18.6.9.2 Ensure 'Turn on Responder (RSPNDR) driver' is set to 'Disabled' - AllowRspndrOnDomain

Information

This policy setting changes the operational behavior of the Responder network protocol driver.

The Responder allows a computer to participate in Link Layer Topology Discovery requests so that it can be discovered and located on the network. It also allows a computer to participate in Quality-of-Service activities such as bandwidth estimation and network health analysis.

The recommended state for this setting is: Disabled.

Rationale:

To help protect from potentially discovering and connecting to unauthorized devices, this setting should be disabled to prevent responding to network traffic for network topology discovery.

Impact:

None - this is the default behavior.

Solution

To establish the recommended configuration via GP, set the following UI path to Disabled:

Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Network\Link-Layer Topology Discovery\Turn on Responder (RSPNDR) driver

Note: This Group Policy path is provided by the Group Policy template LinkLayerTopologyDiscovery.admx/adml that is included with all versions of the Microsoft Windows Administrative Templates.

Default Value:

Disabled. (The Responder (RSPNDR) network protocol driver is turned off.)

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/15290

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT, SYSTEM AND SERVICES ACQUISITION

References: 800-53|CM-1, 800-53|CM-2, 800-53|CM-6, 800-53|CM-7, 800-53|CM-7(1), 800-53|CM-9, 800-53|SA-3, 800-53|SA-8, 800-53|SA-10, CSCv7|5.1

Plugin: Windows

Control ID: c1bc56571450f3cb32b7321668fcdb72f83cd238b605d62872dc943ec466a5eb