Vulnerability Discussion

Using certificates to authenticate devices to the domain provides increased security over passwords. By default systems will attempt to authenticate using certificates and fall back to passwords if the domain controller does not support certificates for devices. This may also be configured to always use certificates for device authentication.

Check

This requirement is applicable to domain-joined systems. For standalone or nondomain-joined systems, this is NA.

The default behavior for "Support device authentication using certificate" is "Automatic".

If the registry value name below does not exist, this is not a finding.

If it exists and is configured with a value of "1", this is not a finding.

If it exists and is configured with a value of "0", this is a finding.

Registry Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Registry Path: \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\Kerberos\Parameters\

Value Name: DevicePKInitEnabled
Value Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1 (or if the Value Name does not exist)

Fix

This requirement is applicable to domain-joined systems. For standalone or nondomain-joined systems, this is NA.

The default behavior for "Support device authentication using certificate" is "Automatic".

If this needs to be corrected, configure the policy value for Computer Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> System >> Kerberos >> "Support device authentication using certificate" to "Not Configured or "Enabled" with either option selected in "Device authentication behavior using certificate:".