| V-225447 | High | Anonymous access to the registry must be restricted. | 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. |
| V-225244 | High | Administrative accounts must not be used with applications that access the Internet, such as web browsers, or with potential Internet sources, such as email. | Using applications that access the Internet or have potential Internet sources using administrative privileges exposes a system to compromise. If a flaw in an application is exploited while... |
| V-225258 | High | The Windows 2012 / 2012 R2 system must use an anti-virus program. | Malicious software can establish a base on individual desktops and servers. Employing an automated mechanism to detect this type of software will aid in elimination of the software from the... |
| V-225547 | High | The Act as part of the operating system user right must not be assigned to any groups or accounts. | 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... |
| V-225438 | High | File Transfer Protocol (FTP) servers must be configured to prevent access to the system drive. | The FTP service allows remote users to access shared files and directories. Access outside of the specific directories of shared data could provide access to system resources and compromise the system. |
| V-225449 | High | Local accounts with blank passwords must be restricted to prevent access from the network. | 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... |
| V-225444 | High | Standard user accounts must only have Read permissions to the Winlogon registry key. | Permissions on the Winlogon registry key must only allow privileged accounts to change registry values. If standard users have these permissions, there is a potential for programs to run with... |
| V-225445 | High | Standard user accounts must only have Read permissions to the Active Setup\Installed Components registry key. | Permissions on the Active Setup\Installed Components registry key must only allow privileged accounts to add or change registry values. If standard user accounts have these permissions, there is... |
| V-225354 | High | Solicited Remote Assistance must not be allowed. | 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... |
| V-225241 | High | Users with Administrative privileges must have separate accounts for administrative duties and normal operational tasks. | Using a privileged account to perform routine functions makes the computer vulnerable to malicious software inadvertently introduced during a session that has been granted full privileges. |
| V-225426 | High | Windows 2012/2012 R2 accounts must be configured to require passwords. | 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. ... |
| V-225498 | High | Anonymous access to Named Pipes and Shares must be restricted. | 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... |
| V-225505 | High | The system must be configured to prevent the storage of the LAN Manager hash of passwords. | 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... |
| V-225507 | High | The LanMan authentication level must be set to send NTLMv2 response only, and to refuse LM and NTLM. | 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... |
| V-225274 | High | Reversible password encryption must be disabled. | 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. |
| V-225365 | High | The default Autorun behavior must be configured to prevent Autorun commands. | Allowing Autorun commands to execute may introduce malicious code to a system. Configuring this setting prevents Autorun commands from executing. |
| V-225364 | High | Autoplay must be turned off for non-volume devices. | Allowing Autoplay to execute may introduce malicious code to a system. Autoplay begins reading from a drive as soon as media is inserted into the drive. As a result, the setup file of programs... |
| V-225366 | High | Autoplay must be disabled for all drives. | Allowing Autoplay to execute may introduce malicious code to a system. Autoplay begins reading from a drive as soon media is inserted into the drive. As a result, the setup file of programs or... |
| V-225419 | High | Local volumes must use a format that supports NTFS attributes. | The ability to set access permissions and auditing is critical to maintaining the security and proper access controls of a system. To support this, local volumes must be formatted using a file... |
| V-225499 | High | Network shares that can be accessed anonymously must not be allowed. | 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. |
| V-225497 | High | Unauthorized remotely accessible registry paths and sub-paths must not be configured. | 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... |
| V-225496 | High | Unauthorized remotely accessible registry paths must not be configured. | 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... |
| V-225495 | High | Named pipes that can be accessed anonymously must be configured to contain no values on member servers. | 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... |
| V-225493 | High | Anonymous enumeration of shares must be restricted. | 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. |
| V-225492 | High | Anonymous enumeration of SAM accounts must not be allowed. | 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. |
| V-225491 | High | Anonymous SID/Name translation must not be allowed. | Allowing anonymous SID/Name translation can provide sensitive information for accessing a system. Only authorized users must be able to perform such translations. |
| V-225390 | High | The Windows Installer Always install with elevated privileges option must be disabled. | 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... |
| V-225396 | High | The Windows Remote Management (WinRM) client must not use Basic authentication. | Basic authentication uses plain text passwords that could be used to compromise a system. |
| V-225418 | High | Only administrators responsible for the member server must have Administrator rights on the system. | An account that does not have Administrator duties must not have Administrator rights. Such rights would allow the account to bypass or modify required security restrictions on that machine and... |
| V-225399 | High | The Windows Remote Management (WinRM) service must not use Basic authentication. | Basic authentication uses plain text passwords that could be used to compromise a system. |
| V-225417 | High | Systems must be maintained at a supported service pack level. | Systems at unsupported service packs or releases will not receive security updates for new vulnerabilities, which leave them subject to exploitation. Systems must be maintained at a service pack... |
| V-225556 | High | The Debug programs user right must only be assigned to the Administrators group. | 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... |
| V-225552 | High | The Create a token object user right must not be assigned to any groups or accounts. | 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.... |
| V-225268 | Medium | The reset period for the account lockout counter must be configured to 15 minutes or greater on Windows 2012. | 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... |
| V-225410 | Medium | Windows 2012 R2 must include command line data in process creation events. | 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.... |
| V-225454 | Medium | Audit policy using subcategories must be enabled. | 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. ... |
| V-225478 | Medium | Automatic logons must be disabled. | 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... |
| V-225311 | Medium | Permissions for the Security event log must prevent access by nonprivileged accounts. | Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detect attacks. ... |
| V-225409 | Medium | The display of slide shows on the lock screen must be disabled (Windows 2012 R2). | Slide shows 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. |
| V-225513 | Medium | The system must be configured to require case insensitivity for non-Windows subsystems. | 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... |
| V-225259 | Medium | The Server Message Block (SMB) v1 protocol must be disabled on Windows 2012 R2. | 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... |
| V-225381 | Medium | Remote Desktop Services must always prompt a client for passwords upon connection. | 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... |
| V-225380 | Medium | Local drives must be prevented from sharing with Remote Desktop Session Hosts. (Remote Desktop Services Role). | 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. |
| V-225386 | Medium | Basic authentication for RSS feeds over HTTP must be turned off. | Basic authentication uses plain text passwords that could be used to compromise a system. |
| V-225385 | Medium | Attachments must be prevented from being downloaded from RSS feeds. | Attachments from RSS feeds may not be secure. This setting will prevent attachments from being downloaded from RSS feeds. |
| V-225384 | Medium | Remote Desktop Services must be configured to use session-specific temporary folders. | 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... |
| V-225420 | Medium | Permissions for system drive root directory (usually C:\) must conform to minimum requirements. | Changing the system's file and directory permissions allows the possibility of unauthorized and anonymous modification to the operating system and installed applications.
The default permissions... |
| V-225255 | Medium | The operating system must employ a deny-all, permit-by-exception policy to allow the execution of authorized software programs. | Utilizing an allowlist provides a configuration management method for allowing the execution of only authorized software. Using only authorized software decreases risk by limiting the number of... |
| V-225257 | Medium | Systems requiring data at rest protections must employ cryptographic mechanisms to prevent unauthorized disclosure and modification of the information at rest. | This requirement addresses protection of user-generated data, as well as operating system-specific configuration data. Organizations may choose to employ different mechanisms to achieve... |
| V-225256 | Medium | Protection methods such as TLS, encrypted VPNs, or IPSEC must be implemented if the data owner has a strict requirement for ensuring data integrity and confidentiality is maintained at every step of the data transfer and handling process. | Information can be either unintentionally or maliciously disclosed or modified during preparation for transmission, for example, during aggregation, at protocol transformation points, and during... |
| V-225541 | Medium | Mechanisms for removing zone information from file attachments must be hidden. | Preserving zone of origin (internet, intranet, local, restricted) information on file attachments allows Windows to determine risk. This setting prevents users from manually removing zone... |
| V-225540 | Medium | Zone information must be preserved when saving attachments. | Preserving zone of origin (internet, intranet, local, restricted) information on file attachments allows Windows to determine risk. |
| V-225543 | Medium | Users must be prevented from sharing files in their profiles. | Allowing users to share files in their profiles may provide unauthorized access or result in the exposure of sensitive data. |
| V-225308 | Medium | Audit records must be backed up onto a different system or media than the system being audited. | Protection of log data includes assuring the log data is not accidentally lost or deleted. Audit information stored in one location is vulnerable to accidental or incidental deletion or alteration. |
| V-225545 | Medium | The Access Credential Manager as a trusted caller user right must not be assigned to any groups or accounts. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Access Credential Manager as a trusted caller" user right may be... |
| V-225544 | Medium | Media Player must be configured to prevent automatic Codec downloads. | The Windows Media Player uses software components, referred to as Codecs, to play back media files. By default, when an unknown file type is opened with the Media Player, it will search the... |
| V-225546 | Medium | The Access this computer from the network user right must only be assigned to the Administrators and Authenticated Users groups on member servers. | 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... |
| V-225303 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit System - Security System Extension successes. | 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. ... |
| V-225302 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit System - Security State Change successes. | 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. ... |
| V-225301 | Medium | Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 must be configured to audit System - Other System Events failures. | 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.... |
| V-225300 | Medium | Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 must be configured to audit System - Other System Events successes. | 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.... |
| V-225307 | Medium | Audit data must be retained for at least one year. | Audit records are essential for investigating system activity after the fact. Retention periods for audit data are determined based on the sensitivity of the data handled by the system. |
| V-225306 | Medium | Audit data must be reviewed on a regular basis. | To be of value, audit logs from critical systems must be reviewed on a regular basis. Critical systems should be reviewed on a daily basis to identify security breaches and potential weaknesses... |
| V-225305 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit System - System Integrity failures. | 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. ... |
| V-225304 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit System - System Integrity successes. | 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. ... |
| V-225500 | Medium | The system must be configured to use the Classic security model. | 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... |
| V-225312 | Medium | Permissions for the System event log must prevent access by nonprivileged accounts. | Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detect attacks. ... |
| V-225317 | Medium | Network Bridges must be prohibited in Windows. | 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. |
| V-225289 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Object Access - Central Access Policy Staging failures. | 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. ... |
| V-225448 | Medium | The built-in guest account must be disabled. | 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... |
| V-225263 | Medium | Windows PowerShell must be updated to a version that supports script block logging on Windows 2012/2012 R2. | Later versions of Windows PowerShell provide additional security and advanced logging features that can provide greater detail when malware has been run on a system. PowerShell 5.x includes the... |
| V-225329 | Medium | Remote access to the Plug and Play interface must be disabled for device installation. | 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. |
| V-225379 | Medium | Passwords must not be saved in the Remote Desktop Client. | 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... |
| V-225314 | Medium | The Mapper I/O network protocol (LLTDIO) driver must be disabled. | 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... |
| V-225279 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Account Management - User Account Management successes. | 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. ... |
| V-225278 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Account Management - Security Group Management successes. | 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. ... |
| V-225439 | Medium | Windows 2012 / 2012 R2 must automatically remove or disable temporary user accounts after 72 hours. | If temporary user accounts remain active when no longer needed or for an excessive period, these accounts may be used to gain unauthorized access. To mitigate this risk, automated termination of... |
| V-225315 | Medium | The Responder network protocol driver must be disabled. | 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... |
| V-225435 | Medium | The system must support automated patch management tools to facilitate flaw remediation. | The organization (including any contractor to the organization) must promptly install security-relevant software updates (e.g., patches, service packs, hot fixes). Flaws discovered during... |
| V-225434 | Medium | Windows Server 2012 / 2012 R2 must employ automated mechanisms to determine the state of system components with regard to flaw remediation using the following frequency: continuously, where ESS is used; 30 days, for any additional internal network scans not covered by ESS; and annually, for external scans by Computer Network Defense Service Provider (CNDSP). | Without the use of automated mechanisms to scan for security flaws on a continuous and/or periodic basis, the operating system or other system components may remain vulnerable to the exploits... |
| V-225437 | Medium | File Transfer Protocol (FTP) servers must be configured to prevent anonymous logons. | The FTP service allows remote users to access shared files and directories. Allowing anonymous FTP connections makes user auditing difficult.
Using accounts that have administrator privileges to... |
| V-225436 | Medium | The system must query the certification authority to determine whether a public key certificate has been revoked before accepting the certificate for authentication purposes. | Failure to verify a certificate's revocation status can result in the system accepting a revoked, and therefore unauthorized, certificate. This could result in the installation of unauthorized... |
| V-225431 | Medium | Software certificate installation files must be removed from Windows 2012/2012 R2. | 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. |
| V-225433 | Medium | Servers must have a host-based Intrusion Detection System. | A properly configured host-based Intrusion Detection System provides another level of defense against unauthorized access to critical servers. With proper configuration and logging enabled, such... |
| V-225432 | Medium | Necessary services must be documented to maintain a baseline to determine if additional, unnecessary services have been added to a system. | Unnecessary services increase the attack surface of a system. Some services may be run under the local System account, which generally has more permissions than required by the service. ... |
| V-225534 | Medium | A screen saver must be enabled on the system. | Unattended systems are susceptible to unauthorized use and must be locked when unattended. Enabling a password-protected screen saver to engage after a specified period of time helps protects... |
| V-225535 | Medium | The screen saver must be password protected. | Unattended systems are susceptible to unauthorized use and must be locked when unattended. Enabling a password-protected screen saver to engage after a specified period of time helps protects... |
| V-225530 | Medium | The Peer Networking Identity Manager service must be disabled if installed. | Unnecessary services increase the attack surface of a system. Some of these services may not support required levels of authentication or encryption. |
| V-225531 | Medium | The Simple TCP/IP Services service must be disabled if installed. | Unnecessary services increase the attack surface of a system. Some of these services may not support required levels of authentication or encryption. |
| V-225338 | Medium | Group Policy objects must be reprocessed even if they have not changed. | 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... |
| V-225339 | Medium | Group Policies must be refreshed in the background if the user is logged on. | If this setting is enabled, then Group Policy settings are not refreshed while a user is currently logged on. This could lead to instances when a user does not have the latest changes to a policy... |
| V-225337 | Medium | Early Launch Antimalware, Boot-Start Driver Initialization Policy must be enabled and configured to only Good and Unknown. | 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... |
| V-225265 | Medium | Windows PowerShell 2.0 must not be installed on Windows 2012/2012 R2. | Windows PowerShell versions 4.0 (with a patch) and 5.x add advanced logging features that can provide additional detail when malware has been run on a system. Ensuring Windows PowerShell 2.0 is... |
| V-225348 | Medium | Copying of user input methods to the system account for sign-in must be prevented. | 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. |
| V-225452 | Medium | Auditing the Access of Global System Objects must be turned off. | 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. ... |
| V-225313 | Medium | Event Viewer must be protected from unauthorized modification and deletion. | Protecting audit information also includes identifying and protecting the tools used to view and manipulate log data. Therefore, protecting audit tools is necessary to prevent unauthorized... |
| V-225245 | Medium | Members of the Backup Operators group must be documented. | Backup Operators are able to read and write to any file in the system, regardless of the rights assigned to it. Backup and restore rights permit users to circumvent the file access restrictions... |
| V-225276 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Account Logon - Credential Validation failures. | 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. ... |
| V-225375 | Medium | Explorer Data Execution Prevention must be enabled. | 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... |
| V-225326 | Medium | The Windows Connect Now wizards must be disabled. | 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... |
| V-225260 | Medium | The Server Message Block (SMB) v1 protocol must be disabled on the SMB server. | 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... |
| V-225273 | Medium | The built-in Windows password complexity policy must be enabled. | 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... |
| V-225239 | Medium | Server systems must be located in a controlled access area, accessible only to authorized personnel. | Inadequate physical protection can undermine all other security precautions utilized to protect the system. This can jeopardize the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of the system. ... |
| V-225261 | Medium | The Server Message Block (SMB) v1 protocol must be disabled on the SMB client. | 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... |
| V-225262 | Medium | Orphaned security identifiers (SIDs) must be removed from user rights on Windows 2012 / 2012 R2. | Accounts or groups given rights on a system may show up as unresolved SIDs for various reasons including deletion of the accounts or groups. If the account or group objects are reanimated, there... |
| V-225527 | Medium | Users must be required to enter a password to access private keys stored on the computer. | If the private key is discovered, an attacker can use the key to authenticate as an authorized user and gain access to the network infrastructure.
The cornerstone of the PKI is the private key... |
| V-225524 | Medium | UIAccess applications must not be allowed to prompt for elevation without using the secure desktop. | User Account Control (UAC) is a security mechanism for limiting the elevation of privileges, including administrative accounts, unless authorized. This setting prevents User Interface... |
| V-225325 | Medium | The configuration of wireless devices using Windows Connect Now must be disabled. | 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... |
| V-225522 | Medium | User Account Control must switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation. | 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... |
| V-225521 | Medium | User Account Control must run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode, enabling UAC. | User Account Control (UAC) is a security mechanism for limiting the elevation of privileges, including administrative accounts, unless authorized. This setting enables UAC.
Satisfies:... |
| V-225520 | Medium | User Account Control must only elevate UIAccess applications that are installed in secure locations. | 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... |
| V-225440 | Medium | Windows 2012 / 2012 R2 must automatically remove or disable emergency accounts after the crisis is resolved or within 72 hours. | Emergency administrator accounts are privileged accounts which are established in response to crisis situations where the need for rapid account activation is required. Therefore, emergency... |
| V-225441 | Medium | The DoD Root CA certificates must be installed in the Trusted Root Store. | 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... |
| V-225442 | Medium | The DoD Interoperability Root CA cross-certificates must be installed into the Untrusted Certificates Store on unclassified systems. | 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... |
| V-225443 | Medium | The US DoD CCEB Interoperability Root CA cross-certificates must be installed into the Untrusted Certificates Store on unclassified systems. | 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... |
| V-225529 | Medium | The Microsoft FTP service must not be installed unless required. | Unnecessary services increase the attack surface of a system. Some of these services may not support required levels of authentication or encryption. |
| V-225528 | Medium | The Fax service must be disabled if installed. | Unnecessary services increase the attack surface of a system. Some of these services may not support required levels of authentication or encryption. |
| V-225383 | Medium | Remote Desktop Services must delete temporary folders when a session is terminated. | 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... |
| V-225275 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Account Logon - Credential Validation successes. | 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. ... |
| V-225532 | Medium | The Telnet service must be disabled if installed. | Unnecessary services increase the attack surface of a system. Some of these services may not support required levels of authentication or encryption. |
| V-225382 | Medium | Remote Desktop Services must be configured with the client connection encryption set to the required level. | 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. |
| V-225533 | Medium | The Smart Card Removal Policy service must be configured to automatic. | The automatic start of the Smart Card Removal Policy service is required to support the smart card removal behavior requirement. |
| V-225428 | Medium | System files must be monitored for unauthorized changes. | Monitoring system files for changes against a baseline on a regular basis may help detect the possible introduction of malicious code on a system. |
| V-225429 | Medium | Non system-created file shares on a system must limit access to groups that require it. | Shares on a system provide network access. To prevent exposing sensitive information, where shares are necessary, permissions must be reconfigured to give the minimum access to those accounts... |
| V-225269 | Medium | The password history must be configured to 24 passwords remembered. | A system is more vulnerable to unauthorized access when system users recycle the same password several times without being required to change to a unique password on a regularly scheduled basis.... |
| V-225411 | Medium | The network selection user interface (UI) must not be displayed on the logon screen (Windows 2012 R2). | Enabling interaction with the network selection UI allows users to change connections to available networks without signing into Windows. |
| V-225271 | Medium | The minimum password age must meet requirements. | 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... |
| V-225518 | Medium | User Account Control must be configured to detect application installations and prompt for elevation. | 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... |
| V-225519 | Medium | Windows must elevate all applications in User Account Control, not just signed ones. | 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... |
| V-225243 | Medium | Windows 2012/2012 R2 password for the built-in Administrator account must be changed at least annually or when a member of the administrative team leaves the organization. | The longer a password is in use, the greater the opportunity for someone to gain unauthorized knowledge of the password. The password for the built-in Administrator account must be changed at... |
| V-225512 | Medium | The system must be configured to use FIPS-compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing, and signing. | 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.... |
| V-225538 | Medium | The Windows Help Experience Improvement Program must be disabled. | 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... |
| V-225510 | Medium | The system must be configured to meet the minimum session security requirement for NTLM SSP-based servers. | 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. |
| V-225516 | Medium | User Account Control must, at minimum, prompt administrators for consent. | User Account Control (UAC) is a security mechanism for limiting the elevation of privileges, including administrative accounts, unless authorized. This setting configures the elevation... |
| V-225407 | Medium | Users must be prevented from redirecting Plug and Play devices to the Remote Desktop Session Host. (Remote Desktop Services Role). | Preventing the redirection of Plug and Play devices in Remote Desktop sessions helps reduce possible exposure of sensitive data. |
| V-225515 | Medium | User Account Control approval mode for the built-in Administrator must be enabled. | 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... |
| V-225422 | Medium | Permissions for Windows installation directory must conform to minimum requirements. | Changing the system's file and directory permissions allows the possibility of unauthorized and anonymous modification to the operating system and installed applications.
The default permissions... |
| V-225458 | Medium | Outgoing secure channel traffic must be signed when possible. | 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... |
| V-225350 | Medium | App notifications on the lock screen must be turned off. | 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. |
| V-225351 | Medium | Users must be prompted to authenticate on resume from sleep (on battery). | 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). |
| V-225352 | Medium | The user must be prompted to authenticate on resume from sleep (plugged in). | 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). |
| V-225423 | Medium | The system must not boot into multiple operating systems (dual-boot). | Allowing a system to boot into multiple operating systems (dual-booting) may allow security to be circumvented on a secure system. |
| V-225453 | Medium | Auditing of Backup and Restore Privileges must be turned off. | 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. ... |
| V-225283 | Medium | Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 must be configured to audit Logon/Logoff - Account Lockout failures. | 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.... |
| V-225280 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Account Management - User Account Management failures. | 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. ... |
| V-225281 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Detailed Tracking - Process Creation successes. | 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. ... |
| V-225286 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Logon/Logoff - Logon failures. | 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. ... |
| V-225389 | Medium | Users must be prevented from changing installation options. | Installation options for applications are typically controlled by administrators. This setting prevents users from changing installation options that may bypass security features. |
| V-225284 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Logon/Logoff - Logoff successes. | 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. ... |
| V-225285 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Logon/Logoff - Logon successes. | 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. ... |
| V-225270 | Medium | The maximum password age must meet requirements. | 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... |
| V-225388 | Medium | The Windows Store application must be turned off. | Uncontrolled installation of applications can introduce various issues, including system instability, and provide access to sensitive information. Installation of applications must be controlled... |
| V-225316 | Medium | Windows Peer-to-Peer networking services must be turned off. | 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. |
| V-225427 | Medium | Windows 2012/2012 R2 passwords must be configured to expire. | Passwords that do not expire or are reused increase the exposure of a password with greater probability of being discovered or cracked. |
| V-225248 | Medium | Windows 2012/2012 R2 manually managed application account passwords must be changed at least annually or when a system administrator with knowledge of the password leaves the organization. | Setting application accounts to expire may cause applications to stop functioning. However, not changing them on a regular basis exposes them to attack. If managed service accounts are used, this... |
| V-225421 | Medium | Permissions for program file directories must conform to minimum requirements. | Changing the system's file and directory permissions allows the possibility of unauthorized and anonymous modification to the operating system and installed applications.
The default permissions... |
| V-225293 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Policy Change - Audit Policy Change failures. | 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. ... |
| V-225509 | Medium | The system must be configured to meet the minimum session security requirement for NTLM SSP-based clients. | 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. |
| V-225508 | Medium | The system must be configured to the required LDAP client signing level. | 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. |
| V-225504 | Medium | Kerberos encryption types must be configured to prevent the use of DES and RC4 encryption suites. | Certain encryption types are no longer considered secure. The DES and RC4 encryption suites must not be used for Kerberos encryption.
Note: Removing the previously allowed RC4_HMAC_MD5 encryption... |
| V-225506 | Medium | The system must be configured to force users to log off when their allowed logon hours expire. | 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. ... |
| V-225501 | Medium | Services using Local System that use Negotiate when reverting to NTLM authentication must use the computer identity vs. authenticating anonymously. | 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. |
| V-225309 | Medium | The operating system must, at a minimum, off-load audit records of interconnected systems in real time and off-load standalone systems weekly. | Protection of log data includes assuring the log data is not accidentally lost or deleted. Audit information stored in one location is vulnerable to accidental or incidental deletion or alteration. |
| V-225503 | Medium | PKU2U authentication using online identities must be prevented. | 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... |
| V-225502 | Medium | NTLM must be prevented from falling back to a Null session. | NTLM sessions that are allowed to fall back to Null (unauthenticated) sessions may gain unauthorized access. |
| V-225347 | Medium | Windows must be prevented from using Windows Update to search for drivers. | Some features may communicate with the vendor, sending system information or downloading data or components for the feature. Turning off this capability will prevent potentially sensitive... |
| V-225346 | Medium | The Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program must be disabled. | 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... |
| V-225345 | Medium | Printing over HTTP must be prevented. | 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... |
| V-225542 | Medium | The system must notify antivirus when file attachments are opened. | Attaching malicious files is a known avenue of attack. This setting configures the system to notify antivirus programs when a user opens a file attachment. |
| V-225299 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit System - IPsec Driver failures. | 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. ... |
| V-225298 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit System - IPsec Driver successes. | 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. ... |
| V-225340 | Medium | Access to the Windows Store must be turned off. | Uncontrolled installation of applications can introduce various issues, including system instability, and allow access to sensitive information. Installation of applications must be controlled by... |
| V-225295 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Policy Change - Authorization Policy Change successes. | 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.... |
| V-225294 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Policy Change - Authentication Policy Change successes. | 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. ... |
| V-225297 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Privilege Use - Sensitive Privilege Use failures. | 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. ... |
| V-225296 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Privilege Use - Sensitive Privilege Use successes. | 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. ... |
| V-225463 | Medium | The Ctrl+Alt+Del security attention sequence for logons must be enabled. | Disabling the Ctrl+Alt+Del security attention sequence can compromise system security. Because only Windows responds to the Ctrl+Alt+Del security sequence, a user can be assured that any... |
| V-225349 | Medium | Local users on domain-joined computers must not be enumerated. | 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. |
| V-225461 | Medium | The system must be configured to require a strong session key. | A computer connecting to a domain controller will establish a secure channel. Requiring strong session keys enforces 128-bit encryption between systems. |
| V-225292 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Policy Change - Audit Policy Change successes. | 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. ... |
| V-225242 | Medium | Policy must require that system administrators (SAs) be trained for the operating systems used by systems under their control. | If SAs are assigned to systems running operating systems for which they have no training, these systems are at additional risk of unintentional misconfiguration that may result in vulnerabilities... |
| V-225341 | Medium | Downloading print driver packages over HTTP must be prevented. | 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... |
| V-225408 | Medium | Only the default client printer must be redirected to the Remote Desktop Session Host. (Remote Desktop Services Role). | Allowing the redirection of only the default client printer to a Remote Desktop session helps reduce possible exposure of sensitive data. |
| V-225344 | Medium | The Internet File Association service must be turned off. | 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... |
| V-225469 | Medium | The Smart Card removal option must be configured to Force Logoff or Lock Workstation. | 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. |
| V-225539 | Medium | Windows Help Ratings feedback must be turned off. | 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... |
| V-225549 | Medium | The Allow log on through Remote Desktop Services user right must only be assigned to the Administrators group and other approved groups. | 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... |
| V-225393 | Medium | Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM) must be prevented from accessing the Internet. | Some features may communicate with the vendor, sending system information or downloading data or components for the feature. Turning off this capability will prevent potentially sensitive... |
| V-225548 | Medium | The Allow log on locally user right must only be assigned to the Administrators group. | 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. |
| V-225472 | Medium | Unencrypted passwords must not be sent to third-party SMB Servers. | 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... |
| V-225465 | Medium | The required legal notice must be configured to display before console logon. | Failure to display the logon banner prior to a logon attempt will negate legal proceedings resulting from unauthorized access to system resources. |
| V-225464 | Medium | The machine inactivity limit must be set to 15 minutes, locking the system with the screensaver. | Unattended systems are susceptible to unauthorized use and should be locked when unattended. The screen saver should be set at a maximum of 15 minutes and be password protected. This protects... |
| V-225395 | Medium | Windows Media Player must be configured to prevent automatic checking for updates. | 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... |
| V-225378 | Medium | The location feature must be turned off. | The location service on systems may allow sensitive data to be used by applications on the system. This should be turned off unless explicitly allowed for approved systems/applications. |
| V-225456 | Medium | Outgoing secure channel traffic must be encrypted or signed. | 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... |
| V-225267 | Medium | The number of allowed bad logon attempts must meet minimum requirements. | 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... |
| V-225372 | Medium | The Setup event log size must be configured to 32768 KB or greater. | 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. |
| V-225291 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Object Access - Removable Storage failures. | 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. ... |
| V-225370 | Medium | The Application event log size must be configured to 32768 KB or greater. | 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. |
| V-225371 | Medium | The Security event log size must be configured to 196608 KB or greater. | 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. |
| V-225288 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Object Access - Central Access Policy Staging successes. | 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. ... |
| V-225377 | Medium | File Explorer shell protocol must run in protected mode. | 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. |
| V-225374 | Medium | Windows SmartScreen must be enabled on Windows 2012/2012 R2. | Windows SmartScreen helps protect systems from programs downloaded from the Internet that may be malicious. Warning a user before running downloaded unknown software, at minimum, will help prevent... |
| V-225290 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Object Access - Removable Storage successes. | 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. ... |
| V-225471 | Medium | The Windows SMB client must be enabled to perform SMB packet signing when possible. | 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... |
| V-225470 | Medium | The Windows SMB client must be configured to always perform SMB packet signing. | 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... |
| V-225287 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Logon/Logoff - Special Logon successes. | 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. ... |
| V-225475 | Medium | The Windows SMB server must perform SMB packet signing when possible. | 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... |
| V-225477 | Medium | The service principal name (SPN) target name validation level must be turned off. | If a service principle name (SPN) is provided by the client, it is validated against the server's list of SPNs. Implementation may disrupt file and print sharing capabilities. |
| V-225570 | Medium | The Modify firmware environment values user right must only be assigned to the Administrators group. | 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... |
| V-225571 | Medium | The Perform volume maintenance tasks user right must only be assigned to the Administrators group. | 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... |
| V-225572 | Medium | The Profile single process user right must only be assigned to the Administrators group. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Profile single process" user right can monitor nonsystem processes... |
| V-225573 | Medium | The Restore files and directories user right must only be assigned to the Administrators group. | 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... |
| V-225574 | Medium | The Take ownership of files or other objects user right must only be assigned to the Administrators group. | 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... |
| V-225247 | Medium | Policy must require application account passwords be at least 15 characters in length. | Application/service account passwords must be of sufficient length to prevent being easily cracked. Application/service accounts that are manually managed must have passwords at least 15... |
| V-225277 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Account Management - Other Account Management Events successes. | 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. ... |
| V-225451 | Medium | The built-in guest account must be renamed. | 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... |
| V-225264 | Medium | PowerShell script block logging must be enabled on Windows 2012/2012 R2. | 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.... |
| V-225397 | Medium | The Windows Remote Management (WinRM) client must not allow unencrypted traffic. | Unencrypted remote access to a system can allow sensitive information to be compromised. Windows remote management connections must be encrypted to prevent this. |
| V-225240 | Medium | Users with administrative privilege must be documented. | Administrative accounts may perform any action on a system. Users with administrative accounts must be documented to ensure those with this level of access are clearly identified. |
| V-225517 | Medium | User Account Control must automatically deny standard user requests for elevation. | User Account Control (UAC) is a security mechanism for limiting the elevation of privileges, including administrative accounts, unless authorized. This setting controls the behavior of elevation... |
| V-225569 | Medium | The Manage auditing and security log user right must only be assigned to the Administrators group. | 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... |
| V-225474 | Medium | The Windows SMB server must be configured to always perform SMB packet signing. | 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... |
| V-225486 | Medium | The system must be configured to use Safe DLL Search Mode. | 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... |
| V-225246 | Medium | Members of the Backup Operators group must have separate accounts for backup duties and normal operational tasks. | Backup Operators are able to read and write to any file in the system, regardless of the rights assigned to it. Backup and restore rights permit users to circumvent the file access restrictions... |
| V-225369 | Medium | Administrator accounts must not be enumerated during elevation. | 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 enter in a... |
| V-225368 | Medium | The password reveal button must not be displayed. | 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. |
| V-225367 | Medium | The use of biometrics must be disabled. | 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... |
| V-225373 | Medium | The System event log size must be configured to 32768 KB or greater. | 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. |
| V-225404 | Medium | Users must be prevented from mapping local COM ports and redirecting data from the Remote Desktop Session Host to local COM ports. (Remote Desktop Services Role). | Preventing the redirection of Remote Desktop session data to a client computer's COM ports helps reduce possible exposure of sensitive data. |
| V-225405 | Medium | Users must be prevented from mapping local LPT ports and redirecting data from the Remote Desktop Session Host to local LPT ports. (Remote Desktop Services Role). | Preventing the redirection of Remote Desktop session data to a client computer's LPT ports helps reduce possible exposure of sensitive data. |
| V-225406 | Medium | The system must be configured to ensure smart card devices can be redirected to the Remote Desktop session. (Remote Desktop Services Role). | Enabling the redirection of smart card devices allows their use within Remote Desktop sessions. |
| V-225568 | Medium | The Lock pages in memory user right must not be assigned to any groups or accounts. | 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... |
| V-225400 | Medium | The Windows Remote Management (WinRM) service must not allow unencrypted traffic. | Unencrypted remote access to a system can allow sensitive information to be compromised. Windows remote management connections must be encrypted to prevent this. |
| V-225401 | Medium | The Windows Remote Management (WinRM) service must not store RunAs credentials. | 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. |
| V-225402 | Medium | The Remote Desktop Session Host must require secure RPC communications. | 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... |
| V-225563 | Medium | The Force shutdown from a remote system user right must only be assigned to the Administrators group. | 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... |
| V-225562 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Enable computer and user accounts to be trusted for delegation user right on member servers. | 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... |
| V-225561 | Medium | The Deny log on through Remote Desktop Services user right on member servers must be configured to prevent access from highly privileged domain accounts and all local accounts on domain systems, and from unauthenticated access on all systems. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities.
The "Deny log on through Remote Desktop Services" user right defines the accounts that... |
| V-225560 | Medium | The Deny log on locally user right on member servers must be configured to prevent access from highly privileged domain accounts on domain systems, and from unauthenticated access on all systems. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities.
The "Deny log on locally" user right defines accounts that are prevented from logging... |
| V-225567 | Medium | The Load and unload device drivers user right must only be assigned to the Administrators group. | 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... |
| V-225566 | Medium | The Increase scheduling priority user right must only be assigned to the Administrators group. | 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... |
| V-225565 | Medium | The Impersonate a client after authentication user right must only be assigned to Administrators, Service, Local Service, and Network Service. | 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... |
| V-225564 | Medium | The Generate security audits user right must only be assigned to Local Service and Network Service. | 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... |
| V-225266 | Medium | Windows 2012 account lockout duration must be configured to 15 minutes or greater. | The account lockout feature, when enabled, prevents brute-force password attacks on the system. This parameter specifies the period of time that an account will remain locked after the specified... |
| V-225559 | Medium | The Deny log on as a service user right on member servers must be configured to prevent access from highly privileged domain accounts on domain systems. No other groups or accounts must be assigned this right. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities.
The "Deny log on as a service" user right defines accounts that are denied log on as a... |
| V-225353 | Medium | The system must be configured to prevent unsolicited remote assistance offers. | 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... |
| V-225457 | Medium | Outgoing secure channel traffic must be encrypted when possible. | 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... |
| V-225310 | Medium | Permissions for the Application event log must prevent access by nonprivileged accounts. | Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detect attacks. ... |
| V-225523 | Medium | User Account Control must virtualize file and registry write failures to per-user locations. | 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... |
| V-225272 | Medium | Passwords must, at a minimum, be 14 characters. | 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... |
| V-225557 | Medium | The Deny access to this computer from the network user right on member servers must be configured to prevent access from highly privileged domain accounts and local accounts on domain systems, and from unauthenticated access on all systems. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities.
The "Deny access to this computer from the network" user right defines the accounts... |
| V-225494 | Medium | The system must be configured to prevent anonymous users from having the same rights as the Everyone group. | 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... |
| V-225391 | Medium | Users must be notified if a web-based program attempts to install software. | Users must be aware of attempted program installations. This setting ensures users are notified if a web-based program attempts to install software. |
| V-225450 | Medium | The built-in administrator account must be renamed. | 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. |
| V-225398 | Medium | The Windows Remote Management (WinRM) client must not use Digest authentication. | Digest authentication is not as strong as other options and may be subject to man-in-the-middle attacks. |
| V-225446 | Medium | Local administrator accounts must have their privileged token filtered to prevent elevated privileges from being used over the network on domain systems. | 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 local... |
| V-225416 | Medium | A host-based firewall must be installed and enabled on the system. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack, allowing or blocking inbound and outbound connections based on a set of rules. |
| V-225415 | Medium | WDigest Authentication must be disabled. | When the WDigest Authentication protocol is enabled, plain text passwords are stored in the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) exposing them to theft. This setting will prevent... |
| V-225414 | Medium | Automatically signing in the last interactive user after a system-initiated restart must be disabled (Windows 2012 R2). | Windows 2012 R2 can be configured to automatically sign the user back in after a Windows Update restart. Some protections are in place to help ensure this is done in a secure fashion; however,... |
| V-225413 | Medium | The Windows Explorer Preview pane must be disabled for Windows 2012. | A known vulnerability in Windows could allow the execution of malicious code by either opening a compromised document or viewing it in the Windows Preview pane.
Organizations must disable the... |
| V-225455 | Medium | Ejection of removable NTFS media must be restricted to Administrators. | Removable hard drives, if they are not properly configured, can be formatted and ejected by users who are not members of the Administrators Group. Formatting and ejecting removable NTFS media... |
| V-225558 | Medium | The Deny log on as a batch job user right on member servers must be configured to prevent access from highly privileged domain accounts on domain systems, and from unauthenticated access on all systems. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities.
The "Deny log on as a batch job" user right defines accounts that are prevented from... |
| V-225249 | Medium | Shared user accounts must not be permitted on the system. | Shared accounts (accounts where two or more people log in with the same user identification) do not provide adequate identification and authentication. There is no way to provide for... |
| V-225356 | Medium | Unauthenticated RPC clients must be restricted from connecting to the RPC server. | Configuring RPC to restrict unauthenticated RPC clients from connecting to the RPC server will prevent anonymous connections. |
| V-225554 | Medium | The Create permanent shared objects user right must not be assigned to any groups or accounts. | 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... |
| V-225555 | Medium | The Create symbolic links user right must only be assigned to the Administrators group. | 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... |
| V-225553 | Medium | The Create global objects user right must only be assigned to Administrators, Service, Local Service, and Network Service. | 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... |
| V-225550 | Medium | The Back up files and directories user right must only be assigned to the Administrators group. | 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... |
| V-225551 | Medium | The Create a pagefile user right must only be assigned to the Administrators group. | 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,... |
| V-225387 | Low | Automatic download of updates from the Windows Store must be turned off. | 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. ... |
| V-225251 | Low | System-level information must be backed up in accordance with local recovery time and recovery point objectives. | Operating system backup is a critical step in maintaining data assurance and availability.
System-level information includes system-state information, operating system and application software,... |
| V-225250 | Low | Security configuration tools or equivalent processes must be used to configure and maintain platforms for security compliance. | Security configuration tools such as Group Policies and Security Templates allow system administrators to consolidate security-related system settings into a single configuration file. These... |
| V-225252 | Low | User-level information must be backed up in accordance with local recovery time and recovery point objectives. | Operating system backup is a critical step in maintaining data assurance and availability.
User-level information is data generated by information system and/or application users.
Backups shall... |
| V-225254 | Low | System-related documentation must be backed up in accordance with local recovery time and recovery point objectives. | Operating system backup is a critical step in maintaining data assurance and availability.
Information system and security-related documentation contains information pertaining to system... |
| V-225327 | Low | Windows Update must be prevented from searching for point and print drivers. | Some features may communicate with the vendor, sending system information or downloading data or components for the feature. Turning off this capability will prevent potentially sensitive... |
| V-225328 | Low | Optional component installation and component repair must be prevented from using Windows Update. | 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. ... |
| V-225466 | Low | The Windows dialog box title for the legal banner must be configured. | Failure to display the logon banner prior to a logon attempt will negate legal proceedings resulting from unauthorized access to system resources. |
| V-225324 | Low | IP stateless autoconfiguration limits state must be enabled. | IP stateless autoconfiguration could configure routes that circumvent preferred routes if not limited. |
| V-225536 | Low | Notifications from Windows Push Network Service must be turned off. | The Windows Push Notification Service (WNS) allows third-party vendors to send updates for toasts, tiles, and badges. |
| V-225537 | Low | Toast notifications to the lock screen must be turned off. | Toast 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. |
| V-225336 | Low | Users must not be prompted to search Windows Update for device drivers. | Some features may communicate with the vendor, sending system information or downloading data or components for the feature. Turning off this capability will prevent potentially sensitive... |
| V-225334 | Low | Device driver searches using Windows Update must be prevented. | 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... |
| V-225335 | Low | Device driver updates must only search managed servers, not Windows Update. | 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. ... |
| V-225332 | Low | Device metadata retrieval from the Internet must be prevented. | 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... |
| V-225333 | Low | Windows must be prevented from sending an error report when a device driver requests additional software during installation. | 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... |
| V-225330 | Low | An Error Report must not be sent when a generic device driver is installed. | Some features may communicate with the vendor, sending system information or downloading data or components for the feature. Turning off this capability will prevent potentially sensitive... |
| V-225331 | Low | A system restore point must be created when a new device driver is installed. | A system restore point allows a rollback if an issue is encountered when a new device driver is installed. |
| V-225376 | Low | Turning off File Explorer heap termination on corruption must be disabled. | Legacy plug-in applications may continue to function when a File Explorer session has become corrupt. Disabling this feature will prevent this. |
| V-225525 | Low | Optional Subsystems must not be permitted to operate on the system. | The POSIX subsystem is an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) standard that defines a set of operating system services. The POSIX Subsystem is required if the server supports... |
| V-225479 | Low | IPv6 source routing must be configured to the highest protection level. | Configuring the system to disable IPv6 source routing protects against spoofing. |
| V-225358 | Low | Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) interactive communication with Microsoft must be prevented. | 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... |
| V-225511 | Low | The shutdown option must not be available from the logon dialog box. | Displaying the shutdown button may allow individuals to shut down a system anonymously. Only authenticated users should be allowed to shut down the system. Preventing display of this button in... |
| V-225514 | Low | The default permissions of global system objects must be increased. | 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... |
| V-225459 | Low | The computer account password must not be prevented from being reset. | 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... |
| V-225467 | Low | Caching of logon credentials must be limited. | 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... |
| V-225253 | Low | Backups of system-level information must be protected. | A system backup will usually include sensitive information such as user accounts that could be used in an attack. As a valuable system resource, the system backup must be protected and stored in... |
| V-225424 | Low | Nonadministrative user accounts or groups must only have print permissions on printer shares. | Windows shares are a means by which files, folders, printers, and other resources can be published for network users to access. Improper configuration can permit access to devices and data beyond... |
| V-225359 | Low | Access to Windows Online Troubleshooting Service (WOTS) must be prevented. | 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... |
| V-225425 | Low | Outdated or unused accounts must be removed from the system or disabled. | Outdated or unused accounts provide penetration points that may go undetected. Inactive accounts must be deleted if no longer necessary or, if still required, disabled until needed. |
| V-225318 | Low | Domain users must be required to elevate when setting a networks location. | Selecting an incorrect network location may allow greater exposure of a system. Elevation is required by default on nondomain systems to change network location. This setting configures... |
| V-225468 | Low | Users must be warned in advance of their passwords expiring. | 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... |
| V-225462 | Low | The system must be configured to prevent the display of the last username on the logon screen. | Displaying the username of the last logged on user provides half of the userid/password equation that an unauthorized person would need to gain access. The username of the last user to log on to... |
| V-225526 | Low | The print driver installation privilege must be restricted to administrators. | Allowing users to install drivers can introduce malware or cause the instability of a system. Print driver installation should be restricted to administrators. |
| V-225343 | Low | Errors in handwriting recognition on tablet PCs must not be reported to Microsoft. | 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... |
| V-225473 | Low | The amount of idle time required before suspending a session must be properly set. | 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... |
| V-225460 | Low | The maximum age for machine account passwords must be set to requirements. | 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... |
| V-225476 | Low | Users must be forcibly disconnected when their logon hours expire. | 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... |
| V-225342 | Low | Event Viewer Events.asp links must be turned off. | 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... |
| V-225412 | Low | The setting to allow Microsoft accounts to be optional for modern style apps must be enabled (Windows 2012 R2). | Control of credentials and the system must be maintained within the enterprise. Enabling this setting allows enterprise credentials to be used with modern style apps that support this, instead of... |
| V-225488 | Low | IPv6 TCP data retransmissions must be configured to prevent resources from becoming exhausted. | 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. |
| V-225489 | Low | The system must limit how many times unacknowledged TCP data is retransmitted. | 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... |
| V-225484 | Low | The system must be configured to ignore NetBIOS name release requests except from WINS servers. | 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... |
| V-225485 | Low | The system must be configured to disable the Internet Router Discovery Protocol (IRDP). | 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... |
| V-225487 | Low | The system must be configured to have password protection take effect within a limited time frame when the screen saver becomes active. | Allowing more than several seconds makes the computer vulnerable to a potential attack from someone walking up to the console to attempt to log on to the system before the lock takes effect. |
| V-225480 | Low | The system must be configured to prevent IP source routing. | Configuring the system to disable IP source routing protects against spoofing. |
| V-225481 | Low | The system must be configured to prevent Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) redirects from overriding Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) generated routes. | 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. |
| V-225482 | Low | The system must be configured to limit how often keep-alive packets are sent. | 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... |
| V-225483 | Low | IPSec Exemptions must be limited. | 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. |
| V-225355 | Low | Remote Assistance log files must be generated. | 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. ... |
| V-225361 | Low | The time service must synchronize with an appropriate DoD time source. | The Windows Time Service controls time synchronization settings. Time synchronization is essential for authentication and auditing purposes. If the Windows Time Service is used, it must... |
| V-225360 | Low | Responsiveness events must be prevented from being aggregated and sent to Microsoft. | 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... |
| V-225363 | Low | The Application Compatibility Program Inventory must be prevented from collecting data and sending the information to Microsoft. | 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... |
| V-225357 | Low | The detection of compatibility issues for applications and drivers must be turned off. | Some features may communicate with the vendor, sending system information or downloading data or components for the feature. Turning off this feature will prevent potentially sensitive... |
| V-225319 | Low | All Direct Access traffic must be routed through the internal network. | Routing all Direct Access traffic through the internal network allows monitoring and prevents split tunneling. |
| V-225490 | Low | The system must generate an audit event when the audit log reaches a percentage of full threshold. | When the audit log reaches a given percent full, an audit event is written to the security log. It is recorded as a successful audit event under the category of System. This option may be... |
| V-225392 | Low | Nonadministrators must be prevented from applying vendor-signed updates. | 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). |
| V-225394 | Low | Users must not be presented with Privacy and Installation options on first use of Windows Media Player. | 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... |
| V-225362 | Low | Trusted app installation must be enabled to allow for signed enterprise line of business apps. | 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... |
