Ensure No Auditing for 'Audit Policy: DS Access: Directory Service Changes' This subcategory reports changes to objects in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). The types of changes that are reported are create, modify, move, and undelete operations that are performed on an object. DS Change auditing, where appropriate, indicates the old and new values of the changed properties of the objects that were changed. Only objects with SACLs cause audit events to be generated, and only when they are accessed in a manner that matches their SACL. Some objects and properties do not cause audit events to be generated due to settings on the object class in the schema. This subcategory applies only to domain controllers. Events for this subcategory include: - 5136 : A directory service object was modified. - 5137 : A directory service object was created. - 5138 : A directory service object was undeleted. - 5139 : A directory service object was moved. Note The following event in the Directory Service Changes subcategory is available only in Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and in Windows Server 2008. - 5141: A directory service object was deleted. Refer to the Microsoft Knowledgebase article "Description of security events in Windows Vista and in Windows Server 2008" for the most recent information about this setting: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947226. Counter Measure: Enable Audit policy settings that support the organizational security policy for all the computers in your organization. Identify the components that you need for an audit policy that enables your organization to hold users accountable for their actions while using organizational resources and enables IT departments to detect unauthorized activity efficiently and then track those events in log files. Potential Impact: If no audit settings are configured, or if audit settings are too lax on the computers in your organization, security incidents might not be detected or not enough evidence will be available for network forensic analysis after security incidents occur. However, if audit settings are too severe, critically important entries in the Security log may be obscured by all of the meaningless entries and computer performance and the available amount of data storage may be seriously affected. Companies that operate in certain regulated industries may have legal obligations to log certain events or activities.

(1) GPO: Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Advanced Audit Policy Configuration\Audit Policies\DS Access\Audit Policy: DS Access: Directory Service Changes