Windows Security Settings(Comptia Objective 2.6)

Question 1

What are the various types of users on a Windows computer?

Answer 1

• Administrator( The Windows Super user) able to control everything about the operating system
• Guest ( Has limited access)
• Standard Users are what most system users are they have access to many of the operating system features such as word documents, spreadsheets, the internet but do not have full access like administrators do.

Question 2

When it comes to Groups in Windows what do Power Users have access to?

Answer 2

• Power Users have a little bit more access to the OS than Standard users but still don’ have full access like an administrator would.

Question 3

What are the differences between NTFS and Share permissions?

Answer 3

• NTFS permissions apply from local and network connections.
• Share permissions only apply to connections over the network. E.G. A “ network share”
• NTFS and Share permissions can sometimes conflict and in this situation the most restrictive setting always wins( Deny always beats allow)
• NTFS permissions are inherited from the parent object so you don’t have to manually assign permissions to each and every file unless you move to a different folder on the same volume.

Question 4

Shared Files and Folders are often called?

Answer 4

• Administrative Shares
  Hidden shares( i.e C$) created during installation
  Local shares are created by users.
  ** Note any share that has a $ sign at the end of it will be hidden by the operating system. E.G:
• C$ -\
• Admin$ - \Windows
• Print$ - Printers folder
• To list all of the hidden shares you can type “ netshare” into the command prompt to list them out or for GUI based view use “Computer Management” and click on shared folders to see a full list.

Question 5

What are Explicit and inherited permissions and how do they work?

Answer 5

• Explicit permissions are when you manually assign permissions on a folder by folder basis. They set default permissions for the share
• Inherited permissions are propogated or inherited from a parent object to the child object. E.G. Your music folder has it’s default share permissions and then all of the folders inside of that music folder would inherit the permissions of the music folder. Here you would set the permission once and then it applies to everything underneath that folder hierarchy.
• If we change the default permissions of a file or folder then the permissions become Explicit and take precedence over inherited permissions, even inherited deny permissions.

Question 6

What is user authentication and how does it work?

Answer 6

• Authentication. You prove you are the valid account holder by providing a username and password and perhaps additional credentials.
• Another form of User authentication would be a Single sign-on(SSO) such as a Windows Domain, you provide credentials one time and then no additional pop-ups or interruptions will occur. This form of authentication is managed through Kerberos.

Question 7

What does “ Run as administrator” do in Windows?

Answer 7

• Administrators have special rights and permissions including editing system files, installing services etc
• By default even by logging in as an administrator you don’t have full administrator access even if you’re in the administrators group so you would right click on an application and select “ run as administrator” to give you full access. Or you can Cntrl-Shift-Enter to give you admin access.

Question 8

What is Bitlocker and what does it allow you to do?

Answer 8

• Provides Full Disk Encryption. Not just a single file, protects all of your data, including the Operating system itself
• If you lose your laptop it doesn’t matter without a password all of your data on that laptop would be encrypted.
• Data is always protected. Even if the physical drive is moved to another computer.

Question 9

What allows you to encrypt removable USB Flash Drives?

Answer 9

• Bitlocker To Go

Encrypts removable USB flash drives.

Question 10

What is EFS? What does it do?

Answer 10

• Encrypting File System. Allows you to encrypt at the filesystem level using NTFS. This is useful for those who don’t want to encrypt an entire system using Bitlocker and just want to encrypt on a file by file basis.
• Suppported on Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate as well as Windows 8 and 8.1 Pro and Enterprise as well as Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, and Education.
• Uses a password and username to encrypt the key. Administrative resets will cause EFS files to become inaccessible.