Title

Windows 10 must be configured to audit MPSSVC Rule-Level Policy Change Failures. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Maintaining an audit trail of system activity logs can help identify configuration errors, troubleshoot service disruptions, and analyze compromises that have occurred, as well as detect attacks. Audit logs are necessary to provide a trail of evidence in case the system or network is compromised. Collecting this data is essential for analyzing the security of information assets and detecting signs of suspicious and unexpected behavior. Audit MPSSVC Rule-Level Policy Change determines whether the operating system generates audit events when changes are made to policy rules for the Microsoft Protection Service (MPSSVC.exe).

Check Content

Security Option "Audit: Force audit policy subcategory settings (Windows Vista or later) to override audit policy category settings" must be set to "Enabled" (WN10-SO-000030) for the detailed auditing subcategories to be effective. Use the AuditPol tool to review the current Audit Policy configuration: Open a Command Prompt with elevated privileges ("Run as Administrator"). Enter "AuditPol /get /category:*". Compare the AuditPol settings with the following. If the system does not audit the following, this is a finding: Policy Change >> MPSSVC Rule-Level Policy Change - Failure

Fix Text

Configure the policy value for Computer Configuration >> Windows Settings >> Security Settings >> Advanced Audit Policy Configuration >> System Audit Policies >> Policy Change >> “Audit MPSSVC Rule-Level Policy Change" with "Failure" selected.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-220791r569187_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-220791

Group Title: SRG-OS-000037-GPOS-00015

Expert Comments

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