Detections
Analytics

17.7.4 (L1) Ensure 'Audit MPSSVC Rule-Level Policy Change' is set to 'Success and Failure'

Information

This subcategory determines whether the operating system generates audit events when changes are made to policy rules for the Microsoft Protection Service (MPSSVC.exe). Events for this subcategory include:
- 4944: The following policy was active when the Windows Firewall started.
- 4945: A rule was listed when the Windows Firewall started.
- 4946: A change has been made to Windows Firewall exception list. A rule was added.
- 4947: A change has been made to Windows Firewall exception list. A rule was modified.
- 4948: A change has been made to Windows Firewall exception list. A rule was deleted.
- 4949: Windows Firewall settings were restored to the default values.
- 4950: A Windows Firewall setting has changed.
- 4951: A rule has been ignored because its major version number was not recognized by Windows Firewall.
- 4952: Parts of a rule have been ignored because its minor version number was not recognized by Windows Firewall. The other parts of the rule will be enforced.
- 4953: A rule has been ignored by Windows Firewall because it could not parse the rule.
- 4954: Windows Firewall Group Policy settings have changed. The new settings have been applied.
- 4956: Windows Firewall has changed the active profile.
- 4957: Windows Firewall did not apply the following rule.
- 4958: Windows Firewall did not apply the following rule because the rule referred to items not configured on this computer.
The recommended state for this setting is : Success and Failure

Rationale:
Changes to firewall rules are important for understanding the security state of the computer and how well it is protected against network attacks.

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\Policy Change\Audit MPSSVC Rule-Level Policy Change

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:
No Auditing.

References:
1. CCE-35532-1

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/14249

Item Details

Category: AUDIT AND ACCOUNTABILITY, CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|AU-12, 800-53|CM-6, CSCv7|5.5, CSCv7|6.3

Plugin: Windows

Control ID: daed51167a5bac83cdbc9fd722d2539f773f6f93c72859e2db8015225ab2d2f7