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#65069 - 2002-04-30 10:54 PM Turn on auditing
New Mexico Mark Offline
Hey THIS is FUN
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Registered: 2002-01-03
Posts: 223
Loc: Columbia, SC
This is more of a network question, but since we have so many network / OS gurus who hang out in this forum, I thought this might be a great place to start.

We have been tasked to turn on auditing for logon/logoff for all our local user systems. We manage a network of about 600 workstations, all NT or Windows 2K Pro. Active directory has not been implemented yet. This change might also involve changing the log size if the size is below a minimum (to be determined).

Any thoughts on the best way to approach this? Registry hack? Instantiate a system object and use properties/methods there?

Ideally (going above and beyond customer requirements), I would like to offer a script solution that would do the following from the logon script (or a script called from the logon script):

1. Check during logon to see if auditing for logon/logoff is turned on.

2. Turn on auditing for policy changes.

3. For 1. and 2., if these were off, flag this in the user's logon script log. (In case a user keeps turning it off again.)

4. If the security event log has not been backed up in X days, back it up, clear it, and put an entry into the registry with today's date.

Thanks!

New Mexico Mark

P.S. Did I mention that the customer wants this done last week? (Big surprise there, huh?) That's why I'm scrambling to get advise.

[ 30 April 2002, 22:57: Message edited by: New Mexico Mark ]

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#65070 - 2002-05-01 12:09 AM Re: Turn on auditing
Radimus Moderator Offline
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Registered: 2000-01-06
Posts: 5187
Loc: Tampa, FL
Auditing for logon typically needs to be set on the DCs
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#65071 - 2002-05-01 12:14 AM Re: Turn on auditing
BrianTX Offline
Korg Regular

Registered: 2002-04-01
Posts: 895
In Windows 2000, to get the registry key for logging:

$value = READVALUE ("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SeCEdit","LastWinLogonConfig")
This is a "REG_DWORD" value.
If logging is disabled for success and failure the value is:
704670333 (DECIMAL), 2a006a7d (HEX)

If logging is enabled for both, you get:
2a0068df (HEX), 704669919 (DECIMAL)

For logging enabled for success only:
2a006ca7 (HEX), 704670887 (DECIMAL)

For logging enabled for failure only:
2a006ce1 (HEX), 704670945 (DECIMAL)

At least this is how it appears to work on my Win2k System. I assume it's totally different for NT. That's not all... You have to be able to set the security for auditing functions. By default, no user is given auditing rights. This is the tough part because it's encrypted in the registry. You have to give logged on users auditing access to the winlogon registry key for auditing to work. How to make this work is a big guess. Someone else might know of a tool that allows you to add auditing security to someone's user ID. I would assume you have to have administrator access on the PC to change the security settings....

Another thing.. auditing settings on Windows 2000 can be overriden at the domain level, so the best way to do this may NOT be logon scripts.. just a thought.

(I don't have NT, but this is information I found looking at Windows 2000.)

Brian

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#65072 - 2002-05-01 03:25 AM Re: Turn on auditing
Les Offline
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Registered: 2001-06-11
Posts: 12734
Loc: fortfrances.on.ca
Brian is right about Win2k. It is best done by GPO. Can't speak for NT. Are you in an NT domain or AD? In NT, this is usually setup from User Manager.
On a Win2k box, look for and launch secedit.exe. It will bring up a help file to get you started.
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#65073 - 2002-05-01 03:24 PM Re: Turn on auditing
New Mexico Mark Offline
Hey THIS is FUN
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Registered: 2002-01-03
Posts: 223
Loc: Columbia, SC
Thanks... that will help me get started. Auditing is already turned on on our servers. However, this doesn't catch all situations... for instance:

1. Almost all our users are local admins on their own workstations.
2. If a user walked away from his workstation, another user could create a local account there and place it in the administrators group in only a few seconds.
3. Then the other user could log on to that workstation from his own workstation and browse at his leisure without having to log on to the domain.

Right now, the only thing we could do is find the local account that was created (ostensibly by the owner of the workstation). But with local auditing, we could pin down the other activity as well.

We don't use AD. I'll look into domain policies as a way to enable/disable this at the workstation level.

We have avoided workstation policies like the plague. Microsoft has turned this into a horror story with conflicting policy settings and methods among their different products. As we have worked with Microsoft on policy questions, they admitted that organizations wanting to really use policies to best advantage (read: make them really work in complex situations) have people dedicated full time to those issues. Yuck.

Maybe with Microsoft's new attitude toward security, they will actually work with each other within the company to get some of these issues ironed out and consistent.

Thanks for the help!

New Mexico Mark

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#65074 - 2002-05-01 04:50 PM Re: Turn on auditing
Shawn Administrator Offline
Administrator
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Registered: 1999-08-13
Posts: 8611
Hi Mark,

We set this up during the last stage of our scripted wkstn imaging process. We use a reskit tool called AUDITPOL.EXE and heres the commandline:

C:\NTRESKIT\AUDITPOL /ENABLE /LOGON:ALL /SYSTEM:ALL

Hope this helps

-Shawn

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#65075 - 2002-05-01 08:04 PM Re: Turn on auditing
NTDOC Administrator Offline
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Registered: 2000-07-28
Posts: 11634
Loc: Space
Mark,

Bryce also wrote a UDF to remove everyone from the local Admin group except the accounts you approve. Keep the person logging in if found already, and your Domain Admins and any other accounts you want, then remove others. Just be careful you know all the variables involved with this type of script.

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#65076 - 2002-05-02 08:17 PM Re: Turn on auditing
Radimus Moderator Offline
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Registered: 2000-01-06
Posts: 5187
Loc: Tampa, FL
http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBK/tip5200/rh5231.htm
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