Title

The system must be configured to audit DS Access - Directory Service Changes 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 detecting 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 directory service changes records events related to changes made to objects in Active Directory Domain Services.

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" (V-14230) 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. DS Access -> Directory Service Changes - Failure

Fix Text

Detailed auditing subcategories are configured in Security Settings -> Advanced Audit Policy Configuration. The summary level settings under Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Audit Policy will not be enforced (see V-14230). Configure the policy value for Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Advanced Audit Policy Configuration -> System Audit Policies -> DS Access -> "Directory Service Changes" with "Failure" selected.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-226098r852072_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-226098

Group Title: SRG-OS-000471-GPOS-00215

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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