User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode

Updated: November 15, 2012

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP

This security policy reference topic for the IT professional describes the best practices, location, values, policy management and security considerations for this policy setting.

Reference

This policy setting determines the behavior of the elevation prompt for accounts that have administrative credentials.

Possible values

• Elevate without prompting

  Assumes that the administrator will permit an operation that requires elevation, and additional consent or credentials are not required.

• Prompt for credentials on the secure desktop

  When an operation requires elevation of privilege, the user is prompted on the secure desktop to enter a privileged user name and password. If the user enters valid credentials, the operation continues with the user's highest available privilege.

• Prompt for consent on the secure desktop

  When an operation requires elevation of privilege, the user is prompted on the secure desktop to select Permit or Deny. If the user selects Permit, the operation continues with the user's highest available privilege.

• Prompt for credentials

  An operation that requires elevation of privilege prompts the administrator to type the user name and password. If the administrator enters valid credentials, the operation continues with the applicable privilege.

• Prompt for consent

  An operation that requires elevation of privilege prompts the administrator to select Permit or Deny. If the administrator selects Permit, the operation continues with the administrator's highest available privilege.

• Prompt for consent for non-Windows binaries

  This is the default. When an operation for a non-Microsoft application requires elevation of privilege, the user is prompted on the secure desktop to select Permit or Deny. If the user selects Permit, the operation continues with the user's highest available privilege.

Best practices

1. Selecting the option Elevate without prompting minimizes the protection that is provided by the UAC feature. We do not recommend selecting this value unless administrator accounts are tightly controlled and the operating environment is highly secure.

Location

GPO_name\Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options

Default values

The following table lists the actual and effective default values for this policy. Default values are also listed on the policy’s property page.

Operating system version differences

The default in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 was Prompt for consent. In Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7, the default was changed and three options were added:

• Prompt for credentials on the secure desktop

• Prompt for consent on the secure desktop

• Prompt for consent for non-Windows binaries (default)

Policy management

This section describes features and tools that are available to help you manage this policy.

Restart requirement

None. Changes to this policy become effective without a computer restart when they are saved locally or distributed through Group Policy.

Group Policy

Distributing this policy through Group Policy to computers running at least the Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 operating systems will have no impact (because UAC was first introduced in Windows Vista).

Distributing this policy to computers running Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 will change the default option to Prompt for consent for non-Windows binaries. You will need to test that the resultant behavior is as you expect.

Security considerations

This section describes how an attacker might exploit a feature or its configuration, how to implement the countermeasure, and the possible negative consequences of countermeasure implementation.

Vulnerability

One of the risks that the UAC feature tries to mitigate is that of malicious software running under elevated credentials without the user or administrator being aware of its activity. This setting raises awareness to the administrator of elevated privilege operations, and it permits the administrator to prevent a malicious program from elevating its privilege when the program attempts to do so.

Countermeasure

Configure the User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode setting to Prompt for consent.

Potential impact

Administrators should be made aware that they will be prompted for consent when all binaries attempt to run.