This policy setting determines which user accounts will have the right to attach a debugger to any process or to the kernel, which provides complete access to sensitive and critical operating system components. Developers who are debugging their own applications do not need to be assigned this user right; however, developers who are debugging new system components will need it. Note: Microsoft released several security updates in October 2003 that used a version of Update.exe that required the administrator to have the Debug programs user right. Administrators who did not have this user right were unable to install these security updates until they reconfigured their user rights. This is not typical behavior for operating system updates. For more information, see Knowledge Base article 830846: 'Windows Product Updates may stop responding or may use most or all the CPU resources.' Countermeasure: Remove the accounts of all users and groups that do not require the Debug programs user right. Potential Impact: If you revoke this user right, no one will be able to debug programs. However, typical circumstances rarely require this capability on production computers. If a problem arises that requires an application to be debugged on a production server, you can move the server to a different OU temporarily and assign the Debug programs user right to a separate Group Policy for that OU. [list_of_users_followed_by_comma] (1) GPO: Computer Configuration\\Windows Settings\\Security Settings\\Local Policies\\User Rights Assignment\\Debug programs (2) REG: ### (3) WMI: root\\rsop\\computer#RSOP_UserPrivilegeRight#AccountList#UserRight='SeDebugPrivilege' and precedence=1 oval:gov.nist.usgcb.xp:def:174 BITS Shared Assessments SIG v6.0 Jericho Forum HIPAA/HITECH Act FedRAMP Security Controls(Final Release Jan 2012)--LOW IMPACT LEVEL-- ISO/IEC 27001-2005 COBIT 4.1 GAPP (Aug 2009) NERC CIP NIST SP800-53 R3 AC-3 NIST SP800-53 R3 CM-6 PCIDSS v2.0 FedRAMP Security Controls(Final Release Jan 2012)--MODERATE IMPACT LEVEL-- BITS Shared Assessments AUP v5.0 SCAP Repo OVAL Definition 2012-04-13 BITS Shared Assessments SIG v6.0 2012-10-12 Jericho Forum 2012-10-12 HIPAA/HITECH Act 2012-10-12 ISO/IEC 27001-2005 2012-10-12 COBIT 4.1 2012-10-12 GAPP (Aug 2009) 2012-10-12 NERC CIP 2012-10-12 NIST SP800-53 R3 2012-10-12 PCIDSS v2.0 2012-10-12 BITS Shared Assessments AUP v5.0 2012-10-12