17.5.4 Ensure 'Audit Logon' is set to 'Success and Failure'

Information

This subcategory reports when a user attempts to log on to the system. These events occur on the accessed computer. For interactive logons, the generation of these events occurs on the computer that is logged on to. If a network logon takes place to access a share, these events generate on the computer that hosts the accessed resource. If you configure this setting to No auditing, it is difficult or impossible to determine which user has accessed or attempted to access organization computers. Events for this subcategory include:

4624: An account was successfully logged on.

4625: An account failed to log on.

4648: A logon was attempted using explicit credentials.

4675: SIDs were filtered.

The recommended state for this setting is: Success and Failure.

Rationale:

Auditing these events may be useful when investigating a security incident.

Solution

To establish the recommended configuration via GP, set the following UI path to Success and Failure:

Computer Configuration\Policies\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Advanced Audit Policy Configuration\Audit Policies\Logon/Logoff\Audit Logon

Impact:

If no audit settings are configured, or if audit settings are too lax on the computers in your organization, security incidents might not be detected or not enough evidence will be available for network forensic analysis after security incidents occur. However, if audit settings are too severe, critically important entries in the Security log may be obscured by all of the meaningless entries and computer performance and the available amount of data storage may be seriously affected. Companies that operate in certain regulated industries may have legal obligations to log certain events or activities.

Default Value:

Success.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/2550