Devices: Restrict floppy access to locally logged-on user only

Applies to

  • Windows 11
  • Windows 10

Describes the best practices, location, values, and security considerations for the Devices: Restrict floppy access to locally logged-on user only security policy setting.

Reference

This policy setting determines whether removable floppy disks are accessible to local and remote users simultaneously. Enabling this policy setting allows only the interactively logged-on user to access removable floppy disks. If this policy setting is enabled and no one is logged on interactively, the floppy disk can be accessed over the network.

The security benefit of enabling this policy setting is small because it only prevents network users from accessing the floppy disk drive when someone is logged on to the local console of the system at the same time. Additionally, floppy disk drives aren't automatically made available as network shared drives; you must deliberately choose to share the drive. This setting to share becomes important when you're installing software or copying data from a floppy disk and they don't want network users to be able to execute the applications or view the data.

If this policy setting is enabled, users who connect to the server over the network won't be able to use any floppy disk drives that are installed on the server when anyone is logged on to the local console of the server.

Possible values

  • Enabled
  • Disabled
  • Not defined

Best practices

  • Best practices are dependent on your security and user accessibility requirements for CD drives.

Location

Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options

Default values

The following table lists the actual and effective default values for this policy. Default values are also listed on the policy’s property page.

Server type or GPO Default value
Default Domain Policy Not defined
Default Domain Controller Policy Not defined
Stand-Alone Server Default Settings Disabled
DC Effective Default Settings Disabled
Member Server Effective Default Settings Disabled
Client Computer Effective Default Settings Disabled

Policy management

This section describes features and tools that are available to help you manage this policy.

Restart requirement

None. Changes to this policy become effective without a device restart when they're saved locally or distributed through Group Policy.

Security considerations

This section describes how an attacker might exploit a feature or its configuration, how to implement the countermeasure, and the possible negative consequences of countermeasure implementation.

Vulnerability

A remote user could potentially access a mounted floppy disk that contains sensitive information. This risk is small because floppy disk drives aren't automatically shared; administrators must deliberately choose to share the drive. However, you can deny network users the ability to view data or run applications from removable media on the server.

Countermeasure

Enable the Devices: Restrict floppy access to locally logged-on user only setting.

Potential impact

Users who connect to the server over the network can't use any floppy disk drives that are installed on the device when anyone is logged on to the local console of the server. System tools that require access to floppy disk drives fail. For example, the Volume Shadow Copy service attempts to access all CD-ROM and floppy disk drives that are present on the computer when it initializes, and if the service can't access one of these drives, it fails. This condition causes the Windows Backup tool to fail if volume shadow copies were specified for the backup job. Any non-Microsoft backup products that use volume shadow copies also fail.