Table of Contents

Windows 10/11 STIG Script

Download all the required files from the GitHub Repository

Note: This script should work for most, if not all, systems without issue. While @SimeonOnSecurity creates, reviews, and tests each repo intensively, we can not test every possible configuration nor does @SimeonOnSecurity take any responsibility for breaking your system. If something goes wrong, be prepared to submit an issue. Do not run this script if you don’t understand what it does. It is your responsibility to review and test the script before running it.

Ansible:

We now offer a playbook collection for this script. Please see the following:

Introduction:

Windows 10 is insecure operating system out of the box and requires many changes to insure FISMA compliance. Organizations like Microsoft, Cyber.mil, the Department of Defense, and the National Security Agency have recommended and required configuration changes to lockdown, harden, and secure the operating system and ensure government compliance. These changes cover a wide range of mitigations including blocking telemetry, macros, removing bloatware, and preventing many physical attacks on a system.

Standalone systems are some of the most difficult and annoying systems to secure. When not automated, they require manual changes of each STIG/SRG. Totalling over 1000 configuration changes on a typical deployment and an average of 5 minutes per change equaling 3.5 days worth of work. This script aims to speed up that process significantly.

Notes:

  • This script is designed for operation in Enterprise environments and assumes you have hardware support for all the requirements.
  • This script is not designed to bring a system to 100% compliance, rather it should be used as a stepping stone to complete most, if not all, the configuration changes that can be scripted.
    • Minus system documentation, this collection should bring you up to about 95% compliance on all the STIGS/SRGs applied.

Requirements:

A list of scripts and tools this collection utilizes:

Additional configurations were considered from:

STIGS/SRGs Applied:

Editing policies in Local Group Policy after the fact:

  • Import the ADMX Policy definitions from this repo into C:\windows\PolicyDefinitions on the system you’re trying to modify.
  • Open gpedit.msc on on the system you’re trying to modify.

How to run the script:

Automated Install:

The script may be launched from the extracted GitHub download like this:

iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://simeononsecurity.ch/scripts/standalonewindows.ps1'))

Manual Install:

If manually downloaded, the script must be launched from the directory containing all the other files from the GitHub Repository

All of the parameters in the “secure-standalone.ps1” script are optional, with a default value of $true. This means that if no value is specified for a parameter when the script is run, it will be treated as if it were set to $true.

The script takes the following parameters, all of which are optional and default to $true if not specified:

  • cleargpos: (Boolean) Clear GPOs not being used
  • installupdates: (Boolean) Install updates and reboot if necessary
  • adobe: (Boolean) STIG Adobe Reader
  • firefox: (Boolean) STIG Firefox
  • chrome: (Boolean) STIG Chrome
  • IE11: (Boolean) STIG Internet Explorer 11
  • edge: (Boolean) STIG Edge
  • dotnet: (Boolean) STIG .NET Framework
  • office: (Boolean) STIG Office
  • onedrive: (Boolean) STIG OneDrive
  • java: (Boolean) STIG Java
  • windows: (Boolean) STIG Windows
  • defender: (Boolean) STIG Windows Defender
  • firewall: (Boolean) STIG Windows Firewall
  • mitigations: (Boolean) STIG Mitigations
  • nessusPID: (Boolean) Resolve Unquoted Strings in Path
  • horizon: (Boolean) STIG VMware Horizon
  • sosoptional: (Boolean) Optional STIG/Hardening items

An example of how to run the script with all default parameters would be:

.\secure-standalone.ps1

If you want to specify a different value for one or more of the parameters, you can include them in the command along with their desired value. For example, if you wanted to run the script and set the $firefox parameter to $false, the command would be:

.\secure-standalone.ps1 -firefox $false

You can also specify multiple parameters in the command like this:

.\secure-standalone.ps1 -firefox $false -chrome $false

Note that in this example, both the Firefox and Chrome parameters are set to $false.