result in hardware failures or a DoS.
medium
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.
medium
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Modify an object label" user right can change the integrity label of an object. This could potentially be used to execute code at a higher privilege.
medium
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
The "Deny log on through Remote Desktop Services" right defines the accounts that are prevented from logging on using Remote Desktop Services.
If Remote Desktop Services is not used by the organization, the Everyone group must be assigned this right to prevent all access.
In an Active Directory Domain, denying logons to the Enterprise Admins and Domain Admins groups on lower trust systems helps mitigate the risk of privilege escalation from credential theft attacks which could lead to the compromise of an entire domain.
Local accounts on domain-joined systems must also be assigned this right to decrease the risk of lateral movement resulting from credential theft attacks.
The Guests group must be assigned this right to prevent unauthenticated access.
medium
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Back up files and directories" user right can circumvent file and directory permissions and could allow access to sensitive data."
medium
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Change the system time" user right can change the system time, which can impact authentication, as well as affect time stamps on event log entries.
medium
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
The "Enable computer and user accounts to be trusted for delegation" user right allows the "Trusted for Delegation" setting to be changed. This could potentially allow unauthorized users to impersonate other users.
medium
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.
high
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
The "Create a token object" user right allows a process to create an access token. This could be used to provide elevated rights and compromise a system.
medium
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.
medium
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Allow log on through Remote Desktop Services" user right can access a system through Remote Desktop.
medium
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.
medium
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
The "Generate security audits" user right specifies users and processes that can generate Security Log audit records, which must only be the system service accounts defined.
medium
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.
medium
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Increase scheduling priority" user right can change a scheduling priority causing performance issues or a DoS.
medium
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.
medium
Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
The "Lock pages in memory" user right allows physical memory to be assigned to processes, which could cause performance issues or a DoS.
medium
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.
low
The Internet Router Discovery Protocol (IRDP) is used to detect and configure default gateway addresses on the computer. If a router is impersonated on a network, traffic could be routed through the compromised system.
medium
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 check verifies that Windows Media DRM will be prevented from accessing the Internet.
medium
Use of software certificates and their accompanying installation files for end users to access resources is less secure than the use of hardware-based certificates.
low
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 searching Windows Update for point and print drivers. Only the local driver store and server driver cache will be searched.
medium
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.
high
Attackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in systems and applications. The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit can enable several mechanisms, such as Data Execution Prevention (DEP), Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), and Structured Exception Handler Overwrite Protection (SEHOP) on the system and applications adding additional levels of protection.
medium
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-certificate must be installed in the Untrusted Certificate Store. This requirement only applies to unclassified systems.
medium
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.
Enabling "Include command line data for process creation events" will record the command line information with the process creation events in the log. This can provide additional detail when malware has run on a system.
high
Attackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in systems and applications. Data Execution Prevention (DEP) prevents harmful code from running in protected memory locations reserved for Windows and other programs.
high
Attackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in systems and applications. Structured Exception Handling Overwrite Protection (SEHOP) blocks exploits that use the Structured Exception Handling overwrite technique, a common buffer overflow attack.
medium
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.
medium
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.
medium
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.