18.8.14.1 Ensure 'Boot-Start Driver Initialization Policy' is set to 'Enabled: Good, unknown and bad but critical'

Information

This policy setting allows you to specify which boot-start drivers are initialized based on a classification determined by an Early Launch Antimalware boot-start driver. The Early Launch Antimalware boot-start driver can return the following classifications for each boot-start driver:

Good: The driver has been signed and has not been tampered with.

Bad: The driver has been identified as malware. It is recommended that you do not allow known bad drivers to be initialized.

Bad, but required for boot: The driver has been identified as malware, but the computer cannot successfully boot without loading this driver.

Unknown: This driver has not been attested to by your malware detection application and has not been classified by the Early Launch Antimalware boot-start driver.

If you enable this policy setting you will be able to choose which boot-start drivers to initialize the next time the computer is started.

If your malware detection application does not include an Early Launch Antimalware boot-start driver or if your Early Launch Antimalware boot-start driver has been disabled, this setting has no effect and all boot-start drivers are initialized.

The recommended state for this setting is: Enabled: Good, unknown and bad but critical.


Rationale:

This policy setting helps reduce the impact of malware that has already infected your system.

Solution

To establish the recommended configuration via GP, set the following UI path to Enabled: Good, unknown and bad but critical:

Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\System\Early Launch Antimalware\Boot-Start Driver Initialization Policy

Note: This Group Policy path may not exist by default. It is provided by the Group Policy template EarlyLaunchAM.admx/adml that is included with the Microsoft Windows 8.0 & Server 2012 (non-R2) Administrative Templates (or newer).

Impact:

None - this is the default behavior.

Default Value:

Disabled. (Boot-start drivers determined to be Good, Unknown or Bad but Boot Critical are initialized and the initialization of drivers determined to be bad is skipped.)

References:

CCE-37912-3

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/2742