If the domain becomes unavailable (admin because sometimes we need to futz with 
NIC properties) or we need to disjoin from the domain for whatever reason we 
need a local admin account. We have enough servers that it happens on occasion. 
We also have credential caching turned off on our servers.

We have over a hundred servers and being effectively a software development 
shop we have tons of "moving parts" on our servers. If I had any control of 
this place things would be different (not necessarily better, LOL).

Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew W. Ross [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 8:50 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: RE: GPO reset of local non-builtin accounts

Please educate me:

Why do you want to have a local account? What's the benefit?


--Matt Ross
Ephrata School District


----- Original Message -----
From: David Lum
[mailto:[email protected]]
To: NT System Admin Issues
[mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Fri, 06 Jan 2012
06:31:13 -0800
Subject: RE: GPO reset of local non-builtin accounts


> Damn...and I used to be cool, for a day.  How big is this risk in 
> reality? A casual user won't be perusing Sysvol, and they'll be even 
> less casual if they can figure out how to get at the password. I, for 
> one, have no idea how I would get at the password, although I imagine 
> even a mediocre hacker would?
> 
> What about having the GPO run for a week and then killing (deleting, 
> or disabling then changing the GPP password) the GPO? This should be 
> secure enough for servers, as a user would have to be snooping the 
> week we had the GPO in use, but I set our workstation local admin accounts 
> this way as well.
> Since we do have standard builds perhaps I can do the same as servers 
> and activate the GPO for a week whenever we want to change it? With 
> PC's that will leave some leakers though...
> 
> Going forward, if I don't want to use GPP (and it looks like I don't), 
> how can I accomplish a centrally managed local admin password in a 
> secure manner? I don't want to rely on the machine being online and me 
> or someone manually running a tool, we have far too many remote/VPN 
> users for that to be a viable option.
> 
> This looks close:
> http://www.petri.co.il/forums/showthread.php?t=13750
> 
> But it relies on knowing the SID of the account, but can a simple 
> change from "wmic useraccount where "sid like 'S-1-5-%%-500'" to "wmic 
> useraccount where "samaccountname like 'lumslocaluser'"
> work?
> 
> Dave
> 
> From: Free, Bob [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2012 5:24 PM
> To: NT System Admin Issues
> Subject: RE: GPO reset of local non-builtin accounts
> 
> Saw something pointed out today about the security implications by one 
> of the GPO MVPs that you might want to consider....
> 
> http://blogs.technet.com/b/grouppolicy/archive/2008/08/04/passwords-in
> -group-policy-preferences.aspx
> 
> 
> 
> From: David Lum
> [mailto:[email protected]]<mailto:[mailto:[email protected]]>
> Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2012 2:55 PM
> To: NT System Admin Issues
> Subject: RE: GPO reset of local non-builtin accounts
> 
> Right! Two months ago one of the SE's here was saying we need to 
> upgrade to
> 2008 DC's to manage Win7/2K8 systems...and was surprised when I told 
> him the same thing you just said :)
> 
> "RSAT dude"
> 
> Dave
> 
> From: James Hill
> [mailto:[email protected]]<mailto:[mailto:[email protected]]>
> Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2012 2:19 PM
> To: NT System Admin Issues
> Subject: RE: GPO reset of local non-builtin accounts
> 
> That's one of the great things about GPP.  It came with Server 2008 
> but with the CSE's you just need a Vista/Win7 machine to manage them.  
> No need to upgrade everything.
> 
> From: David Lum
> [mailto:[email protected]]<mailto:[mailto:[email protected]]>
> Sent: Friday, 6 January 2012 3:12 AM
> To: NT System Admin Issues
> Subject: RE: GPO reset of local non-builtin accounts
> 
> Damn...you guys make me look good, that was it!
> 
> Just approved me a non-critical update in WSUS to take care of that on 
> my
> servers...:)
> 
> Dave
> 
> From: Kennedy, Jim
> [mailto:[email protected]]<mailto:[mailto:kennedyjim@elyria
> schools.org]>
> Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2012 8:31 AM
> To: NT System Admin Issues
> Subject: RE: GPO reset of local non-builtin accounts
> 
> The 2003 servers don't have the latest updates for GPP installed would 
> be my bet.
> 
> From: David Lum
> [mailto:[email protected]]<mailto:[mailto:[email protected]]>
> Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2012 11:30 AM
> To: NT System Admin Issues
> Subject: RE: GPO reset of local non-builtin accounts
> 
> Any reason this wouldn't work with 2003 servers? The don't seem to be 
> picking it up. W2K8 is no problemo...
> 
> I copied the GPO we use that works on XP/Win7 and modified it to point 
> to the added account and server OU only, no WMI filtering is on.
> 
> From: James Hill
> [mailto:[email protected]]<mailto:[mailto:[email protected]]>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2012 12:25 PM
> To: NT System Admin Issues
> Subject: RE: GPO reset of local non-builtin accounts
> 
> There certainly is (with GPP).  It can be used to create, update or 
> delete local users
> 
> Computer Configuration/Preferences/Control Panel Settings/Local Users 
> and Groups
> 
> Create a new Local User and fill in the details:- 
> [cid:[email protected]]
> 
> This is a great GPP to do a domain wide change of the local Admin 
> password as well.  Very handy when you have an IT staff member resign 
> who knows the local admin password.
> 
> James.
> 
> 
> From: David Lum
> [mailto:[email protected]]<mailto:[mailto:[email protected]]>
> Sent: Thursday, 5 January 2012 4:14 AM
> To: NT System Admin Issues
> Subject: GPO reset of local non-builtin accounts
> 
> Is there a way to GPO a password change of added-in local machine 
> accounts if the account is the same across all systems? I can do it 
> easily enough with the BuiltIn ones, but see no GPO way to do added ones.
> David Lum
> Systems Engineer // NWEATM
> Office 503.548.5229 // Cell (voice/text) 503.267.9764
> 
> 
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