Title

The system will be configured to audit "Policy Change -> Audit Policy Change" 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 Policy Change records events related to changes in audit policy.

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: Policy Change -> Audit Policy Change - 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 -> Policy Change -> "Audit Audit Policy Change" with “Failure” selected.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-35993r1_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-26547

Group Title: Audit - Audit Policy Change - Failure

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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