WINUR-000021 - The Deny log on through Remote Desktop Services user right on workstations must prevent all access.

Information

Inappropriate granting of user rights can provide system, administrative, and other high level capabilities.

The 'Deny log on through Remote Desktop Services' right defines the accounts that are prevented from logging on using Remote Desktop Services.

If Remote Desktop Services is not used by the organization, the Everyone group must be assigned this right to prevent all access.

In an Active Directory Domain, denying logons to the Enterprise Admins and Domain Admins groups on lower trust systems helps mitigate the risk of privilege escalation from credential theft attacks which could lead to the compromise of an entire domain.

Local accounts on domain-joined systems must also be assigned this right to decrease the risk of lateral movement resulting from credential theft attacks.

The Guests group must be assigned this right to prevent unauthenticated access.

Solution

Configure the policy value for Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> User Rights Assignment -> 'Deny log on through Remote Desktop Services' to include the following.

If Remote Desktop Services is not used by the organization, assign the Everyone group this right to prevent all access.

If RDS is used by the organization, assign the following groups.

Domain Systems Only:
Enterprise Admins group
Domain Admins group
Local account (see Note below)

All Systems:
Guests group

Systems dedicated to the management of Active Directory (AD admin platforms, see V-36436 in the Active Directory Domain STIG) are exempt from denying the Enterprise Admins and Domain Admins groups.

Note: Microsoft Security Advisory Patch 2871997 adds new built-in security groups, including 'Local account', to Windows 7 for assigning permissions and rights to all local accounts.

See Also

http://iasecontent.disa.mil/stigs/zip/Oct2016/U_Windows_Vista_V6R41_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: ACCESS CONTROL

References: 800-53|AC-3, CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000213, Rule-ID|SV-47136r3_rule, STIG-ID|WINUR-000021, Vuln-ID|V-26486

Plugin: Windows

Control ID: 9e6345640f836a678a72060db5a09b0d09b498f7fc7a037471d1d001edbda075