Title

User Account Control must automatically deny elevation requests for standard users. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

User Account Control (UAC) is a security mechanism for limiting the elevation of privileges, including administrative accounts, unless authorized. Denying elevation requests from standard user accounts requires tasks that need elevation to be initiated by accounts with administrative privileges. This prevents privileged account credentials from being cached with standard user profile information to help mitigate credential theft.

Check Content

Analyze the system using the Security Configuration and Analysis snap-in. Expand the Security Configuration and Analysis tree view. Navigate to Local Policies >> Security Options. If the value for "User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for standard users" is not set to "Automatically deny elevation requests", this is a finding. The policy referenced configures the following registry value: Registry Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Registry Path: \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\ Value Name: ConsentPromptBehaviorUser Value Type: REG_DWORD Value: 0x00000000 (0)

Fix Text

Configure the policy value for Computer Configuration >> Windows Settings >> Security Settings >> Local Policies >> Security Options >> "User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for standard users" to "Automatically deny elevation requests".

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID:

Vulnerability ID: V-14236

Group Title:

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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