Details
This policy setting determines whether Credential Manager (formerly called Stored User Names and Passwords) saves passwords or credentials for later use when it gains domain authentication.
The recommended state for this setting is: Enabled.
Note: Changes to this setting will not take effect until Windows is restarted.
Rationale:
Passwords that are cached can be accessed by the user when logged on to the computer. Although this information may sound obvious, a problem can arise if the user unknowingly executes hostile code that reads the passwords and forwards them to another, unauthorized user.
Impact:
Credential Manager will not store passwords and credentials on the computer. Users will be forced to enter passwords whenever they log on to their Passport account or other network resources that aren’t accessible to their domain account. Testing has shown that clients running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 will be unable to connect to Distributed File System (DFS) shares in untrusted domains. Enabling this setting also makes it impossible to specify alternate credentials for scheduled tasks, this can cause a variety of problems. For example, some third party backup products will no longer work. This policy setting should have no impact on users who access network resources that are configured to allow access with their Active Directory-based domain account.
Solution
To establish the recommended configuration via GP, set the following UI path to Enabled:
Computer ConfigurationPoliciesWindows SettingsSecurity SettingsLocal PoliciesSecurity OptionsNetwork access: Do not allow storage of passwords and credentials for network authentication
Default Value:
Disabled. (Credential Manager will store passwords and credentials on the computer for later use for domain authentication.)
Supportive Information
The following resource is also helpful.
This security hardening control applies to the following category of controls within NIST 800-53: Configuration Management, Identification and Authentication.This control applies to the following type of system Windows.