45.18 (L1) Ensure 'Network access: Do not allow anonymous enumeration of SAM accounts' is set to 'Enabled'

Information

This policy setting controls the ability of anonymous users to enumerate the accounts in the Security Accounts Manager (SAM). If you enable this policy setting, users with anonymous connections will not be able to enumerate domain account user names on the systems in your environment. This policy setting also allows additional restrictions on anonymous connections.

The recommended state for this setting is: Enabled

Note: This policy has no effect on Domain Controllers.

An unauthorized user could anonymously list account names and use the information to attempt to guess passwords or perform social engineering attacks. (Social engineering attacks try to deceive users in some way to obtain passwords or some form of security information.)

Solution

To establish the recommended configuration via configuration profiles, set the following Settings Catalog path to Enabled :

Local Policies Security Options\Network access: Do not allow anonymous enumeration of SAM accounts

Impact:

None - this is the default behavior. It will be impossible to establish trusts with Windows NT 4.0-based domains. Also, client computers that run older versions of the Windows operating system such as Windows NT 3.51 and Windows 95 will experience problems when they try to use resources on the server.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/16853

Item Details

Category: ACCESS CONTROL

References: 800-53|AC-6(10)

Plugin: Windows

Control ID: f3882e072e78e1b6795cafa0a51af1706947e0fbfeb2600b1245eab993d28672