Title

Ejection of removable NTFS media is not restricted to Administrators. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Removable hard drives can be formatted and ejected by others who are not members of the Administrators Group, if they are not properly configured. Formatting and ejecting removable NTFS media should only be done by administrators.

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 “Devices: Allowed to Format and Eject Removable Media” is not set to ” Administrators”, then this is a finding. The policy referenced configures the following registry value: Registry Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Registry Path: \Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon Value Name: AllocateDASD Value Type: REG_SZ Value: 0

Fix Text

Configure the policy value for Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options -> “Devices: Allowed to Format and Eject Removable Media” to “Administrators”.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-29215r1_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-1171

Group Title: Format and Eject Removable Media

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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