RE: Removing Local Admin Rights...

["Craig, Jason" <jcraig () ucdavis edu>]

I'm a little concerned over the need to repair so many systems.  We have a
small devl shop with programmers running as local admin and I haven't had to
touch one of their machines (except for upgrades, etc) in years.  We try to
educate our programmers and users alike as to best practices.  Perhaps your
users are doing things they shouldn't be?

-jc

-----Original Message-----
From: Faisal Masood [mailto:faisyuet () wol net pk] 
Sent: Monday, May 31, 2004 1:43 PM
To: simont () pop co za; 'Craig, Jason'
Cc: security-basics () lists securityfocus com
Subject: RE: Removing Local Admin Rights...
Importance: High

I'm working in a development environment. My developers need to register
application DLLs most often. They also want to do ASP debugging, SQL
debugging, MTS debugging. 

For these requirements I've to give my users local admin access. But result
is that we get at least a system every week for repair.

What is the solution to this issue?

Regards
Faisal Masood



-----Original Message-----
From: Simon Taplin [mailto:simont () pop co za]
Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2004 8:37 PM
To: Craig, Jason
Cc: security-basics () lists securityfocus com
Subject: Re: Removing Local Admin Rights...

Most of the Adobe products don't run properly unless the User is part of the
Power User Groups or higher for whatever reason. I remember that InDesign
1.5 needed to install Japanese fonts if the user was part of the Users
group.

Simon

Craig, Jason wrote:

> Jay,
>
> None of our users have admin rights.  Most apps will run fine.  We've 
> run into quirks with label printer software, and the usual problems 
> with Adobe apps but we've been able to make things run without any 
> problems.  Most things are well documented, and if they're not regmon 
> and filemon are your friends.  We've been running this way for 3+ 
> years and it has made our lives much easier.
>
> -j
> -----Original Message-----
> From: KEN MORRIS [mailto:KMORRIS () kpl org] Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004
> 12:42 PM
> To: Jay Lopez; security-basics () lists securityfocus com
> Subject: RE: Removing Local Admin Rights...
>
> Jay,
> First thing I would do would be to check to see if there is any non-M$ 
> programs installed that are needed in the organization. IF there are, 
> thoroughly test those programs under both O/S before removing local 
> admin rights. Some software will run only under local admin user 
> accounts. I have tried here and found that in certain programs there 
> is no work around other than local admin to allow users to run the 
> software. Even setting them as power users does not work.
> Regards,
> Ken
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jay Lopez [mailto:jlopez_si86 () hotmail com]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 9:48 AM
> To: security-basics () lists securityfocus com
> Subject: Removing Local Admin Rights...
>
> I currently work for an organization with approximately 25,000 Windows 
> XP/2000 desktops in an Active Directory (AD) environment.  Security 
> from
an
> OS and individual application component (i.e., Outlook 2003, MS 
> Office,
IE,
> etc.) perspective is being managed via group policy objects (GPO's).
>
> Currently, we are pushing to remove local administrator access rights 
> to individual machines to prevent users from randomly installing 
> unapproved applications, prevent malware from being silently installed 
> within the local administrator context, etc.  Prior to our move to AD 
> and GPO's, we
received
> push-back on removing local admin rights for reasons such as the logon 
> scripts would not work, etc.
>
> By chance, have any of you implemented any of the above--especially 
> the removal of local administrator rights?  If so, what support issues 
> did you experience?  What impact did removing local admin rights have?
>
> I'd like to provide as many pros and cons back to our team based on 
> your feedback.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Jay Lopez
>
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