Ejection of removable NTFS media is not restricted to Administrators.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-1171	3.052	SV-29215r1_rule		Medium

Description
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 should only be done by administrators.

STIG	Date
Windows Vista Security Technical Implementation Guide	2016-06-03

Details

Check Text ( C-135r1_chk )
Analyze the system using the Security Configuration and Analysis snap-in. Expand the Security Configuration and Analysis tree view. Navigate to Local Policies -> Security Options. If the value for “Devices: Allowed to Format and Eject Removable Media” is not set to ” Administrators”, then this is a finding. The policy referenced configures the following registry value: Registry Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Registry Path: \Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon Value Name: AllocateDASD Value Type: REG_SZ Value: 0

Check Text ( C-135r1_chk )

Analyze the system using the Security Configuration and Analysis snap-in.
Expand the Security Configuration and Analysis tree view.
Navigate to Local Policies -> Security Options.

If the value for “Devices: Allowed to Format and Eject Removable Media” is not set to ” Administrators”, then this is a finding.

The policy referenced configures the following registry value:

Registry Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Registry Path: \Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Value Name: AllocateDASD

Value Type: REG_SZ
Value: 0

Fix Text (F-113r1_fix)
Configure the policy value for Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options -> “Devices: Allowed to Format and Eject Removable Media” to “Administrators”.