18.9.91.1 Ensure 'Sign-in and lock last interactive user automatically after a restart' is set to 'Disabled' - Disabled

Warning! Audit Deprecated

This audit has been deprecated and will be removed in a future update.

View Next Audit Version

Information

This policy setting controls whether a device will automatically sign-in the last interactive user after Windows Update restarts the system.

The recommended state for this setting is: Disabled.

Rationale:

Disabling this feature will prevent the caching of user's credentials and unauthorized use of the device, and also ensure the user is aware of the restart.

Impact:

The device does not store the user's credentials for automatic sign-in after a Windows Update restart. The users' lock screen apps are not restarted after the system restarts. The user is required to present the logon credentials in order to proceed after restart.

Solution

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

Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Logon Options\Sign-in and lock last interactive user automatically after a restart

Note: This Group Policy path may not exist by default. It is provided by the Group Policy template WinLogon.admx/adml that is included with the Microsoft Windows 8.1 & Server 2012 R2 Administrative Templates (or newer).

Note #2: In older Microsoft Windows Administrative Templates, this setting was initially named Sign-in last interactive user automatically after a system-initiated restart, but it was renamed starting with the Windows 10 Release 1903 Administrative Templates.

Default Value:

Enabled. (The device securely saves the user's credentials (including the user name, domain and encrypted password) to configure automatic sign-in after a Windows Update restart. After the Windows Update restart, the user is automatically signed-in and the session is automatically locked with all the lock screen apps configured for that user.)

Additional Information:

Disable this policy setting so that the device does not store the user's credentials for automatic sign-in after a Windows Update restart and the users' lock screen apps are not restarted after the system restarts.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/3865