| WN12-SO-000004 | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000012 | High | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Create a token object user right. | 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.... |
| WN12-UR-000016 | High | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Debug programs user right. | 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... |
| WN12-GE-000027 | High | FTP servers must be configured to prevent access to the system drive. | The FTP service allows remote users to access shared files and directories which could provide access to system resources and compromise the system, especially if the user can gain access to the... |
| WN12-00-000018 | High | Unencrypted remote access to system services must not be permitted. | Unencrypted access to system services may permit an intruder to intercept user identification and passwords that are being transmitted in clear text. This could give an intruder unlimited access... |
| WN12-AC-000009 | 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. |
| WN12-UR-000003 | High | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Act as part of the operating system user right. | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000059 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000059 | 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. |
| WN12-SO-000058 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000052 | 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. |
| WN12-SO-000051 | 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. |
| WN12-SO-000050 | 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. |
| WN12-SO-000057 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000056 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000126 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000123 | 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. |
| WN12-FW-000002 | High | The Windows Firewall must block unsolicited inbound connections for the Domain Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. Unsolicited inbound connections may be malicious attempts to gain access to a... |
| WN12-GE-000004-MS | High | Only administrators responsible for the system 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... |
| WN12-SO-000067 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000065 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000116 | 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... |
| WN12-GE-000005 | High | Local volumes must be formatted using NTFS. | The ability to set access permissions and auditing is critical to maintaining the security and proper access controls of a system. To support this, volumes must be formatted using the NTFS file system. |
| WN12-GE-000002 | High | An approved DoD antivirus program must be installed and used. | Virus scan programs are a primary line of defense against the introduction of viruses and malicious code that can destroy data and even render a computer inoperable. Utilizing a virus scan... |
| WN12-GE-000003 | High | The antivirus program signature files must be kept updated. | Virus scan programs are a primary line of defense against the introduction of viruses and malicious code that can destroy data and even render a computer inoperable. Utilizing the virus scan... |
| WN12-GE-000001 | 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 leaves them subject to exploitation. Systems must be maintained at a service pack... |
| WN12-CC-000074 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000073 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000072 | 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... |
| WN12-FW-000020 | High | The Windows Firewall must block unsolicited inbound connections for the Public Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. Unsolicited inbound connections may be malicious attempts to gain access to a... |
| WN12-FW-000011 | High | The Windows Firewall must block unsolicited inbound connections for the Private Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. Unsolicited inbound connections may be malicious attempts to gain access to a... |
| WN12-SO-000071 | High | The Recovery Console option must be set to prevent automatic logon to the system. | If this option is enabled, the Recovery Console does not require a password and automatically logs on to the system. This could allow unauthorized administrative access to the system. |
| WN12-RG-000001 | 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 this capability, there is a potential for programs to run with... |
| WN12-RG-000002 | 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 this capability, there is a... |
| WN12-RG-000004 | 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. |
| WN12-GE-000015 | High | Accounts must 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. ... |
| WN12-SO-000055-MS | High | Named pipes that can be accessed anonymously must be configured to contain no values. | 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... |
| WN12-00-000008 | High | Policy must require that administrative user accounts 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... |
| WN12-00-000003 | High | The system must not use removable media as the boot loader. | Malicious users with removable boot media can gain access to a system configured to use removable media as the boot loader. |
| WN12-00-000005 | 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. |
| WN12-AU-000068 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Object Access - File System 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000060 | 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. ... |
| WN12-SO-000008 | 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. ... |
| WN12-SO-000009 | 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. ... |
| WN12-SO-000003 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000005 | 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. |
| WN12-SO-000006 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000007 | Medium | Auditing the Access to 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. ... |
| WN12-UR-000013 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Create global objects user right. | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000011 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Create a pagefile user right. | 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,... |
| WN12-UR-000014 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Create permanent shared objects user right. | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000015 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Create symbolic links user right. | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000021-MS | 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 local administrator 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... |
| WN12-CC-000048 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000041 | Medium | Search Companion must be prevented from automatically downloading content updates. | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000043 | Medium | The file and folder Publish to Web option must be unavailable in Windows folders. | Allowing the option to publish to the web from File and Folder tasks in Windows folders could allow sensitive information to be exposed. |
| WN12-CC-000044 | Medium | Windows Messenger must be prevented from collecting anonymous information about how the service is used. | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000045 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000046 | Medium | The system must be configured to prevent automatic forwarding of error information. | This setting controls the reporting of errors to Microsoft and, if defined, a corporate error reporting site. This does not interfere with the reporting of errors to the local user. Since the... |
| WN12-CC-000047 | 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... |
| WN12-PK-000003 | Medium | The DoD Interoperability Root CA to DoD Root CA 2 cross-certificate must be installed into the Untrusted Certificates Store. | 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 CA 2, the DoD... |
| WN12-PK-000002 | Medium | The External CA root certificate must be installed into the Trusted Root Store. | To ensure secure websites protected with ECA server certificates are properly validated, the system must trust the ECA Root CA 2. The ECA root certificate will ensure the trust chain is... |
| WN12-PK-000001 | Medium | The DoD root certificate must be installed into the Trusted Root Store. | To ensure secure DoD websites and DoD signed code are properly validated, the system must trust the DoD Root CA 2. The DoD root certificate will ensure that the trust chain is established for... |
| WN12-CC-000128 | 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. |
| WN12-AU-000116 | Medium | Global object access auditing of the registry must be configured to record failures. | Improper modification of the registry can have a significant impact on the security configuration of a system, as well as potentially rendering a system inoperable. Failed access attempts may... |
| WN12-AU-000114 | Medium | Global object access auditing of the file system must be configured to record failures. | Improper modification of system files can have a significant impact on the security configuration of a system, as well as potentially rendering a system inoperable. Failed access attempts may... |
| WN12-AU-000112 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000110 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit System - Security System Extension 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000111 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000023 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000020 | 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. ... |
| WN12-SO-000045 | 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... |
| WN12-SV-000103 | 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. |
| WN12-SV-000100 | 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. |
| WN12-SV-000101 | Medium | The Microsoft FTP service must not be installed. | Unnecessary services increase the attack surface of a system. Some of these services may not support required levels of authentication or encryption. |
| WN12-SV-000106 | 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. |
| WN12-SV-000104 | 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. |
| WN12-SV-000105 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000130 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000131 | Medium | Remote Desktop Services must limit users to one remote session. | Allowing multiple Remote Desktop Services sessions could consume resources. There is also potential to make a secondary connection to a system with compromised credentials. |
| WN12-CC-000132 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000133 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000134 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000135 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000136 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000008 | Medium | The IP-HTTPS IPv6 transition technology must be disabled. | IPv6 transition technologies, which tunnel packets through other protocols, do not provide visibility. |
| WN12-CC-000009 | Medium | The ISATAP IPv6 transition technology must be disabled. | IPv6 transition technologies, which tunnel packets through other protocols, do not provide visibility. |
| WN12-CC-000004 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000007 | Medium | The 6to4 IPv6 transition technology must be disabled. | IPv6 transition technologies, which tunnel packets through other protocols, do not provide visibility. |
| WN12-CC-000001 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000002 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000003 | 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. |
| WN12-UR-000041 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Shut down the system user right. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Shut down the system" user right can interactively shut down a... |
| WN12-UR-000040 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Restore files and directories user right. | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000042 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Take ownership of files or other objects user right. | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000017-MS | 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 administrator 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 the computer from the network" user right defines the accounts... |
| WN12-GE-000020 | Medium | Software certificate installation files must be removed from a system. | 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. |
| WN12-GE-000021 | 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. ... |
| WN12-GE-000022 | 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... |
| WN12-GE-000023 | Medium | The system must employ automated mechanisms or must have an application installed that, on an organization defined frequency, determines the state of information system components with regard to flaw remediation. | Organizations are required to identify information systems containing software affected by recently announced software flaws (and potential vulnerabilities resulting from those flaws) and report... |
| WN12-GE-000024 | Medium | The system must support automated patch management tools to facilitate flaw remediation to organization defined information system components. | 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... |
| WN12-GE-000025 | 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... |
| WN12-GE-000026 | Medium | FTP servers must be configured to prevent anonymous logons. | The FTP (File Transfer Protocol) service allows remote users to access shared files and directories. Allowing anonymous FTP connections makes user auditing difficult.
Using accounts that have... |
| WN12-FW-000005 | Medium | The Windows Firewall must block unicast responses to multicast or broadcast messages for the Domain Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. Unicast responses to multicast or broadcast messages in the domain will be... |
| WN12-UC-000011 | 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. |
| WN12-UC-000010 | 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... |
| WN12-UC-000013 | 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... |
| WN12-UC-000012 | 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. |
| WN12-00-000011 | Medium | 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. The site will have a policy that... |
| WN12-00-000010 | Medium | Application account passwords must 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... |
| WN12-00-000012 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000080 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000081 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000082 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000083 | 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. |
| WN12-SO-000084 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000085 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000086 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000087 | Medium | Software certificate restriction policies must be enforced. | Software restriction policies help to protect users and computers from executing unauthorized code such as viruses and Trojans horses. This setting must be enabled to enforce certificate rules in... |
| WN12-AU-000074 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Object Access - Handle Manipulation 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. ... |
| WN12-AC-000002 | 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... |
| WN12-AC-000003 | Medium | The period of time before the bad logon counter is reset must meet minimum requirements. | 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... |
| WN12-AC-000001 | Medium | The lockout duration must be configured to require an administrator to unlock an account. | 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... |
| WN12-AC-000006 | 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... |
| WN12-AC-000007 | 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... |
| WN12-AC-000004 | Medium | The password uniqueness must meet minimum requirements. | 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. ... |
| WN12-AC-000005 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000017 | 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. |
| WN12-SO-000014 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000013 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000012 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000011 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000019 | 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... |
| WN12-AU-000206 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000204 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000205 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000202 | Medium | Audit data of systems containing sources and methods intelligence (SAMI) must be retained for at least five years. | 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. |
| WN12-AU-000203 | Medium | Audit records must be backed up on an organization defined frequency 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. Backing up audit records to a different system or onto separate media than the system being audited on... |
| WN12-AU-000200 | 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... |
| WN12-AU-000201 | 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. |
| WN12-UR-000001 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Access Credential Manager as a trusted caller user right. | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000005 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Allow log on locally user right. | 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. |
| WN12-UR-000004 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Adjust memory quotas for a process user right. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Adjust memory quotas for a process" user right can adjust memory... |
| WN12-UR-000007 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Back up files and directories user right. | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000006 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Allow log on through Remote Desktop Services user right. | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000009 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Change the system time user right. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Change the system time" user right can change the system time,... |
| WN12-GE-000100 | Medium | The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) must be installed on the system. | Attackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in systems and applications. The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit can enable several mechanisms, such as Data Execution Prevention (DEP),... |
| WN12-CC-000055 | Medium | The user must be prompted for a password 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). |
| WN12-CC-000054 | Medium | Users must be prompted for a password 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). |
| WN12-CC-000052 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000051 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000058 | 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... |
| WN12-AU-000104 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000107 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000101 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000103 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000102 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000109 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000108 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit System - Security State 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. ... |
| WN12-SO-000053 | Medium | The system must be configured to prevent the storage of passwords and credentials. | This setting controls the storage of passwords and credentials for network authentication on the local system. Such credentials must not be stored on the local machine, as that may lead to... |
| WN12-SO-000054 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000084 | Medium | The Application event log must be configured to a minimum size requirement. | Inadequate log size will cause the log to fill up quickly and require frequent clearing by administrative personnel. |
| WN12-CC-000085 | Medium | The Security event log must be configured to a minimum size requirement. | Inadequate log size will cause the log to fill up quickly and require frequent clearing by administrative personnel. |
| WN12-CC-000086 | Medium | The Setup event log must be configured to a minimum size requirement. | Inadequate log size will cause the log to fill up quickly and require frequent clearing by administrative personnel. |
| WN12-CC-000087 | Medium | The System event log must be configured to a minimum size requirement. | Inadequate log size will cause the log to fill up quickly and require frequent clearing by administrative personnel. |
| WN12-CC-000080 | Medium | The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) Default Protections for Recommended Software must be enabled. | Attackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in systems and applications. The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit can enable several mechanisms, such as Data Execution Prevention... |
| WN12-CC-000081 | Medium | The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) Default Protections for Popular Software must be enabled. | Attackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in systems and applications. The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit can enable several mechanisms, such as Data Execution Prevention... |
| WN12-CC-000129 | Medium | Automatic Updates must not be used (unless configured to point to a DoD server). | Uncontrolled system updates can introduce issues to a system. The system must be configured to prevent Automatic Updates from being run unless directed to a DoD Windows Server Update Services... |
| WN12-CC-000083 | Medium | The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) system-wide Structured Exception Handler Overwrite Protection (SEHOP) must be configured to Application Opt Out. | Attackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in systems and applications. The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit can enable several mechanisms, such as Data Execution Prevention... |
| WN12-CC-000127 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000125 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000124 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000122 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000120 | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000019-MS | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000028 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000029 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000027 | 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. |
| WN12-SO-000022 | 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. |
| WN12-SO-000020 | Medium | The machine account lockout threshold must be set to 10 on systems with BitLocker enabled. | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000021 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000019 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000013 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000012 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000010 | Medium | The Teredo IPv6 transition technology must be disabled. | IPv6 transition technologies, which tunnel packets through other protocols, do not provide visibility. |
| WN12-FW-000001 | Medium | The Windows Firewall must be enabled for the Domain Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. This setting enables the firewall when connected to the domain. |
| WN12-FW-000003 | Medium | The Windows Firewall must allow outbound connections, unless a rule explicitly blocks the connection for the Domain Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. Outbound connections are allowed in the domain, unless a rule explicitly blocks... |
| WN12-CC-000064 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000063 | Medium | Client computers must be required to authenticate for RPC communication. | Configuring RPC to require authentication to the RPC Endpoint Mapper will force clients to provide authentication before RPC communication is established. |
| WN12-UR-000020-MS | 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... |
| WN12-AU-000048 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000045 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000047 | 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. ... |
| WN12-SO-000062 | 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. |
| WN12-SO-000063 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000060 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000061 | 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. |
| WN12-SO-000066 | 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. ... |
| WN12-SO-000064 | Medium | Kerberos encryption types must be configured to prevent the use of DES encryption suites. | Certain encryption types are no longer considered secure. This setting configures a minimum encryption type for Kerberos, preventing the use of the DES encryption suites. |
| WN12-SO-000068 | 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. |
| WN12-SO-000069 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000117 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000115 | 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. |
| WN12-UR-000039 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Replace a process level token user right. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities.
The "Replace a process level token" user right allows one process or service to start... |
| WN12-CC-000110 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000111 | Medium | Microsoft Active Protection Service membership 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... |
| WN12-UR-000034 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Modify firmware environment values user right. | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000035 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Perform volume maintenance tasks user right. | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000036 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Profile single process user right. | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000037 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Profile system performance user right. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Profile system performance" user right can monitor system processes... |
| WN12-UR-000030 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Log on as a batch job user right. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities.
The "Log on as a batch job" user right allows accounts to log on using the task... |
| WN12-FW-000012 | Medium | The Windows Firewall must allow outbound connections, unless a rule explicitly blocks the connection for the Private Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. Outbound connections are allowed on a private network, unless a rule explicitly... |
| WN12-CC-000027 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000028 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000029 | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000032 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Manage auditing and security log user right. | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000028 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Load and unload device drivers user right. | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000033 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Modify an object label user right. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Modify an object label" user right can change the integrity label... |
| WN12-CC-000089 | 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... |
| WN12-GE-000006 | 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... |
| WN12-GE-000007 | 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... |
| WN12-GE-000008 | 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... |
| WN12-GE-000009 | Medium | Password complexity software that enforces DoD requirements must be implemented. | Password complexity software (e.g., Password Policy Enforcer) enforces a minimum mix of character types and potentially other options to create strong passwords.
Passwords must contain a... |
| WN12-AU-000001 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000002 | 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. ... |
| WN12-CC-000082 | Medium | The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) system-wide Data Execution Prevention (DEP) must be enabled and configured to at least Application Opt Out. | Attackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in systems and applications. The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit can enable several mechanisms, such as Data Execution Prevention... |
| WN12-CC-000091 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000096 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000095 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000099 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000098 | 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. |
| WN12-SO-000035 | 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. |
| WN12-SO-000036 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000030 | Medium | Unencrypted passwords must not be sent to a third-party SMB server. | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000033 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000032 | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000027 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Increase scheduling priority user right. | 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... |
| WN12-FW-000019 | Medium | The Windows Firewall must be enabled for the Public Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. This setting enables the firewall when connected to a public network. |
| WN12-FW-000014 | Medium | The Windows Firewall must block unicast responses to multicast or broadcast messages for the Private Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. Unicast responses to multicast or broadcast messages for a private connection... |
| WN12-CC-000079 | Medium | The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) Default Protections for Internet Explorer must be enabled. | Attackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in systems and applications. The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit can enable several mechanisms, such as Data Execution Prevention... |
| WN12-CC-000078 | Medium | The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) system-wide Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) must be enabled and configured to Application Opt In. | Attackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in systems and applications. The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit can enable several mechanisms, such as Data Execution Prevention... |
| WN12-CC-000075 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000077 | Medium | The system must require username and password to elevate a running application. | Enumeration of administrator accounts when elevating can provide part of the logon information to an unauthorized user. This setting configures the system to always require users to type in a... |
| WN12-CC-000076 | 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. |
| WN12-FW-000025 | Medium | The Windows Firewall local firewall rules must not be merged with Group Policy settings for the Public Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. Local firewall rules will not be merged with Group Policy settings on a public... |
| WN12-FW-000024 | Medium | The Windows Firewall local connection rules must not be merged with Group Policy settings for the Public Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. Local connection rules will not be merged with Group Policy settings on a... |
| WN12-FW-000023 | Medium | The Windows Firewall must block unicast responses to multicast or broadcast messages for the Public Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. Unicast responses to multicast or broadcast messages for a public network will... |
| WN12-FW-000021 | Medium | The Windows Firewall must allow outbound connections, unless a rule explicitly blocks the connection for the Public Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. Outbound connections are allowed on a public network, unless a rule explicitly... |
| WN12-AU-000019 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000018 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Account Management - Security Group 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. ... |
| WN12-UR-000022-MS | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Enable computer and user accounts to be trusted for delegation user right. | 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... |
| WN12-AU-000012 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Account Logon - Computer 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000017 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000016 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Account Management - Other Account Management 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000053 | 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. ... |
| WN12-00-000004 | 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. |
| WN12-AU-000059 | 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. ... |
| WN12-SO-000070 | 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. |
| WN12-SO-000075 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000074 | 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.... |
| WN12-SO-000077 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000079 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000078 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000105 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000104 | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000029 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Lock pages in memory user right. | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000106 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000101 | Medium | Remote Desktop Services must be configured to disconnect an idle session after the specified time period. | This setting controls how long a session may be idle before it is automatically disconnected from the server. Users must disconnect if they plan on being away from their terminals for extended... |
| WN12-CC-000100 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000103 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000102 | Medium | Remote Desktop Services must be configured to set a time limit for disconnected sessions. | This setting controls how long a session will remain open if it is unexpectedly terminated. Such sessions use system resources and must be terminated as soon as possible. |
| WN12-UR-000023 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Force shutdown from a remote system user right. | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000026 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Increase a process working set user right. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Increase a process working set" user right can change the size of a... |
| WN12-UR-000025 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Impersonate a client after authentication user right. | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000024 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Generate security audits user right. | 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... |
| WN12-RG-000003 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000030 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000032 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000037 | Medium | Web publishing and online ordering wizards must be prevented from downloading a list of providers. | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000039 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000038 | 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... |
| WN12-GE-000017 | 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. |
| WN12-GE-000016 | Medium | System mechanisms must be implemented to enforce automatic expiration of passwords. | Passwords that do not expire or are reused increase the exposure of a password with greater probability of being discovered or cracked. |
| WN12-GE-000011 | Medium | Virtual guest operating systems must be registered in a vulnerability and asset management system. | Virtual guest operating systems share the same vulnerabilities as operating systems running on dedicated hardware and must be individually assessed for security guidance compliance. The VMS used... |
| WN12-GE-000010 | 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. |
| WN12-GE-000019 | Medium | The HBSS McAfee Agent must be installed. | |
| WN12-GE-000018 | Medium | File shares must limit access to data on a system. | 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... |
| WN12-UC-000008 | 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... |
| WN12-UC-000009 | 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. |
| WN12-UC-000007 | 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... |
| WN12-UC-000003 | 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... |
| WN12-FW-000010 | Medium | The Windows Firewall must be enabled for the Private Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. This setting enables the firewall when connected to a private network. |
| WN12-UC-000001 | 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... |
| WN12-00-000009 | 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... |
| WN12-00-000002 | Medium | System BIOS or system controllers supporting password protection must have administrator accounts/passwords only configured, and no others. | A system's BIOS or system controller handles the initial startup of a system, and its configuration must be protected from unauthorized modification. When the BIOS or system controller supports... |
| WN12-AU-000011 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Account Logon - Computer 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. ... |
| WN12-00-000001 | Medium | Server systems must be located in a controlled access area. | 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. ... |
| WN12-00-000006 | 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... |
| WN12-00-000007 | Medium | Passwords for the built-in Administrator account must be changed regularly. | The longer a password is in use, the greater the opportunity for someone to gain unauthorized knowledge of the password. Passwords for the built-in Administrator account must be changed at least... |
| WN12-AU-000015 | 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. ... |
| WN12-UR-000002-MS | Medium | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Access this computer from the network user right. | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000018-MS | 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... |
| WN12-AU-000085 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000086 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000087 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000080 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit Object Access - Registry 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000081 | 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. ... |
| WN12-AU-000082 | 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. ... |
| WN12-UR-000010 | Low | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Change the time zone user right. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Change the time zone" user right can change the time zone of a system. |
| WN12-CC-000049 | Low | The classic logon screen must be required for user logons. | The classic logon screen requires users to enter a logon name and password to access a system. The simple logon screen or Welcome screen displays usernames for selection, providing part of the... |
| WN12-CC-000040 | Low | Windows Registration Wizard 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... |
| WN12-CC-000042 | Low | The Order Prints Online wizard 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... |
| WN12-SO-000048 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000049 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000044 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000046 | 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. |
| WN12-SO-000047 | 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. |
| WN12-SO-000041 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000042 | 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. |
| WN12-SO-000043 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000137 | Low | The system must be configured to remove the Disconnect option from the Shut Down dialog box on the Remote Desktop Client. (Remote Desktop Services Role). | Removing the Disconnect option from the Shut Down dialog box for Remote Desktop sessions helps prevent disconnected but active sessions from continuing to run and using resources. |
| WN12-CC-000005 | Low | Domain users must be required to elevate when setting a network's 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... |
| WN12-CC-000006 | 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. |
| WN12-UC-000002 | Low | A screen saver must be defined. | Unattended systems are susceptible to unauthorized use and must be locked. Specifying a screen saver ensures the screen saver timeout lock is initiated properly. This protects critical and... |
| WN12-FW-000009 | Low | The Windows Firewall must log successful connections for the Domain Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. Logging of successful connections for a domain connection will be enabled to... |
| WN12-FW-000008 | Low | The Windows Firewall must log dropped packets for the Domain Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. Logging of dropped packets for a domain connection will be enabled to maintain... |
| WN12-FW-000004 | Low | The Windows Firewall must display notifications when a program is blocked from receiving an inbound connection for the Domain Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. The display of notifications to the user when a program is blocked from... |
| WN12-FW-000007 | Low | The Windows Firewall log size must be configured for the Domain Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. The firewall log file size for a domain connection will be set to ensure enough... |
| WN12-FW-000006 | Low | The Windows Firewall log file name and location must be configured for the Domain Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. The location and file name of the firewall log for a domain connection will be... |
| WN12-00-000013 | 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... |
| WN12-00-000015 | Low | User-level information must be backed up per organization defined frequency consistent with 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... |
| WN12-00-000014 | Low | System-level information must be backed up per organization defined frequency consistent with 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,... |
| WN12-00-000017 | Low | System-related documentation must be backed up per organization defined frequency consistent with 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... |
| WN12-00-000016 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000088 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000089 | 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. This capability should be restricted to administrators. |
| WN12-AC-000008 | Low | The built-in Microsoft password complexity filter must be enabled. | The use of complex passwords increases their strength against guessing and brute-force attacks. This setting configures the system to verify that newly created passwords conform to the Windows... |
| WN12-SO-000016 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000015 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000018 | 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... |
| WN12-UR-000008 | Low | Unauthorized accounts must not have the Bypass traverse checking user right. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high-level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Bypass traverse checking" user right can pass through folders when... |
| WN12-CC-000057 | Low | The display must turn off after 20 minutes of inactivity when the system is plugged in. | Turning off an inactive display supports energy saving initiatives. |
| WN12-CC-000056 | Low | The display must turn off after 20 minutes of inactivity when the system is running on battery. | Turning off an inactive display supports energy saving initiatives. It may also extend availability on systems running on a battery. |
| WN12-CC-000121 | 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... |
| WN12-FW-000013 | Low | The Windows Firewall must display notifications when a program is blocked from receiving an inbound connection for the Private Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. The display of notifications to the user when a program is blocked from... |
| WN12-SO-000024 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000025 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000023 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000018 | 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. ... |
| WN12-CC-000011 | Low | IP stateless autoconfiguration limits state must be enabled. | IP stateless autoconfiguration could configure routes that circumvent preferred routes if not limited. |
| WN12-CC-000016 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000068 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000069 | Low | If the time service is configured, it must use an authorized time server. | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000066 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000067 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000065 | 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 capability will prevent potentially sensitive... |
| WN12-CC-000062 | 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. ... |
| WN12-CC-000114 | Low | Additional data requests in response to Error Reporting must be declined. | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000112 | Low | Error Reporting events must be logged in the system event log. | 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. ... |
| WN12-CC-000118 | 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). |
| WN12-CC-000119 | Low | Users must be notified if the logon server was inaccessible and cached credentials were used. | Notifying a user whether cached credentials were used may make them aware of connection issues. |
| WN12-CC-000022 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000023 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000020 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000021 | 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. |
| WN12-CC-000026 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000024 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000025 | 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. ... |
| WN12-CC-000088 | Low | The Windows SmartScreen must be turned off. | Some features may send system information to the vendor. Turning off this capability will prevent potentially sensitive information from being sent outside the enterprise. |
| WN12-CC-000090 | 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. |
| WN12-SO-000039 | 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. |
| WN12-SO-000038 | Low | The system must be configured to prevent IP source routing. | Configuring the system to disable IP source routing protects against spoofing. |
| WN12-SO-000034 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000037 | Low | IPv6 source routing must be configured to the highest protection level. | Configuring the system to disable IPv6 source routing protects against spoofing. |
| WN12-SO-000031 | 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... |
| WN12-FW-000018 | Low | The Windows Firewall must log successful connections for the Private Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. Logging of successful connections for a private network connection will be... |
| WN12-FW-000016 | Low | The Windows Firewall log size must be configured for the Private Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. The firewall log file size for a private connection will be set to ensure... |
| WN12-FW-000017 | Low | The Windows Firewall must log dropped packets for the Private Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. Logging of dropped packets for a private network connection will be enabled ... |
| WN12-FW-000015 | Low | The Windows Firewall log file name and location must be configured for the Private Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. The location and file name of the firewall log for a private connection will be... |
| WN12-CC-000071 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000070 | 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... |
| WN12-FW-000027 | Low | The Windows Firewall log size must be configured for the Public Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. The firewall log file size for a public network connection will be set to... |
| WN12-FW-000026 | Low | The Windows Firewall log file name and location must be configured for the Public Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. The location and file name of the firewall log for a public network connection... |
| WN12-FW-000022 | Low | The Windows Firewall must display notifications when a program is blocked from receiving an inbound connection for the Public Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. The display of notifications to the user when a program is blocked from... |
| WN12-FW-000029 | Low | The Windows Firewall must log successful connections for the Public Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. Logging of successful connections for a public network connection will be... |
| WN12-FW-000028 | Low | The Windows Firewall must log dropped packets for the Public Profile. | A firewall provides a line of defense against attack. To be effective, it must be enabled and properly configured. Logging of dropped packets for a public network connection will be enabled to... |
| WN12-SO-000073 | 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... |
| WN12-SO-000072 | Low | The Recovery Console SET command must be disabled. | The Recovery Console SET command allows environment variables to be set in the Recovery Console. This permits access to all drives and folders and the copying of files to removable media, which... |
| WN12-SO-000076 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000109 | 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. ... |
| WN12-CC-000031 | Low | Root Certificates must not be updated automatically from the Microsoft site. | Root Certificate updates must be controlled in the enterprise to ensure a proper validation chain is maintained. This setting prevents root certificates from being updated automatically from the... |
| WN12-CC-000033 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000035 | 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... |
| WN12-CC-000036 | Low | The Internet Connection Wizard must not download a list of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from 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... |
| WN12-GE-000014 | Low | Outdated or unused accounts must be removed from the system. | 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. |
| WN12-GE-000013 | Low | Local users must not exist on a system in a domain. | To minimize potential points of attack, local users, other than built-in accounts such as Administrator and Guest accounts, must not exist on a workstation in a domain. Users must log onto... |
| WN12-GE-000012 | 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... |
| WN12-UC-000006 | 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. |
| WN12-UC-000004 | Low | Changing the screen saver must be prevented. | Unattended systems are susceptible to unauthorized use and must be locked. Preventing users from changing the screen saver ensures an approved screen saver is used. This protects critical and... |
| WN12-UC-000005 | 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. |
