{"id":67945,"date":"2014-04-01T20:02:39","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T00:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbach.net\/blog\/index.php\/"},"modified":"2021-08-25T22:17:13","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T02:17:13","slug":"limit-admin-rights-to-close-msft-holes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/limit-admin-rights-to-close-msft-holes\/","title":{"rendered":"Limit Admin Rights to Close Microsoft Holes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Limit<\/a>It’s been best practice<\/b>\u00a0for a very long time: all users and processes should run with the fewest privileges necessary<\/strong>. That means no Admin rights for users. This limits the damage that can be done by an attacker if the user or process is compromised.<\/p>\n

\"Avecto<\/a>ZDNet<\/em><\/a> says<\/a> that running users without admin rights on\u00a0Microsoft<\/a> (MSFT<\/a>) Windows XP<\/a> was generally impractical. It is a much more reasonable and manageable approach on Windows Vista<\/a>, Windows 7<\/a>, and Windows 8<\/a>, but many organizations still run users as administrators because it makes things easier in the short term.<\/p>\n

Impact of running with “least privilege”<\/h3>\n

ZDNet<\/em> cites a new study from\u00a0UK<\/a> software company Avecto<\/a> which demonstrates the real-world impact of running with “least privilege”. In 2013, Microsoft released 106 security bulletins and updates to address the 333 vulnerabilities identified in them. 200 of the 333 total vulnerabilities would be mitigated if the user were not running as administrator. 147 of the vulnerabilities were designated critical; 92 percent (135) of these would be mitigated.<\/p>\n

Dark Reading<\/em><\/a> says that the Avecto results also revealed that removing admin rights would also mitigate:<\/p>\n