| V-1073 | High | Systems must be at supported service pack (SP) or release levels. | Systems at unsupported service packs or releases will not receive security updates for new vulnerabilities and leaves them subject to exploitation. Systems must be maintained at a service pack... |
| V-34974 | High | The Windows Installer Always install with elevated privileges must be disabled. | Standard user accounts must not be granted elevated privileges. Enabling Windows Installer to elevate privileges when installing applications can allow malicious persons and applications to gain... |
| V-26479 | High | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right allows a process to create an access token. This... |
| V-1081 | High | Local volumes will be formatted using NTFS. | This is a category 1 finding because the ability to set access permissions and audit critical directories and files is only available by using the NTFS file system. The capability to assign... |
| V-6834 | High | Anonymous access to Named Pipes and Shares will be restricted. | This is a Category 1 finding because of the potential for gaining unauthorized system access.
Pipes are internal system communications processes. They are identified internally by ID numbers... |
| V-1159 | High | The Recovery Console option will be set to prevent automatic logon to the system. | This is a Category 1 finding because if this option is set, the Recovery Console does not require you to provide a password and will automatically log on to the system, giving Administrator access... |
| V-1153 | High | The LanMan authentication level will be set to Send NTLMv2 response only\refuse LM & NTLM. | The Kerberos v5 authentication protocol is the default for authentication of users who are logging on to domain accounts.
The Windows NTLM protocol is retained in later Windows versions for... |
| V-2374 | High | Autoplay will be disabled for all drives. | Autoplay begins reading from a drive as soon as you insert media in the drive. As a result, the setup file of programs and the music on audio media starts immediately. By default, Autoplay is... |
| V-1093 | High | Anonymous enumeration of shares will be restricted. | This is a Category 1 finding because it allows anonymous logon users (null session connections) to list all account names and enumerate all shared resources, thus providing a map of potential... |
| V-26283 | High | Anonymous enumeration of SAM accounts will not be allowed. | This is a Category 1 finding as it allows anonymous logon users (null session connections) to list all account names, thus providing a list of potential points to attack the system. |
| V-3338 | High | Named pipes that can be accessed anonymously must be configured with limited values on domain controllers. | This is a Category 1 finding due to the potential for gaining unauthorized system access. Pipes are internal system communications processes. They are identified internally by ID numbers that vary... |
| V-3339 | High | Unauthorized remotely accessible registry paths will not be configured. | This is a Category 1 finding because it could give unauthorized individuals access to the Registry. It controls which registry paths are accessible from a remote computer. |
| V-22692 | High | The default autorun behavior will be configured to prevent autorun commands. | Allowing autorun commands to execute may introduce malicious code to a system. Configuring this setting prevents autorun commands from executing. |
| V-18010 | 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... |
| V-3343 | High | Solicited Remote Assistance will not be allowed. | This setting controls whether or not solicited remote assistance is allowed from this computer. Solicited assistance is help that is specifically requested by the user. This is a Category 1... |
| V-3379 | High | The system will be configured to prevent the storage of the LAN Manager hash of passwords. | This setting controls whether or not a LAN Manager hash of the password is stored in the SAM the next time the password is changed. The LAN Manager hash is a weak encryption algorithm and there... |
| V-3340 | High | Network shares that can be accessed anonymously will not be allowed. | This is a Category 1 finding because the potential for gaining unauthorized system access. Any shares listed can be accessed by any network user. This could lead to the exposure or corruption of... |
| V-3344 | High | The use of local accounts with blank passwords will be restricted to console logons only. | This is a Category 1 finding because no accounts with blank passwords should exist on a system. The password policy should prevent this from occurring. However, if a local account with a blank... |
| V-4443 | High | Unauthorized remotely accessible registry paths and sub-paths will not be configured. | The registry is a database for computer configuration information, much of which is sensitive. An attacker could use this to facilitate unauthorized activities. To reduce the risk of this... |
| V-1102 | High | Unauthorized accounts will not be granted the "Act as part of the operating system" user right. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
This is a Category 1 finding as accounts with this right can bypass all security... |
| V-26499 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can manage volume and disk... |
| V-14259 | Medium | Printing over HTTP will be prevented. | This check verifies that the system is configured to prevent the client computer’s ability to print over HTTP, which allows the computer to print to printers on the intranet as well as the Internet. |
| V-26498 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can change hardware... |
| V-26576 | Medium | The IP-HTTPS IPv6 transition technology will be disabled. | IPv6 transition technologies which tunnel packets through other protocols do not provide visibility. |
| V-26577 | Medium | The ISATAP IPv6 transition technology will be disabled. | IPv6 transition technologies which tunnel packets through other protocols do not provide visibility. |
| V-26575 | Medium | The 6to4 IPv6 transition technology will be disabled.
| IPv6 transition technologies which tunnel packets through other protocols do not provide visibility. |
| V-26553 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-3383 | Medium | The system will be configured to use FIPS-compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing, and signing. | This setting ensures that the system uses algorithms that are FIPS-compliant for encryption, hashing, and signing. FIPS-compliant algorithms meet specific standards established by the U.S.... |
| V-3381 | Medium | The system will be configured to the required LDAP client signing level. | This setting controls the signing requirements for LDAP clients. This setting should be set to Negotiate signing or Require signing depending on the environment and type of LDAP server in use. |
| V-3380 | Medium | The system will be configured to force users to log off when their allowed logon hours expire. | This setting controls whether or not users are forced to log off when their allowed logon hours expire. If logon hours are set for users, then this should be enforced. |
| V-39137 | Medium | The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) V4.1 Update 1 or later 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... |
| V-26478 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can change the size of a pagefile which... |
| V-26476 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can change the system time which can... |
| V-3469 | Medium | The system will be configured to enable the background refresh of Group Policy. | If this setting is enabled, then Group Policy settings are not refreshed while a user is currently logged on. This could lead to instances when a user does not have the latest changes to a policy... |
| V-26473 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can access a... |
| V-26472 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can log on interactively to a system. ... |
| V-26471 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can adjust memory that is... |
| V-26470 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right may access resources... |
| V-26547 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-15823 | Medium | Software certificate installation files will be removed from a system. | This check verifies that software certificate installation files have been removed from a system. |
| V-15722 | Medium | Windows Media Digital Rights Management will be prevented from accessing the Internet. | This check verifies that Windows Media Digital Rights Management will be prevented from accessing the Internet. |
| V-16000 | Medium | The system will be configured to ensure smart card devices can be redirected to the Remote Desktop Session. (Remote Desktop Services Role) | This check verifies that the system is configured to ensure smart card devices can be redirected to the Remote Desktop session. |
| V-16008 | Medium | Windows will elevate all applications in User Account Control, not just signed ones. | This check verifies that Windows elevates all applications, not just signed ones. |
| V-26503 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right allows one process or service to start... |
| V-26501 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can monitor system processes... |
| V-26500 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can monitor non-system processes... |
| V-26483 | Medium | The Deny log on as a batch job user right on domain controllers must be configured to prevent unauthenticated access. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
The "Deny log on as a batch job" right defines accounts that are prevented from... |
| V-26506 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can take ownership... |
| V-26505 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can interactively shut down a system... |
| V-26504 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can circumvent file and... |
| V-1164 | Medium | Outgoing secure channel traffic will 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, all... |
| V-1166 | Medium | The Windows SMB client will be enabled to perform SMB packet signing when possible. | If this policy is enabled, it causes the Windows Server Message Block (SMB) client to perform SMB packet signing when communicating with an SMB server that is enabled or required to perform SMB... |
| V-3378 | Medium | The system will be configured to use the Classic security model. | Windows includes two network-sharing security models—Classic and Guest only. With the classic model, local accounts must be password protected; otherwise, anyone can use guest user accounts to... |
| V-1163 | Medium | Outgoing secure channel traffic will be encrypted when possible. | Requests sent on the secure channel are authenticated, and sensitive information (such as passwords) is encrypted, but not all information is encrypted. If this policy is enabled, outgoing secure... |
| V-1162 | Medium | The Windows SMB server will perform SMB packet signing when possible. | If this policy is enabled, it causes the Windows Server Message Block (SMB) server to perform SMB packet signing. |
| V-3470 | Medium | The system will be configured to prevent unsolicited remote assistance offers. | This setting controls whether unsolicited offers of help to this computer are allowed. The list of users allowed to offer remote assistance to this system is accessed by pressing the Helpers button. |
| V-1089 | Medium | The required legal notice will be configured to display before console logon. | Failure to display the logon banner prior to a logon attempt will negate legal proceedings resulting from unauthorized access to system resources. |
| V-3479 | Medium | The system will 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 systems path... |
| V-36705 | 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... |
| V-36706 | 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... |
| V-36701 | 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... |
| V-36702 | 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... |
| V-36703 | 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... |
| V-36704 | 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... |
| V-14242 | Medium | User Account Control will virtualize file and registry write failures to per-user locations. | This check verifies that non UAC-compliant applications will run in virtualized file and registry entries allowing them to run. |
| V-26582 | Medium | The System event log will 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. |
| V-26581 | Medium | The Setup event log will 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. |
| V-26580 | Medium | The Security event log will 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. |
| V-30016 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will not have the "Add workstations to domain” user right. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
Accounts with the "Add workstations to domain” right may add computers to a domain. ... |
| V-15697 | Medium | The Responder network protocol driver will be disabled. | This check verifies that the Responder network protocol driver is disabled. |
| V-15696 | Medium | The Mapper I/O network protocol driver will be disabled. | This check verifies that the Mapper I/O network protocol driver is disabled. |
| V-3449 | Medium | Remote Desktop Services will limit users to one remote session. | This setting limits users to one remote session. It is possible, if this setting is disabled, for users to establish multiple sessions. |
| V-6836 | Medium | For systems utilizing a logon ID as the individual identifier, passwords will, at a minimum, be 14 characters. | Information systems not protected with strong password schemes including passwords of minimum length provide the opportunity for anyone to crack the password, thus, gaining access to the system... |
| V-6832 | Medium | The Windows SMB client will be enabled to always perform SMB packet signing. | If this policy is enabled, it causes the Windows Server Message Block (SMB) client to perform SMB packet signing when communicating with an SMB server that is enabled or required to perform SMB... |
| V-6833 | Medium | The Windows SMB server will be enabled to always perform SMB packet signing. | If this policy is enabled, it causes the Windows Server Message Block (SMB) server to always perform SMB packet signing. |
| V-6831 | Medium | Outgoing secure channel traffic will be encrypted or signed. | Requests sent on the secure channel are authenticated, and sensitive information (such as passwords) is encrypted, but not all information is encrypted. If this policy is enabled, outgoing secure... |
| V-14262 | Medium | IPv6 must be disabled until a deliberate transition strategy has been implemented. | Any nodes’ interface with IPv6 enabled by default presents a potential risk of traffic being transmitted or received without proper risk mitigation strategy and is, therefore, a serious security concern. |
| V-14261 | Medium | Windows will be prevented from using Windows Update to search for drivers. | This check verifies that the system is configured to prevent Windows from searching Windows Update for device drivers when no local drivers for a device are present. |
| V-14260 | Medium | Downloading print driver packages over HTTP will be prevented. | This check verifies that the system is configured to prevent the computer from downloading print driver packages over HTTP. |
| V-1154 | Medium | The Ctrl+Alt+Del security attention sequence for logons will 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, you can be assured that any passwords... |
| V-3385 | Medium | The system will be configured to allow 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 should be... |
| V-1157 | Medium | The Smart Card removal option will be configured to Force Logoff or Lock Workstation. | Determines what should happen when the smart card for a logged-on user is removed from the smart card reader.
The options are:
- No Action
- Lock Workstation
- Force Logoff |
| V-1099 | Medium | The lockout duration will meet minimum requirements. | This parameter specifies the amount of time that must pass before a locked-out account is automatically unlocked by the system. |
| V-1098 | Medium | The time before the bad-logon counter is reset will meet minimum requirements. | This parameter specifies the amount of time that must pass between two successive login attempts to ensure that a lockout will occur. The smaller this value is, the less effective the account... |
| V-2373 | Medium | The Server Operators group must have the ability to schedule jobs by means of the AT command disabled. | This policy controls the ability of members of the local Server Operators group to schedule AT jobs. If disabled, only administrators can schedule jobs that use AT commands. Unlike Scheduled Tasks... |
| V-2372 | Medium | Reversible password encryption will be disabled. | Storing passwords using reversible encryption is essentially the same as storing clear-text versions of the passwords. For this reason, this policy should never be enabled. |
| V-2377 | Medium | The Kerberos service ticket maximum lifetime must meet minimum standards. | This setting determines the maximum amount of time (in minutes) that a granted session ticket can be used to access a particular service. Session tickets are used only to authenticate new... |
| V-2376 | Medium | Kerberos user logon restrictions must be enforced. | This policy setting determines whether the Kerberos Key Distribution Center (KDC) validates every request for a session ticket against the user rights policy of the target computer. The policy is... |
| V-2379 | Medium | The Kerberos policy user ticket renewal maximum lifetime must meet minimum standards. | This setting determines the period of time (in days) during which a users TGT may be renewed. This security configuration limits the amount of time an attacker has to crack the TGT and gain access. |
| V-1097 | Medium | The number of allowed bad-logon attempts will meet minimum requirements. | The account lockout feature, when enabled, prevents brute-force password attacks on the system. The higher this value is, the less effective the account lockout feature will be in protecting the... |
| V-3382 | Medium | The system will be configured to meet the minimum session security requirement for NTLM SSP based clients. | Windows has implemented a variety of security support providers for use with RPC sessions. In a homogenous Windows environment, all of the options should be enabled and testing should be... |
| V-3372 | Medium | A system must be logged on to before removing from a docking station. | This setting controls the ability to undock the system without having to log on. Since the removal of a computer should be controlled, users should have to log on before undocking the computer to... |
| V-15991 | Medium | UIAccess applications will not be allowed to prompt for elevation without using the secure desktop. | This check verifies whether User Interface Accessibility programs can automatically disable the secure desktop for elevation prompts for a standard user. |
| V-3376 | Medium | The system will 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 should never be stored on the local machine as that may lead to... |
| V-15997 | Medium | The system will be configured to prevent users from mapping local COM ports and redirecting data from the Remote Desktop Session Host to local COM ports. (Remote Desktop Services Role) | This check verifies that the system is configured to prevent users from mapping local COM ports and redirecting data from the Remote Desktop Session Host to local COM ports. |
| V-3374 | Medium | The system will be configured to require a strong session key. | This setting controls the required strength of a session key. |
| V-15998 | Medium | The system will be configured to prevent users from mapping local LPT ports and redirecting data from the Remote Desktop Session Host to local LPT ports. (Remote Desktop Services Role) | This check verifies that the system is configured to prevent users from mapping local LPT ports and redirecting data from the Remote Desktop Session Host to local LPT ports. |
| V-15999 | Medium | The system will be configured to prevent users from redirecting Plug and Play devices to the Remote Desktop Session Host. (Remote Desktop Services Role) | This check verifies that the system is configured to prevent users from redirecting Plug and Play devices to the Remote Desktop Session Host. |
| V-4444 | Medium | Users will be required to enter a password to access private keys. | Configuring this setting so that users must provide a password (distinct from their domain password) every time they use a key makes it more difficult for an attacker to access locally stored user... |
| V-15682 | Medium | Attachments must be prevented from being downloaded from RSS feeds. | Attachments from RSS feeds may not be secure. This setting will prevent attachments from being downloaded from RSS feeds. |
| V-15683 | Medium | Windows Explorer shell protocol will run in protected mode. | This check verifies that the shell protocol runs in protected mode. (This allows applications to only open limited folders.) |
| V-1145 | Medium | Automatic logons must be disabled. | Allowing a system to automatically log on when the machine is booted could give access to any unauthorized individual who restarts the computer. Automatic logon with administrator privileges... |
| V-1141 | Medium | Unencrypted passwords will not be sent to 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... |
| V-15685 | Medium | Users will be prevented from changing installation options. | This check verifies that users are prevented from changing installation options. |
| V-1171 | Medium | Ejection of removable NTFS media is not restricted to Administrators. | Removable hard drives can be formatted and ejected by others who are not members of the Administrators Group, if they are not properly configured. Formatting and ejecting removable NTFS media... |
| V-26529 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-3458 | Medium | Remote Desktop Services will 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 should disconnect if they plan on being away from their terminals for extended... |
| V-26541 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-14239 | Medium | User Account Control will only elevate UIAccess applications that are installed in secure locations | This check verifies whether Windows only allows applications installed in a secure location, such as the Program Files or the Windows\System32 folders, on the file system to run with elevated privileges. |
| V-3453 | Medium | Remote Desktop Services will 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 session. Disabling this setting would allow anyone to use the stored credentials in a... |
| V-3457 | Medium | Remote Desktop Services will 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 should be terminated as soon as possible. |
| V-3456 | Medium | Remote Desktop Services will delete temporary folders when a session is terminated. | This setting controls the deletion of the temporary folders when the session is terminated. Temporary folders should always be deleted after a session is over to prevent hard disk clutter and... |
| V-3455 | Medium | Remote Desktop Services will be configured to use session-specific temporary folders. | This setting controls the use of per session temporary folders or of a communal temporary folder. If this setting is enabled, only one temporary folder is used for all remote desktop sessions. If... |
| V-3454 | Medium | Remote Desktop Services will be configured with the client connection encryption set to the required level. | Remote connections must be encrypted to prevent interception of data or sensitive information. Selecting “High Level” will ensure encryption of Remote Desktop Services sessions in both directions. |
| V-4407 | Medium | Domain Controllers must require LDAP signing. | Unsigned network traffic is susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks where an intruder captures packets between the server and the client and modifies them before forwarding them to the client. ... |
| V-26474 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can circumvent file and... |
| V-15674 | Medium | The Internet File Association service will be turned off. | This check verifies that unhandled file associations will not use the Microsoft Web service to find an application. |
| V-14241 | Medium | User Account Control will switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation. | This check verifies that the elevation prompt is only used in secure desktop mode. |
| V-14240 | Medium | User Account Control will run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode, enabling UAC. | This check verifies that UAC has not been disabled. |
| V-26538 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-26539 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-14247 | Medium | Passwords will not be saved in the Remote Desktop Client. | This check verifies that the system is configured to prevent users from saving passwords in the Remote Desktop Client. |
| V-14249 | Medium | Local drives will be prevented from sharing with Remote Desktop Session Hosts (Remote Desktop Services Role). | This check verifies that the system is configured to prevent users from sharing the local drives on their client computers to Remote Desktop Session Hosts that they access. |
| V-26533 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-26530 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-26531 | Medium | The system will be configured to audit "Account Management -> 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 detecting... |
| V-26536 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-26537 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-26534 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-26535 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-33664 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit DS Access - Directory Service Access 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 detecting... |
| V-33665 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit DS Access - Directory Service Changes 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 detecting... |
| V-33666 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit DS Access - Directory Service Changes 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 detecting... |
| V-33663 | Medium | The system must be configured to audit DS Access - Directory Service Access 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 detecting... |
| V-3377 | Medium | The system will be configured to prevent anonymous users from having the same rights as the Everyone group. | This setting helps define the permissions that anonymous users have. If this setting is enabled then anonymous users have the same rights and permissions as the built-in Everyone group. ... |
| V-1115 | Medium | The built-in administrator account will be renamed. | The built-in administrator account is a well-known account. Renaming the account to an unidentified name improves the protection of this account and the system. |
| V-1114 | Medium | The built-in guest account will be renamed. | A system faces an increased vulnerability threat if the built-in guest account is not renamed or disabled. The built-in guest account is a known user account on all Windows systems, and as... |
| V-3480 | Medium | Media Player must be configured to prevent automatic checking for updates. | Uncontrolled system updates can introduce issues to a system. The automatic check for updates performed by Windows Media Player must be disabled to ensure a constant platform and to prevent the... |
| V-14243 | Medium | The system will require username and password to elevate a running application. | This check verifies that the system is configured to always require a user to type in a user name and password to elevate a running application. |
| V-15699 | Medium | The Windows Connect Now wizards will be disabled. | This check verifies that access to the Windows Connect Now wizards is disabled. |
| V-15666 | Medium | Windows Peer-to-Peer networking services will be turned off. | This check verifies Microsoft Peer-to-Peer Networking Service is turned off. |
| V-15667 | Medium | Network Bridges will be prohibited in Windows. | This check verifies the Network Bridge cannot be installed and configured. |
| V-26532 | Medium | The system will be configured to audit "Account Management -> 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 detecting... |
| V-21975 | Medium | The system will be prevented from joining a homegroup. | This setting will prevent a system from being joined to a homegroup. Homegroups are a method of sharing data and printers on a home network. |
| V-21973 | Medium | Autoplay will be turned off for non-volume devices. | This setting will disable autoplay for non-volume devices (such as Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) devices). |
| V-14256 | Medium | Web publishing and online ordering wizards will be prevented from downloading a list of providers. | This check verifies that the system is configured to prevent Windows from downloading a list of providers for the Web publishing and online ordering wizards. |
| V-14254 | Medium | Client computers will be required to authenticate for RPC communication. | This check verifies that the system is configured to force client computers to provide authentication before an RPC communication is established. |
| V-1113 | Medium | The built-in guest account will be disabled. | A system faces an increased vulnerability threat if the built-in guest account is not disabled. This account is a known account that exists on all Windows systems and cannot be deleted. This... |
| V-15684 | Medium | Users will be notified if a web-based program attempts to install software. | This check verifies that users are notified if a web-based program attempts to install software. |
| V-14230 | Medium | Audit policy using subcategories will be enabled. | This policy setting allows administrators to enable the more precise auditing capabilities present in Windows Vista and 2008 forward. |
| V-26549 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-26548 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-32274 | Medium | The DoD Interoperability Root CA 1 to DoD Root CA 2 cross certificate must be installed. | To ensure that users do not experience denial of service on NIPRNet when performing certificate-based authentication to DoD websites due to the system chaining to a root other than DoD Root CA 2,... |
| V-26546 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-26545 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-26544 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-26543 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-26542 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-32272 | Medium | The DoD Root Certificate must be installed. | 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... |
| V-26540 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-14228 | Medium | Auditing Access of Global System Objects must be turned off. | This setting prevents the system from setting up a default system access control list for certain system objects, which could create a very large number of security events, filling the security... |
| V-21980 | Medium | Explorer Data Execution Prevention will be enabled. | This setting will prevent Data Execution Prevention from being turned off for Windows Explorer. |
| V-2380 | Medium | The computer clock synchronization tolerance must meet minimum standards. | This setting determines the maximum time difference (in minutes) that Kerberos will tolerate between the time on a client's clock and the time on a server's clock while still considering the two... |
| V-4448 | Medium | Group Policy objects will be reprocessed even if they have not changed. | Enabling this setting and then selecting the "Process even if the Group Policy objects have not changed" option ensures that the policies will be reprocessed even if none have been changed. This... |
| V-4447 | Medium | The Remote Desktop Session Host will require secure RPC communications. | Allowing unsecure RPC communication exposes the server to man in the middle attacks and data disclosure attacks. A man in the middle attack occurs when an intruder captures packets between a... |
| V-4446 | Medium | Software certificate restriction policies will be enforced. | Software restriction policies help to protect users and computers from executing unauthorized code such as viruses and Trojans horses.
|
| V-14229 | Medium | Audit of Backup and Restore Privileges will be turned off. | This policy setting stops the system from generating audit events for every file backed up or restored which could fill the Security log in Windows. |
| V-26495 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right allows accounts to log on using the task scheduler... |
| V-26494 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right allows physical memory to be assigned to processes... |
| V-26497 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can change the integrity label of an... |
| V-26491 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can change the size of a... |
| V-26490 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right allows a program to impersonate... |
| V-26493 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right allows device drivers to dynamically be... |
| V-26492 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can change a scheduling... |
| V-26554 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-26556 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-26557 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-26550 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-26551 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-26552 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-1155 | Medium | The Deny access to this computer from the network user right on domain controllers must be configured to prevent unauthenticated access. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
The "Deny Access from the Network" right defines the accounts that are prevented from... |
| V-15700 | Medium | Remote access to the Plug and Play interface will be disabled for device installation. | This check verifies that remote access to the Plug and Play interface is disabled. |
| V-15706 | Medium | The user will be prompted for a password on resume from sleep (Plugged In). (Applicable on Server 2008 R2 if the system is configured to sleep.) | This check verifies that the user is prompted for a password on resume from sleep (Plugged In). |
| V-15705 | Medium | Users will be prompted for a password on resume from sleep (on battery). (Applicable to Server 2008 R2 if the system is configured to sleep.) | This check verifies that the user is prompted for a password on resume from sleep (on battery). |
| V-26578 | Medium | The Teredo IPv6 transition technology will be disabled. | IPv6 transition technologies which tunnel packets through other protocols do not provide visibility. |
| V-3666 | Medium | The system will be configured to meet the minimum session security requirement for NTLM SSP based servers. | Windows has implemented a variety of security support providers for use with RPC sessions. In a homogenous Windows environment, all of the options should be enabled and testing should be... |
| V-16020 | Medium | The Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program will be disabled. | This check verifies that the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program is disabled so information is not passed to the vendor. |
| V-15717 | Medium | The system must be configured to allow a local or DOD-wide collector to request additional error reporting diagnostic data to be sent. | Sending additional error reporting data provides valuable system diagnostic and vulnerability information that would otherwise not be generated nor collected. This setting controls whether... |
| V-1107 | Medium | The password uniqueness will 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 a password to a unique password on a regularly... |
| V-1105 | Medium | The minimum password age will meet requirements. | Permitting passwords to be changed in immediate succession within the same day allows users to cycle passwords through their history database. This enables users to effectively negate the purpose... |
| V-1104 | Medium | The maximum password age will meet DoD requirements. | The longer a password is in use, the greater the opportunity for someone to gain unauthorized knowledge of the passwords. Further, scheduled changing of passwords hinders the ability of... |
| V-21951 | Medium | Services using Local System that use negotiate when reverting to NTLM authentication will use the computer identity vs. authenticating anonymously. | This setting ensures that services using Local System that use negotiate when reverting to NTLM authentication will use the computer identity vs. authenticating anonymously. |
| V-21950 | Medium | The service principal name (SPN) target name validation level will be turned off. | If a service principle name (SPN) is provided by the client, it is validated against the server’s list of SPNs. This setting can cause disruptions in file and printer services. |
| V-21953 | Medium | PKU2U authentication using online identities will be prevented. | This setting prevents online identities from being used by PKU2U, which is a peer-to-peer authentication protocol. Authentication will be centrally managed with Windows user accounts. |
| V-21952 | Medium | NTLM will be prevented from falling back to a Null session. | This setting prevents NTLM from falling back to a Null (unauthenticated) session. |
| V-21954 | Medium | Kerberos encryption types will be configured to prevent the use of DES encryption suites. | This setting configures a minimum encryption type for Kerberos preventing the use of the DES encryption suites. |
| V-26579 | Medium | The Application event log will 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. |
| V-26558 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-14234 | Medium | User Account Control approval mode for the built-in Administrator will be enabled. | This check verifies whether the built-in Administrator account runs in Admin Approval Mode. |
| V-14235 | Medium | User Account Control will, at a minimum, prompt administrators for consent. | This check verifies whether logged on administrator is prompted for consent when attempting to complete a task that requires raised privileges. |
| V-14236 | Medium | User Account Control will automatically deny standard user requests for elevation. | This check verifies whether the logged on user is automatically denied elevation when attempting to complete a task that requires raised privileges. |
| V-14237 | Medium | User Account Control will be configured to detect application installations and prompt for elevation. | This check verifies whether Windows responds to application installation requests by prompting for credentials. |
| V-26482 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can create pointers to other objects... |
| V-15698 | Medium | The configuration of wireless devices using Windows Connect Now will be disabled. | This check verifies that the configuration of wireless devices using Windows Connect Now is disabled. |
| V-26480 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can create objects that are available... |
| V-26481 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right could expose sensitive data... |
| V-26486 | Medium | The Deny log on through Remote Desktop Services user right on domain controllers must be configured to prevent unauthenticated access. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
The "Deny log on through Remote Desktop Services" right defines the accounts that are... |
| V-26487 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right allows the... |
| V-26484 | Medium | The Deny log on as a service user right must be configured to include no accounts or groups (blank). | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
The "Deny log on as a service" right defines accounts that are denied log on as a... |
| V-26485 | Medium | The Deny log on locally user right on domain controllers must be configured to prevent unauthenticated access. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
The "Deny log on locally" right defines accounts that are prevented from logging on... |
| V-2378 | Medium | The Kerberos user ticket lifetime must be limited to a maximum of 10 hours or less. | In Kerberos, there are 2 types of tickets: Ticket Granting Tickets (TGTs) and Service Tickets. Kerberos tickets have a limited lifetime so the time an attacker has to implement an attack is... |
| V-26488 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can remotely shut down a... |
| V-26489 | Medium | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right specifies users and processes that can generate... |
| V-15713 | Medium | Windows Defender SpyNet membership will be disabled. | This check verifies that SpyNet membership is disabled. |
| V-15714 | Medium | The system must be configured to save Error Reporting events and messages to 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. ... |
| V-15715 | Medium | The system must be configured to generate error reports. | Enabling Windows Error Reporting generates information useful to system administrators and forensics analysts for diagnosing system problems and investigating intrusions. If Windows Error... |
| V-26555 | Medium | The system will 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 detecting... |
| V-40237 | Medium | The US DoD CCEB Interoperability Root CA 1 to DoD Root CA 2 cross-certificate must be installed into the Untrusted Certificates Store. | To ensure users do not experience denial of service on NIPRNet when performing certificate-based authentication to DoD websites due to the system chaining to a root other than DoD Root CA 2, the... |
| V-1075 | Low | The shutdown option will not be available from the logon dialog box. | Displaying the shutdown button may allow individuals to shut down a system anonymously. Only authenticated users should be allowed to shut down the system. Preventing display of this button in... |
| V-4110 | Low | The system will be configured to prevent IP source routing. | Protects against IP source routing spoofing. |
| V-1174 | Low | The amount of idle time required before suspending a session will be properly set. | Administrators should use this setting to control when a computer disconnects an inactive SMB session. If client activity resumes, the session is automatically re-established. This protects... |
| V-1173 | Low | The default permissions of Global system objects will be increased. | Windows system maintains a global list of shared system resources such as DOS device names, mutexes, and semaphores. Each type of object is created with a default DACL that specifies who can... |
| V-26477 | Low | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can change the time zone of a system.
|
| V-26475 | Low | Unauthorized accounts will 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" right can pass through folders when... |
| V-16001 | Low | The system will be configured to allow only the default client printer to be redirected in the Remote Desktop session. (Remote Desktop Services Role) | This check verifies that the system is configured to allow only the default client printer to be redirected in the Remote Desktop session. |
| V-16005 | Low | The system will be configured to remove the Disconnect option from the Shut Down Windows dialog box on the Remote Desktop Client. (Remote Desktop Services Role) | This check verifies that the system is configured to remove the Disconnect option from the Shut Down Windows dialog box on the client. |
| V-26502 | Low | Unauthorized accounts will not have the "Remove computer from docking station" user right. | Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.
The "Remove computer from docking station" right defines accounts that can undock a system.
|
| V-1165 | Low | The computer account password will not be prevented from being reset. | Computer account passwords are changed automatically on a regular basis. Enabling this policy to disable automatic password changes can make the system more vulnerable to malicious access.... |
| V-11806 | Low | The system will be configured to prevent the display of the last user name on the logon screen. | The user name of the last user to log onto a system will not be displayed. This eliminates half of the Userid/Password equation that an unauthorized person would need to log on. |
| V-1158 | Low | The Recovery Console SET command will be disabled. | Enabling this option enables the Recovery Console SET command, which allows you to set Recovery Console environment variables. This permits floppy copy and access to all drives and folders. |
| V-1150 | Low | The built-in Microsoft password complexity filter will be enabled. | The use of complex passwords increases their strength against guessing. This policy setting configures the system to verify that newly-created passwords conform to the Windows password complexity policy. |
| V-1151 | Low | The print driver installation privilege will 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 the Administrators and Print Operators groups. |
| V-1090 | Low | Caching of logon credentials will be limited. | The default Windows configuration caches the last logon credentials for users who log on interactively to a system. This feature is provided for system availability reasons such as the user’s... |
| V-3373 | Low | The maximum age for machine account passwords will be set to requirements. | This setting controls the maximum password age that a machine account may have. This setting should be set to no more than 30 days, ensuring the machine changes its password monthly. |
| V-26359 | Low | The Windows dialog box title for the legal banner will be configured. | Failure to display the logon banner prior to a logon attempt will negate legal proceedings resulting from unauthorized access to system resources. |
| V-15686 | Low | Non-administrators will be prevented from applying vendor signed updates. | This check verifies that users are prevented from applying vendor signed updates. |
| V-15687 | Low | Users will not be presented with Privacy and Installation options on first use of Windows Media Player. | This check verifies that users are not presented with Privacy and Installation options on first use of Windows Media Player. |
| V-4113 | Low | The system will be configured to limit how often keep-alive packets are sent. | Controls how often TCP sends a keep-alive packet in attempting to verify that an idle connection is still intact. |
| V-4408 | Low | The domain controller must be configured to allow reset of machine account passwords. | Enabling this setting on all domain controllers in a domain prevents domain members from changing their computer account passwords. If these passwords are weak or compromised, the inability to... |
| V-1136 | Low | Users will be forcibly disconnected when their logon hours expire. | Users should 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... |
| V-15676 | Low | The Order Prints Online wizard will be turned off. | This check verifies that the “Order Prints Online” task is not available in Windows Explorer. |
| V-1172 | Low | Users will be warned in advance that their passwords will expire. | This setting configures the system to display a warning to users telling them how many days are left before their password expires. By giving the user advanced warning, the user has time to... |
| V-15672 | Low | Event Viewer Events.asp links will be turned off. | This check verifies that Events.asp hyperlinks in Event Viewer are turned off. |
| V-15671 | Low | Root Certificates will not be updated automatically from the Microsoft site. | This check verifies that Root Certificates will not be updated automatically from the Microsoft site. |
| V-15680 | Low | The classic logon screen will be required for user logons. | This check verifies that users will always use the classic logon screen. |
| V-4438 | Low | The system will 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 no longer able to respond... |
| V-4111 | Low | The system will be configured to prevent ICMP redirects from overriding OSPF generated routes. | When disabled, forces ICMP to be routed via shortest path first. |
| V-4108 | Low | The system will generate an audit event when the audit log reaches a percent full threshold. | When the audit log reaches a given percent full, an audit event is written to the security log. The event ID is 523 and is recorded as a success audit under the category of System. This option may... |
| V-21974 | Low | Downloading of game update information will be turned off. | This setting will prevent the system from downloading game update information from Windows Metadata Services. |
| V-21971 | Low | The Application Compatibility Program Inventory will be prevented from collecting data and sending the information to Microsoft. | This setting will prevent the Program Inventory from collecting data about a system and sending the information to Microsoft. |
| V-21970 | Low | Responsiveness events will be prevented from being aggregated and sent to Microsoft. | This setting prevents responsiveness events from being aggregated and sent to Microsoft. |
| V-21978 | Low | Windows Anytime Upgrade will be disabled. | This setting will prevent Windows Anytime Upgrade from running. |
| V-4445 | Low | Optional Subsystems will not be permitted to operate on the system. | The POSIX subsystem is an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) standard that defines a set of operating system services. The POSIX Subsystem is required if the server supports... |
| V-4112 | Low | The system will be configured to disable the Internet Router Discover Protocol (IRDP). | Enables or disables the Internet Router Discovery Protocol (IRDP) used to detect and configure Default Gateway addresses on the computer. |
| V-4116 | Low | The system will be configured to ignore NetBIOS name release requests except from WINS servers. | Prevents a denial-of-service (DoS) attack against a WINS server. The DoS consists of sending a NetBIOS Name Release Request to the server for each entry in the server's cache, causing a response... |
| V-4442 | Low | The system will be configured to have password protection take effect within a limited time frame when the screen saver becomes active. | Allowing more than several seconds for password protection to take effect when a screen saver becomes active makes the computer vulnerable to a potential attack from someone walking up to the... |
| V-21964 | Low | Device metadata retrieval from the Internet will be prevented. | This setting will prevent Windows from retrieving device metadata from the Internet. |
| V-21965 | Low | Device driver searches using Windows Update will be prevented. | This setting will prevent the system from searching Windows Update for device drivers. |
| V-21967 | Low | Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) interactive communication with Microsoft will be prevented. | This setting prevents the MSDT from communicating with and sending collected data to Microsoft, the default support provider. |
| V-21960 | Low | Domain users will be required to elevate when setting a network’s location. | This policy requires domain users to elevate when setting a network’s location. |
| V-21961 | Low | All Direct Access traffic will be routed through the internal network. | This setting ensures all traffic is routed through the internal network, allowing monitoring and preventing split tunneling. |
| V-21963 | Low | Windows Update will be prevented from searching for point and print drivers. | This setting will prevent Windows from searching Windows Update for point and print drivers. Only the local driver store and server driver cache will be searched. |
| V-21969 | Low | Access to Windows Online Troubleshooting Service (WOTS) will be prevented. | This setting prevents users from searching troubleshooting content on Microsoft servers. Only local content will be available. |
| V-15709 | Low | Game explorer information will not be downloaded from Windows Metadata Services. | This check verifies that game information is not downloaded from Windows Metadata Services. |
| V-28504 | Low | Windows will be prevented from sending an error report when a device driver requests additional software during installation. | Sending error reports to vendors can disclose information about a system to an outside organization. |
| V-15703 | Low | Users will not be prompted to search Windows Update for device drivers. | This check verifies that users will not be prompted to search Windows Update for device drivers. |
| V-15702 | Low | An Error Report will not be sent when a generic device driver is installed. | This check verifies that an Error Report will not be sent when a generic device driver is installed. |
| V-15701 | Low | A system restore point will be created when a new device driver is installed. | This check verifies that a system restore point will be created when a new device driver is installed. |
| V-15707 | Low | Remote Assistance log files will be generated. | This check verifies that Remote Assistance log files will be generated. |
| V-15704 | Low | Errors in handwriting recognition on Tablet PCs will not be reported to Microsoft. | This check verifies that errors in handwriting recognition on Tablet PCs are not reported to Microsoft. |
| V-21955 | Low | IPv6 source routing will be configured to highest protection. | This check verifies Windows is configured to protect against IPv6 packet spoofing. |
| V-21956 | Low | IPv6 TCP data retransmissions will be configured to prevent resources from becoming exhausted. | This check verifies Windows is configured to control the maximum number of times that IPv6 TCP retransmits unacknowledged data segments before aborting the attempt to prevent resources from... |
| V-14232 | Low | IPSec Exemptions will be limited. | This check verifies that Windows is configured to limit IPSec exemptions. |
| V-15718 | Low | Windows Explorer heap termination on corruption will be disabled. | This check verifies that heap termination on corruption is disabled. This may prevent Windows Explorer from terminating immediately from certain legacy plug-in applications. |
| V-15719 | Low | Users will be notified if the logon server was inaccessible and cached credentials were used. | This check verifies that the user is notified whether the logon server was accessible or cached credentials were used. |
