Title

Windows 2012/2012 R2 manually managed application account passwords must be changed at least annually or when a system administrator with knowledge of the password leaves the organization. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Setting application accounts to expire may cause applications to stop functioning. However, not changing them on a regular basis exposes them to attack. If managed service accounts are used, this alleviates the need to manually change application account passwords.

Check Content

Determine if manually managed application/service accounts exist. If none exist, this is NA. If passwords for manually managed application/service accounts are not changed at least annually or when an administrator with knowledge of the password leaves the organization, this is a finding. Identify manually managed application/service accounts. To determine the date a password was last changed: Domain controllers: Open "Windows PowerShell". Enter "Get-ADUser -Identity [application account name] -Properties PasswordLastSet | FL Name, PasswordLastSet", where [application account name] is the name of the manually managed application/service account. If the "PasswordLastSet" date is more than one year old, this is a finding. Member servers and standalone systems: Open "Windows PowerShell" or "Command Prompt". Enter 'Net User [application account name] | Find /i "Password Last Set"', where [application account name] is the name of the manually managed application/service account. If the "Password Last Set" date is more than one year old, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Change passwords for manually managed application/service accounts at least annually or when an administrator with knowledge of the password leaves the organization. It is recommended that system-managed service accounts be used where possible.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-225248r569185_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-225248

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

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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