GPO Security Audit Checklist

This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.

What this hour is for

The auditor reads a paste. It is a planning aid. It is not the CIS benchmark text and not a certification. It flags a minimum password length under 8 and a lockout threshold of 0. It does not connect to a domain and it does not change a GPO.

One setting. Do not weaken a length or a lockout to make the note quieter. The domain is one you administer. Do not collect a GPO from a directory you do not run. A change waits for its own window.

A threshold of 0 does not lock accounts. That is a finding, not a target.

The change you can finish

Apply nothing while you are writing the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the host named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the host, then decide.

Rollback is the file, the package version, or the snapshot you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.

Paste a setting you exported from your domain.
Read the note.
Pick one gap.
Do not edit the GPO.
Do not weaken the setting.
Stop.

Mistakes that outlive the command

GPO Security Audit Checklist goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.

The GPO edited during the reading.
A length or a lockout weakened.
A domain you do not administer.
The tool called the CIS benchmark.
Several settings changed at once.

Decisions to write down

One decision for GPO Security Audit Checklist: The domain is yours. One gap. No GPO was edited. Nothing was weakened. And this is not the CIS text.

Checks before you call it done

Confirm this before you call the change done: The domain is written. The length or the lockout is written. No edit was made. Nothing was weakened. And the note says this is not the CIS text. If one of those fails, stop.

# Not the CIS benchmark text.
# Flags a length under 8, and a lockout threshold of 0.
# Does not connect.
# Do not weaken the policy.
# One gap.

Before you leave the host

GPO Security Audit Checklist ends when the hostname in the prompt matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong host. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong host is not progress.

The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the host and does not know which disk is empty. You delete a line that names a host, a path, or an account you did not write down.

192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. They belong in the note. They are not values you leave on a host because a draft included them.

prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, or a token you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the password store.

One change is the window. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next change waits for its own page.

If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied change produces a host nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.

A second person reads the hostname and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the host alone.

This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not permission to touch a host you do not administer. You do not disable a firewall, AppArmor, or SELinux to make a check pass.

Tools for this guide

These tools run in the browser on this site. They do not log into your machines.

GPO Security Auditor

Server Hardening & Audit Guide

More in this cluster

The pillar for this page, and the next published pages filed with it.

Companion: Security: Server Hardening Guide.