RE: Removing Local Admin Rights...

["Daszczyszak, Roman L. SPC (1AD 501 MI BN ACE IMO)" <roman.daszczyszak () 1ADTACM 1AD ARMY MIL>]

If you're referring to removing a user from the local Administrators group,
by all means go for it.  Check out the software suite they're using (or are
supposed to be using) and make sure each program will run in a regular user
account.  Most will unless badly written or requiring some special support.

When I took over my current sysadmin job, the first thing I did was to clean
up after the prior admin who allowed everyone to have admin rights on their
machines.  There were some growing pains, but for the most part it works.
For those special cases where the user believes they need admin rights, I
have them submit the request in writing.. then I check to see if their
request is valid.  Only then will I authorize local admin rights.

> -----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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