18.6.9.2 Ensure 'Turn on Responder (RSPNDR) driver' is set to 'Disabled' - ProhibitRspndrOnPrivateNet

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Information

This policy setting changes the operational behavior of the Responder network protocol driver.

The Responder allows a computer to participate in Link Layer Topology Discovery requests so that it can be discovered and located on the network. It also allows a computer to participate in Quality-of-Service activities such as bandwidth estimation and network health analysis.

The recommended state for this setting is: Disabled.

Rationale:

To help protect from potentially discovering and connecting to unauthorized devices, this setting should be disabled to prevent responding to network traffic for network topology discovery.

Impact:

None - this is the default behavior.

Solution

To establish the recommended configuration via GP, set the following UI path to Disabled:

Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Network\Link-Layer Topology Discovery\Turn on Responder (RSPNDR) driver

Note: This Group Policy path is provided by the Group Policy template LinkLayerTopologyDiscovery.admx/adml that is included with all versions of the Microsoft Windows Administrative Templates.

Default Value:

Disabled. (The Responder (RSPNDR) network protocol driver is turned off.)

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/12626