1.2.1.1.1.1.5 Configure 'Windows Firewall: Allow inbound remote administration exception'

Information

Many organizations take advantage of remote computer administration in their daily operations. To provide flexibility for remote administration, the Windows Firewall: Allow inbound remote administration exception setting is available. If you enable this setting, computers in your environment should accept remote administration requests from as few computers as possible. To maximize the protection provided by Windows Firewall, make sure to specify only the necessary IP addresses and subnets of computers that are used for remote administration. Some attacks have exploited the ports that are typically used by remote administration programs; Windows Firewall can help block these ports.

Solution

Configure the following Group Policy setting in a manner that is consistent with the security and operational requirements of your organization-

Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Network\Network Connections\Windows Firewall\Standard Profile\Windows Firewall- Allow inbound remote administration exception

Impact- If this policy setting is enabled, the computer can receive the unsolicited incoming messages that are associated with remote administration on TCP ports 135 and 445. This policy setting also allows Svchost.exe and Lsass.exe to receive unsolicited incoming messages and allows hosted services to open additional dynamically-assigned ports, typically in the range of 1024 to 1034 but potentially anywhere from 1024 to 65535. If you enable this policy setting, you need to specify the IP addresses or subnets from which these incoming messages are allowed. If you configure the Windows Firewall- Allow inbound remote administration exception setting to Disabled, Windows Firewall makes none of the described exceptions. The impact of configuring this policy setting to Disabled may be unacceptable to many organizations because many remote administration tools and tools that scan for vulnerabilities will fail.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/42

Item Details

Category: SYSTEM AND COMMUNICATIONS PROTECTION

References: 800-53|SC-7(11), CCE|CCE-16739-5

Plugin: Windows

Control ID: cf370c3de79f3ba33e1efe6b7fc9a763142278b236c68b9489901d3ad091936f