18.8.5.2 (NG) Ensure 'Turn On Virtualization Based Security: Select Platform Security Level' is set to 'Secure Boot and DMA Protection'

Information

This policy setting specifies whether Virtualization Based Security is enabled. Virtualization Based Security uses the Windows Hypervisor to provide support for security services.

The recommended state for this setting is: Secure Boot and DMA Protection

Note: Virtualization Based Security requires a 64-bit version of Windows with Secure Boot enabled, which in turn requires that Windows was installed with a UEFI BIOS configuration, not a Legacy BIOS configuration. In addition, if running Windows on a virtual machine, the hardware-assisted CPU virtualization feature (Intel VT-x or AMD-V) must be exposed by the host to the guest VM.

More information on system requirements for this feature can be found at

Windows Defender Credential Guard Requirements (Windows 10) | Microsoft Docs

Note #2: Credential Guard and Device Guard are not currently supported when using Azure IaaS VMs.

Secure Boot can help reduce the risk of bootloader attacks and in conjunction with DMA protections to help protect data from being scraped from memory.

Solution

To establish the recommended configuration via GP, set the following UI path to Secure Boot and DMA Protection :

Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\System\Device Guard\Turn On Virtualization Based Security: Select Platform Security Level

Note: This Group Policy path may not exist by default. It is provided by the Group Policy template DeviceGuard.admx/adml that is included with the Microsoft Windows 10 RTM (Release 1507) Administrative Templates (or newer).

Impact:

Warning: All drivers on the system must be compatible with this feature or the system may crash. Ensure that this policy setting is only deployed to computers which are known to be compatible.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/10052

Item Details

Category: SYSTEM AND INFORMATION INTEGRITY

References: 800-53|SI-16, CSCv7|8.3

Plugin: Windows

Control ID: 162c5fbd3170faf41c9bb409cf513b012bf339eb3fe142b0fb47fdb04b34d482