Only accounts responsible for the administration of a system must have Administrator rights on the system.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-1127	WN08-GE-000009	SV-48038r2_rule	ECPA-1	High

Description
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 make it vulnerable to attack. System administrators must log on to systems only using accounts with the minimum level of authority necessary. For domain-joined workstations, the Domain Admins group must be replaced by a domain workstation administrator group. Restricting highly privileged accounts from the local Administrators group helps mitigates the risk of privilege escalation resulting from credential theft attacks. Systems dedicated to the management of Active Directory (AD admin platforms, see V-36436 in the Active Directory Domain STIG) are exempt from this. Standard user accounts must not be members of the local administrators group.

Description

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 make it vulnerable to attack. System administrators must log on to systems only using accounts with the minimum level of authority necessary. For domain-joined workstations, the Domain Admins group must be replaced by a domain workstation administrator group. Restricting highly privileged accounts from the local Administrators group helps mitigates the risk of privilege escalation resulting from credential theft attacks. Systems dedicated to the management of Active Directory (AD admin platforms, see V-36436 in the Active Directory Domain STIG) are exempt from this. Standard user accounts must not be members of the local administrators group.

STIG	Date
Windows 8 / 8.1 Security Technical Implementation Guide	2014-06-27

Details

Check Text ( C-49635r4_chk )
Review the local Administrators group. Only the appropriate administrator groups or accounts responsible for administration of the system may be members of the group. For domain-joined workstations, the Domain Admins group must be replaced by a domain workstation administrator group. Systems dedicated to the management of Active Directory (AD admin platforms, see V-36436 in the Active Directory Domain STIG) are exempt from this. Standard user accounts must not be members of the local administrator group. If prohibited accounts are members of the local administrators group, this is a finding. The built-in Administrator account or other required administrative accounts would not be a finding.

Check Text ( C-49635r4_chk )

Review the local Administrators group. Only the appropriate administrator groups or accounts responsible for administration of the system may be members of the group.

For domain-joined workstations, the Domain Admins group must be replaced by a domain workstation administrator group. Systems dedicated to the management of Active Directory (AD admin platforms, see V-36436 in the Active Directory Domain STIG) are exempt from this.

Standard user accounts must not be members of the local administrator group.

If prohibited accounts are members of the local administrators group, this is a finding.

The built-in Administrator account or other required administrative accounts would not be a finding.

Fix Text (F-49983r4_fix)
Configure the system to include only administrator groups or accounts that are responsible for the system in the local Administrators group. For domain-joined workstations, replace the Domain Admins group with a domain workstation administrator group. Systems dedicated to the management of Active Directory (AD admin platforms, see V-36436 in the Active Directory Domain STIG) are exempt from this. Remove any standard user accounts.

Fix Text (F-49983r4_fix)

Configure the system to include only administrator groups or accounts that are responsible for the system in the local Administrators group.

For domain-joined workstations, replace the Domain Admins group with a domain workstation administrator group. Systems dedicated to the management of Active Directory (AD admin platforms, see V-36436 in the Active Directory Domain STIG) are exempt from this.

Remove any standard user accounts.