Title

Authentication with Exchange Server must be required. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Exchange Server supports the Kerberos authentication protocol and NTLM for authentication. The Kerberos protocol is the more secure authentication method and is supported on Windows 2000 Server and later versions. NTLM authentication is supported in pre-Windows 2000 environments. By default, Outlook will attempt to authenticate using the Kerberos authentication protocol, if it cannot (because no Windows 2000 or later domain controllers are available), it will authenticate using NTLM.

Check Content

The policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Outlook 2010 -> Account Settings -> Exchange “Authentication with Exchange Server” must be set to “Enabled (Kerberos/NTLM Password Authentication)”. Procedure: Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\outlook\security Criteria: If the value AuthenticationService is REG_DWORD = 9, this is not a finding.

Fix Text

Set the policy value for User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Outlook 2010 -> Account Settings -> Exchange “Authentication with Exchange Server” to “Enabled (Kerberos/NTLM Password Authentication)”.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-33486r1_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-17734

Group Title: DTOO280 - Authentication w/Exchange Svr

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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