17.5.2 Ensure 'Audit Group Membership' is set to include 'Success'

Information

This policy allows you to audit the group membership information in the user's logon token. Events in this subcategory are generated on the computer on which a logon session is created. For an interactive logon, the security audit event is generated on the computer that the user logged on to. For a network logon, such as accessing a shared folder on the network, the security audit event is generated on the computer hosting the resource.

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

Note: A Windows 10, Server 2016 or newer OS is required to access and set this value in Group Policy.

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\Logon/Logoff\Audit Group Membership

Default Value:

No Auditing.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/13204