Audit Sensitive Privilege Use

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Applies To: Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8

This topic for the IT professional describes the Advanced Security Audit policy setting, Audit Sensitive Privilege Use, which determines whether the operating system generates audit events when sensitive privileges (user rights) are used.

Actions that can be audited include:

  • A privileged service is called.

  • One of the following privileges is called:

    • Act as part of the operating system

    • Back up files and directories

    • Create a token object

    • Debug programs

    • Enable computer and user accounts to be trusted for delegation

    • Generate security audits

    • Impersonate a client after authentication

    • Load and unload device drivers

    • Manage auditing and security log

    • Modify firmware environment values

    • Replace a process-level token

    • Restore files and directories

    • Take ownership of files or other objects

If you configure this policy setting, an audit event is generated when sensitive privilege requests are made. Success audits record successful attempts, and failure audits record unsuccessful attempts.

Event volume: High

Default: Not configured

If this policy setting is configured, the following events appear on computers running the supported versions of the Windows operating system as designated in the Applies to list at the beginning of this topic, in addition to Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista.

Event ID

Event message

4672

Special privileges assigned to new logon.

4673

A privileged service was called.

4674

An operation was attempted on a privileged object.

Advanced Security Audit Policy Settings