Title

Membership to the Domain Admins group must be restricted to accounts used only to manage the Active Directory domain and domain controllers. (Cat I impact)

Discussion

The Domain Admins group is a highly privileged group. Personnel who are system administrators must log on to Active Directory systems only using accounts with the level of authority necessary. Only system administrator accounts used exclusively to manage an Active Directory domain and domain controllers may be members of the Domain Admins group. A separation of administrator responsibilities helps mitigate the risk of privilege escalation resulting from credential theft attacks.

Check Content

Review the Domain Admins group in Active Directory Users and Computers. Any accounts that are members of the Domain Admins group must be documented with the IAO. Each Domain Administrator must have a separate unique account specifically for managing the Active Directory domain and domain controllers. If any account listed in the Domain Admins group is a member of other administrator groups including the Enterprise Admins group, domain member server administrators groups, or domain workstation administrators groups, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Create the necessary documentation that identifies the members of the Domain Admins group. Ensure that each member has a separate unique account that can only be used to manage the Active Directory domain and domain controllers. Remove any Domain Admin accounts from other administrator groups.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-243467r959010_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-243467

Group Title: SRG-OS-000480

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

Controls tied to check. These are derived from the CCIs shown above.