69.33 (L1) Ensure 'Web Management Service (WMSvc)' is set to 'Disabled' or 'Not Installed'

Information

The Web Management Service enables remote and delegated management capabilities for administrators to manage for the Web server, sites and applications present on the machine.

The recommended state for this setting is: Disabled or Not Installed

Note: This service is not installed by default. It is supplied with Windows, but is installed by enabling an optional Windows feature (

Internet Information Services - Web Management Tools - IIS Management Service

).

Remote web administration of IIS on a workstation is an increased security risk, as the attack surface of that workstation is then greatly increased. If proper security mitigations are not followed, the chance of successful attack increases significantly.

Solution

To establish the recommended configuration, set the following Custom Configuration Policy to 4 or confirm that the service is Not installed :

Name: <Enter name>
Description: <Enter Description>
OMA-URI: ./Device/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/SystemServices/ConfigureWebManagementServiceStartupMode
Data Type: Integer
Value: 4

Note: As of January 2024, despite its inclusion in Microsoft's official documentation, using an OMI-URI to configure a Windows Service Startup Mode via a custom profile will lead to an error in Intune. This error will be logged in the local event log as 'The system cannot find the file specified.' Currently, the most reliable method for remediation is through PowerShell.

The recommended configuration can also be established via PowerShell by running the following cmdlet:

Set-Service -Name WMSvc -StartupType Disabled

Impact:

Remote web-based management of IIS will not be available.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/16852

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-6, 800-53|CM-7, CSCv7|9.2

Plugin: Windows

Control ID: 5f69b6742d54b46f40ddb8095876c98030745d7b45d5b2416ed6b09db8b40cf9