Security Basics mailing list archives
RE: Removing Local Admin Accounts - What do you think?
From: "Timmothy Lester" <Timmothy.Lester () primeadvisors com>
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:56:11 -0800
Creating a dummy account won't fool anyone. I think there is a way to spoof you SID though, which would definitely fool me. -----Original Message----- From: listbounce () securityfocus com [mailto:listbounce () securityfocus com] On Behalf Of Sheldon Malm Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 11:18 AM To: my.security.lists () gmail com; security-basics () securityfocus com Subject: Re: Removing Local Admin Accounts - What do you think? General best practice is to disable and rename the built in Administrator account and grant required permissions to individuals' accounts so that access can be audited for the individuals performing tasks against the host. In many shops, an added step is to create a "decoy" account named "Administrator" with limited or no permissions. I hope this helps. -------------------------- Sheldon Malm Director Security Research and Development nCircle VERT Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld ----- Original Message ----- From: listbounce () securityfocus com <listbounce () securityfocus com> To: security-basics () securityfocus com <security-basics () securityfocus com> Sent: Sun Jan 13 11:19:16 2008 Subject: Removing Local Admin Accounts - What do you think? -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Dear List, I am looking for a general consensus from my peers. If you are able to answer this with definite knowledge and not an assumption and you fully understand what you are saying, please reply to this message. I do not mean to be rude, but if you are not sure, please do not respond to this message. I am asking this as I will be presenting this to a company, as they have proposed this idea and I want to show them exactly what they are considering getting themselves into. What is your professional opinion on removing the local administrator account? Does this pose a security risk to have a local administrator account on a computer, so that IT staff (which are the only people in the organization that are entitled to this user/pass) can do work on a computer in a way that can not be "securely" audited? What I mean by this is, they all use this one account (for emergencies only), instead of using their own credentials over the network - thereby showing the local admin account was used, but not who used it. What are the risks involved in removing this account? Is this a general best practice, from a security point of view? If not, what is the best practice from a security point of view? Lastly, do you believe or not, that if the IT staff wanted to compromise a box, anonymously, would they really need this local administrator account on the box? Or would they still be able to do this, without the account there? Why? I sincerely appreciate your time and thank you in advance for any answers that you may pose. Also, if you see something that I did not consider in my questions, please feel free to include that as well. Please remember, if you think that this is a wise decision or not, PLEASE state your answers and why. - -- Rob +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+ | _ | | ASCII ribbon campaign ( ) | | - against HTML email X | | / \ | | | +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.8 (MingW32) iEYEARECAAYFAkeKZCsACgkQcfN68iZZIcf9SgCgii4WMWjE8upNop/TvA41sqpJ 2GgAoNnC7iU1OT8GAPVkouK0UlfHfqkN =67NY -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Current thread:
- Removing Local Admin Accounts - What do you think? Rob Thompson (Jan 14)
- Re: Removing Local Admin Accounts - What do you think? Colo Colo (Jan 14)
- RE: Removing Local Admin Accounts - What do you think? Nick Duda (Jan 14)
- RE: Removing Local Admin Accounts - What do you think? Worrell, Brian (Jan 14)
- RE: Removing Local Admin Accounts - What do you think? Bob Emerson (Jan 15)
- Re: Removing Local Admin Accounts - What do you think? Ansgar -59cobalt- Wiechers (Jan 14)
- Re: Removing Local Admin Accounts - What do you think? Rob Thompson (Jan 15)
- Re: Removing Local Admin Accounts - What do you think? Chris Barber (Jan 24)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Removing Local Admin Accounts - What do you think? Sheldon Malm (Jan 14)
- RE: Removing Local Admin Accounts - What do you think? Timmothy Lester (Jan 14)
- Re: Removing Local Admin Accounts - What do you think? Rob Thompson (Jan 30)
- Re: Removing Local Admin Accounts - What do you think? krymson (Jan 15)
- Re: Removing Local Admin Accounts - What do you think? Colo Colo (Jan 14)