RE: Removing Local Admin Rights...

["KEN MORRIS" <KMORRIS () kpl org>]

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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to facilitate one-on-one interaction with one of our expert instructors.
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