17.3.2 Ensure 'Audit Process Creation' is set to include 'Success'

Warning! Audit Deprecated

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

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Information

This subcategory reports the creation of a process and the name of the program or user that created it. Events for this subcategory include:

4688: A new process has been created.

4696: A primary token was assigned to process.

Refer to Microsoft Knowledge Base article 947226: Description of security events in Windows Vista and in Windows Server 2008 for the most recent information about this setting.

The recommended state for this setting is to include: Success.

Rationale:

Auditing these events may be useful when investigating a security incident.

Impact:

If no audit settings are configured, or if audit settings are too lax on the computers in your organization, security incidents might not be detected or not enough evidence will be available for network forensic analysis after security incidents occur. However, if audit settings are too severe, critically important entries in the Security log may be obscured by all of the meaningless entries and computer performance and the available amount of data storage may be seriously affected. Companies that operate in certain regulated industries may have legal obligations to log certain events or activities.

Solution

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

Computer Configuration\Policies\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Advanced Audit Policy Configuration\Audit Policies\Detailed Tracking\Audit Process Creation

Default Value:

No Auditing.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/3719