Title

The built-in administrator account must be disabled. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

The built-in administrator account is a well-known account subject to attack. It also provides no accountability to individual administrators on a system. It must be disabled to prevent its use.

Check Content

Verify the effective setting in Local Group Policy Editor. Run "gpedit.msc". Navigate to Local Computer Policy >> Computer Configuration >> Windows Settings >> Security Settings >> Local Policies >> Security Options. If the value for "Accounts: Administrator account status" is not set to "Disabled", this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the policy value for Computer Configuration >> Windows Settings >> Security Settings >> Local Policies >> Security Options >> "Accounts: Administrator account status" to "Disabled".

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-220908r958482_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-220908

Group Title: SRG-OS-000104-GPOS-00051

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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