2.2.3 Ensure 'Act as part of the operating system' is set to 'No One'

Information

This policy setting allows a process to assume the identity of any user and thus gain access to the resources that the user is authorized to access.

The recommended state for this setting is: No One.

Note: This user right is considered a 'sensitive privilege' for the purposes of auditing.

Rationale:

The Act as part of the operating system user right is extremely powerful. Anyone with this user right can take complete control of the computer and erase evidence of their activities.

Impact:

There should be little or no impact because the Act as part of the operating system user right is rarely needed by any accounts other than the Local System account, which implicitly has this right.

Solution

To establish the recommended configuration, set the following Device Configuration Policy to No one:

To access the Device Configuration Policy from the Intune Home page:

Click Devices

Click Configuration profiles

Click Create profile

Select the platform (Windows 10 and later)

Select the profile (Endpoint protection)

Click Create

Enter a Name

Click Next

Configure the following Setting

Path: Endpoint protection/User Rights
Setting Name: Act As Part Of The OS
Configuration: Allow and leave sub-option blank

Select OK

Continue through the Wizard to complete the creation of the profile (profile assignments, applicability etc.)

Note: More than one configuration setting from each of the Configuration profiles (ex: Administrative Templates, Custom etc.) can be added to each Device Configuration Policy.

Note #2: This setting can also be created via a Custom Configuration Profile using the following OMA-URI:

Name: <Enter name>
Description: <Enter Description>
OMA-URI: ./Device/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/UserRights/ActAsPartOfTheOperatingSystem
Data type: String
Value: <Data></Data>

Important: When there is more than one value that needs to be entered (ex: Guests, Administrator), the XML value of &#61440; will need to be converted to its Unicode character representation to separate the values in the Value field of the Custom Device Configuration Policy. This value should convert to a square with a question mark in it (). Please note that when copied from the converter to Intune a square will appear, but the value will still work. Also note that this value cannot be copied from sources like Microsoft Word. We recommend that the value be copied and used directly from the converter. A sample converter can be found at Online XML entity decoder | Coder's Toolbox.

Select OK

Continue through the Wizard to complete the creation of the profile (profile assignments, applicability etc.)

Note #3:** The following link is an alternative way to set the 'User Rights Assignment' section. Policy CSP - UserRights - Windows Client Management | Microsoft Docs

Default Value:

No one.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/14664