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Difficulty: HardWorkstation Hardening and Best Practices

A security technician is tasked with hardening a fleet of newly provisioned Windows workstations prior to enterprise deployment. To minimize the attack surface and mitigate unauthorized lateral movement, the technician needs to configure local default accounts and execution policies according to security best practices. Which of the following configurations represents the most secure baseline implementation?

  1. Disable the built-in Guest account, rename the default Administrator account, and disable AutoRun/AutoPlay policies across all drives.Answer
  2. B
    Enable the built-in Guest account with restricted user rights for temporary contractors and retain the default Administrator account name with a complex password.
  3. C
    Use Event Viewer to disable unneeded background services and configure local account lockout policies for all default system profiles.
  4. D
    Access the System applet in Control Panel to rename built-in administrative accounts and manage removable drive execution settings.

Answer

The correct baseline implementation requires disabling the built-in Guest account, renaming the built-in Administrator account, and disabling AutoRun and AutoPlay for all drives.
Hardening a workstation image requires applying the principle of least functionality and reducing attack vectors. Disabling the default Guest account, renaming the default Administrator account (to obscure its RID 500 target), and turning off AutoRun/AutoPlay across all media drives are foundational security controls recommended by CompTIA security standards.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Audit built-in default accounts
Identify that default accounts like Guest and Administrator present known targets for automated attacks.
Hardening best practices require disabling unneeded default accounts and renaming active default administrative accounts to prevent well-known account exploitation.
2
Configure media execution policies
Disable AutoRun and AutoPlay features globally via Local Group Policy or Registry settings.
Prevent malicious code on connected USB drives or external media from executing automatically upon insertion.
3
Verify tool selection for policy enforcement
Use Computer Management / Local Security Policy (secpol.msc) or Group Policy (gpedit.msc) rather than basic status applets or log viewers.
Administrative security controls must be configured in dedicated management snap-ins.

Key Concept

Workstation Hardening Best Practices
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Topics

Workstation Hardening and Best Practices

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