Title

Early Launch Antimalware, Boot-Start Driver Initialization Policy must prevent boot drivers. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

By being launched first by the kernel, ELAM ( Early Launch Antimalware) is ensured to be launched before any third-party software, and is therefore able to detect malware in the boot process and prevent it from initializing.

Check Content

The default behavior is for Early Launch Antimalware - Boot-Start Driver Initialization policy is to enforce "Good, unknown and bad but critical" (preventing "bad"). If the registry value name below does not exist, this a finding. If it exists and is configured with a value of "7", this is a finding. Registry Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Registry Path: \SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\EarlyLaunch\ Value Name: DriverLoadPolicy Value Type: REG_DWORD Value: 1, 3, or 8 Possible values for this setting are: 8 - Good only 1 - Good and unknown 3 - Good, unknown and bad but critical 7 - All (which includes "Bad" and would be a finding)

Fix Text

Ensure that Early Launch Antimalware - Boot-Start Driver Initialization policy is set to enforce "Good, unknown and bad but critical" (preventing "bad"). If this needs to be corrected configure the policy value for Computer Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> System >> Early Launch Antimalware >> "Boot-Start Driver Initialization Policy" to "Enabled” with "Good, unknown and bad but critical" selected.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-220813r991589_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-220813

Group Title: SRG-OS-000480-GPOS-00227

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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