17.2.2 Ensure 'Audit Security Group Management' 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 each event of security group management, such as when a security group is created, changed, or deleted or when a member is added to or removed from a security group. If you enable this Audit policy setting, administrators can track events to detect malicious, accidental, and authorized creation of security group accounts. Events for this subcategory include:

4727: A security-enabled global group was created.

4728: A member was added to a security-enabled global group.

4729: A member was removed from a security-enabled global group.

4730: A security-enabled global group was deleted.

4731: A security-enabled local group was created.

4732: A member was added to a security-enabled local group.

4733: A member was removed from a security-enabled local group.

4734: A security-enabled local group was deleted.

4735: A security-enabled local group was changed.

4737: A security-enabled global group was changed.

4754: A security-enabled universal group was created.

4755: A security-enabled universal group was changed.

4756: A member was added to a security-enabled universal group.

4757: A member was removed from a security-enabled universal group.

4758: A security-enabled universal group was deleted.

4764: A group's type was changed.

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\Account Management\Audit Security Group Management

Default Value:

Success.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/3714