Enable insecure guest logons

Information

This policy setting determines if the SMB client will allow insecure guest logons to an SMB server.

If you enable this policy setting or if you do not configure this policy setting the SMB client will allow insecure guest logons.

If you disable this policy setting the SMB client will reject insecure guest logons.

If you enable signing the SMB client will reject insecure guest logons.

Insecure guest logons are used by file servers to allow unauthenticated access to shared folders. While uncommon in an enterprise environment insecure guest logons are frequently used by consumer Network Attached Storage (NAS) appliances acting as file servers. Windows file servers require authentication and do not use insecure guest logons by default. Since insecure guest logons are unauthenticated important security features such as SMB Signing and SMB Encryption are disabled. As a result clients that allow insecure guest logons are vulnerable to a variety of man-in-the-middle attacks that can result in data loss data corruption and exposure to malware. Additionally any data written to a file server using an insecure guest logon is potentially accessible to anyone on the network. Microsoft recommends disabling insecure guest logons and configuring file servers to require authenticated access.'

Solution

Policy Path: Network\Lanman Workstation
Policy Setting Name: Enable insecure guest logons

See Also

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-security-baselines/windows-11-version-24h2-security-baseline/ba-p/4252801

Item Details

Category: IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION

References: 800-53|IA-3(1)

Plugin: Windows

Control ID: fd36414aa80aa1c1908ba5e577fd517141134c4fffa649219d8c841a4d6b6b89