RE: Removing Local Admin Accounts - What do you think?

["Worrell, Brian" <BWorrell () isdh IN gov>]

Rob,

> From experience, IT people will need admin access to the local PC's, but
it was always best to add them to the admins group rather than share the
admin account password.  This allows you to have some logging (if you
enable it of course) in the event that you have a security issue.  

As for the admin account it self, I would rename it, and limit who has
that password.  Not sure that this is a universal best practice, but
have seen that done by some universities as well as some medical groups.

Not sure that you can delete it completely though.  End user wise, I
have yet to find an application that could not run without admin rights.
Saying that, you may have to run the old sysinteral apps to see what reg
keys and file permissions need tweaked.

Thanks
Brian  


On Jan 13, 2008 7:19 PM, Rob Thompson <my.security.lists () gmail com>
wrote:
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> 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
>
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