| V-8534 | High | Interconnections between DoD directory services of different classification levels must use a cross-domain solution that is approved for use with inter-classification trusts. | If a robust cross-domain solution is not used, then it could permit unauthorized access to classified data. To support secure access between resources of different classification levels, the... |
| V-8536 | High | A controlled interface must have interconnections among DoD information systems operating between DoD and non-DoD systems or networks. | The configuration of an AD trust relationship is one of the steps used to allow users in one domain to access resources in another domain, forest, or Kerberos realm. When a trust is defined... |
| V-36435 | High | Delegation of privileged accounts must be prohibited. | Privileged accounts such as those belonging to any of the administrator groups must not be trusted for delegation. Allowing privileged accounts to be trusted for delegation provides a means for... |
| V-36432 | High | Membership to the Domain Admins group must be restricted to accounts used only to manage the Active Directory domain and domain controllers. | The Domain Admins group is a highly privileged group. Personnel who are system administrators must log on to Active Directory systems only using accounts with the level of authority necessary.... |
| V-36431 | High | Membership to the Enterprise Admins group must be restricted to accounts used only to manage the Active Directory Forest. | The Enterprise Admins group is a highly privileged group. Personnel who are system administrators must log on to Active Directory systems only using accounts with the level of authority... |
| V-8538 | Medium | Security identifiers (SIDs) must be configured to use only authentication data of directly trusted external or forest trust. | Under some circumstances it is possible for attackers or rogue administrators that have compromised a domain controller in a trusted domain to use the SID history attribute (sIDHistory) to... |
| V-43714 | Medium | Systems must be monitored for remote desktop logons. | Remote Desktop activity for administration should be limited to specific administrators, and from limited management workstations. Monitoring for any Remote Desktop logins outside of expected... |
| V-43713 | Medium | Systems must be monitored for attempts to use local accounts to log on remotely from other systems. | Monitoring for the use of local accounts to log on remotely from other systems may indicate attempted lateral movement in a Pass-the-Hash attack. |
| V-43711 | Medium | Separate domain administrative accounts must be used to manage AD admin platforms from any domain accounts used on, or used to manage, non-AD admin platforms. | AD admin platforms are used for highly privileged activities. The accounts that have administrative privileges on AD admin platforms must not be used on or used to manage any non-AD admin... |
| V-43710 | Medium | Systems used to manage Active Directory (AD admin platforms) must be Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, or later versions of Windows. | AD admin platforms are used for highly privileged activities. The later versions of Windows offer significant security improvements over earlier versions of Windows. Windows 8.1 and Windows... |
| V-8553 | Medium | Inter-site replication must be enabled and configured to occur at least daily. | Timely replication makes certain that directory service data is consistent across all servers that support the same scope of data for their clients. In AD implementation using AD Sites, domain... |
| V-8551 | Medium | The domain functional level must be at a Windows Server version still supported by Microsoft. | Domains operating at functional levels below Windows Server versions no longer supported by Microsoft reduce the level of security in the domain and forest as advanced features of the directory... |
| V-43652 | Medium | Separate domain accounts must be used to manage public facing servers from any domain accounts used to manage internal servers. | Public facing servers should be in DMZs with separate Active Directory forests. If, because of operational necessity, this is not possible, lateral movement from these servers must be mitigated... |
| V-25385 | Medium | Active Directory data must be backed up daily for systems with a Risk Management Framework categorization for Availability of moderate or high. Systems with a categorization of low must be backed up weekly. | Failure to maintain a current backup of directory data could make it difficult or impossible to recover from incidents including hardware failure or malicious corruption. A failure to recover... |
| V-53727 | Medium | Domain controllers must be blocked from Internet access. | Domain controllers provide access to highly privileged areas of a domain. Such systems with Internet access may be exposed to numerous attacks and compromise the domain. Restricting Internet... |
| V-36438 | Medium | Local administrator accounts on domain systems must not share the same password. | Local administrator accounts on domain systems must use unique passwords. In the event a domain system is compromised, sharing the same password for local administrator accounts on domain systems... |
| V-36436 | Medium | Only systems dedicated for the sole purpose of managing Active Directory must be used to manage Active Directory remotely. | Only domain systems used exclusively to manage Active Directory (referred to as AD admin platforms) must be used to manage Active Directory remotely. Dedicating domain systems to be used solely... |
| V-36437 | Medium | Dedicated systems used for managing Active Directory remotely must be blocked from Internet Access. | A system used to manage Active Directory provides access to highly privileged areas of a domain. Such a system with Internet access may be exposed to numerous attacks and compromise the domain.... |
| V-36434 | Medium | Administrators must have separate accounts specifically for managing domain workstations. | Personnel who are system administrators must log on to domain systems only using accounts with the minimum level of authority necessary. Only system administrator accounts used exclusively to... |
| V-36433 | Medium | Administrators must have separate accounts specifically for managing domain member servers. | Personnel who are system administrators must log on to domain systems only using accounts with the minimum level of authority necessary. Only system administrator accounts used exclusively to... |
| V-25840 | Medium | The Directory Service Restore Mode (DSRM) password must be changed at least annually. | The Directory Service Restore Mode (DSRM) password, used to log on to a domain controller (DC) when rebooting into the server recovery mode, is very powerful. With a weak or known password,... |
| V-8522 | Medium | A VPN must be used to protect directory network traffic for directory service implementation spanning enclave boundaries. | The normal operation of AD requires the use of IP network ports and protocols to support queries, replication, user authentication, and resource authorization services. At a minimum, LDAP or LDAPS... |
| V-8523 | Medium | If a VPN is used in the AD implementation, the traffic must be inspected by the network Intrusion detection system (IDS). | To provide data confidentiality, a VPN is configured to encrypt the data being transported. While this protects the data, some implementations do not allow that data to be processed through an... |
| V-43648 | Medium | Separate smart cards must be used for Enterprise Admin (EA) and Domain Admin (DA) accounts from smart cards used for other accounts. | A separate smart card for Enterprise Admin and Domain Admin accounts eliminates the automatic exposure of the private keys for the EA/DA accounts to less secure user platforms when the other... |
| V-8524 | Medium | Active Directory must be supported by multiple domain controllers where the Risk Management Framework categorization for Availability is moderate or high. | In Active Directory (AD) architecture, multiple domain controllers provide availability through redundancy. If an AD domain or servers within it have an Availability categorization of medium or... |
| V-8548 | Medium | Membership in the Group Policy Creator Owners and Incoming Forest Trust Builders groups must be limited. | Membership in the Group Policy Creator Owners and Incoming Forest Trust Builders groups assigns a high privilege level for AD functions. Unnecessary membership increases the risk from compromise... |
| V-8549 | Medium | Accounts from outside directories that are not part of the same organization or are not subject to the same security policies must be removed from all highly privileged groups.
| Membership in certain default directory groups assigns a high privilege level for access to the directory. In AD, membership in the following groups enables high privileges relative to AD and the... |
| V-43712 | Medium | Usage of administrative accounts must be monitored for suspicious and anomalous activity. | Monitoring the usage of administrative accounts can alert on suspicious behavior and anomalous account usage that would be indicative of potential malicious credential reuse. |
| V-44059 | Medium | Windows service \ application accounts with administrative privileges and manually managed passwords, must have passwords changed at least every 60 days. | NT hashes of passwords for accounts that are not changed regularly are susceptible to reuse by attackers using Pass-the-Hash. Windows service \ application account passwords are not typically... |
| V-44058 | Medium | Communications from AD admin platforms must be blocked, except with the domain controllers being managed. | AD admin platforms are used for highly privileged activities. Preventing communications to and from AD admin platforms, except with the domain controllers being managed, protects against an... |
| V-8547 | Medium | The Anonymous Logon and Everyone groups must not be members of the Pre-Windows 2000 Compatible Access group. | The Pre-Windows 2000 Compatible Access group was created to allow Windows NT domains to interoperate with AD domains by allowing unauthenticated access to certain AD data. The default permissions... |
| V-72821 | Medium | All accounts, privileged and unprivileged, that require smart cards must have the underlying NT hash rotated at least every 60 days. | When a smart card is required for a domain account, a long password, unknown to the user, is generated. This password and associated NT hash are not changed as are accounts with passwords... |
| V-25997 | Medium | Read-only Domain Controller (RODC) architecture and configuration must comply with directory services requirements. | The RODC role provides a unidirectional replication method for selected information from your internal network to the DMZ. If not properly configured so that the risk footprint is minimized, the... |
| V-8530 | Low | Each cross-directory authentication configuration must be documented. | Active Directory (AD) external, forest, and realm trust configurations are designed to extend resource access to a wider range of users (those in other directories). If specific baseline... |
| V-25841 | Low | Security vulnerability reviews of the domain and/or forest in which the domain controller resides must be conducted at least annually.
| An AD domain controller is impacted by the AD environment created by the security configuration of the domain and forest in which the domain controller resides. A proper review of the AD... |
| V-8521 | Low | User accounts with delegated authority must be removed from Windows built-in administrative groups or remove the delegated authority from the accounts. | In AD it is possible to delegate account and other AD object ownership and administration tasks. (This is commonly done for help desk or other user support staff.) This is done to avoid the need... |
| V-8526 | Low | The impact of INFOCON changes on the cross-directory authentication configuration must be considered and procedures documented. | When incidents occur that require a change in the INFOCON status, it may be necessary to take action to restrict or disable certain types of access that is based on a directory outside the... |
| V-8525 | Low | Active Directory implementation information must be added to the organization contingency plan where the Risk Management Framework categorization for Availability is moderate or high. | When an incident occurs that requires multiple Active Directory (AD) domain controllers to be rebuilt, it is critical to understand the AD hierarchy and replication flow so that the correct... |
