Nov 21, 2019  The Security Compliance Toolkit (SCT) is a set of tools that allows enterprise security administrators to download, analyze, test, edit, and store Microsoft-recommended security configuration baselines for Windows and other Microsoft products. The SCT enables administrators to effectively manage their enterprise’s Group Policy Objects (GPOs).

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Applies to

• Windows 10
• Windows Server
• Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise

Using security baselines in your organization

Microsoft is dedicated to providing its customers with secure operating systems, such as Windows 10 and Windows Server, and secure apps, such as Microsoft Edge. In addition to the security assurance of its products, Microsoft also enables you to have fine control over your environments by providing various configuration capabilities.

Even though Windows and Windows Server are designed to be secure out-of-the-box, many organizations still want more granular control over their security configurations. To navigate the large number of controls, organizations need guidance on configuring various security features. Microsoft provides this guidance in the form of security baselines.

We recommend that you implement an industry-standard configuration that is broadly known and well-tested, such as Microsoft security baselines, as opposed to creating a baseline yourself. This helps increase flexibility and reduce costs.

Here is a good blog about Sticking with Well-Known and Proven Solutions.

What are security baselines?

Every organization faces security threats. However, the types of security threats that are of most concern to one organization can be completely different from another organization. For example, an e-commerce company may focus on protecting its Internet-facing web apps, while a hospital may focus on protecting confidential patient information. The one thing that all organizations have in common is a need to keep their apps and devices secure. These devices must be compliant with the security standards (or security baselines) defined by the organization.

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A security baseline is a group of Microsoft-recommended configuration settings that explains their security impact. These settings are based on feedback from Microsoft security engineering teams, product groups, partners, and customers.

Why are security baselines needed?

Security baselines are an essential benefit to customers because they bring together expert knowledge from Microsoft, partners, and customers.

For example, there are over 3,000 Group Policy settings for Windows 10, which does not include over 1,800 Internet Explorer 11 settings. Of these 4,800 settings, only some are security-related. Although Microsoft provides extensive guidance on different security features, exploring each one can take a long time. You would have to determine the security impact of each setting on your own. Then, you would still need to determine the appropriate value for each setting.

In modern organizations, the security threat landscape is constantly evolving, and IT pros and policy-makers must keep up with security threats and make required changes to Windows security settings to help mitigate these threats. To enable faster deployments and make managing Windows easier, Microsoft provides customers with security baselines that are available in consumable formats, such as Group Policy Objects Backups.

How can you use security baselines?

You can use security baselines to:

• Ensure that user and device configuration settings are compliant with the baseline.
• Set configuration settings. For example, you can use Group Policy, Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, or Microsoft Intune to configure a device with the setting values specified in the baseline.

Where can I get the security baselines?

You can download the security baselines from the Microsoft Download Center. This download page is for the Security Compliance Toolkit (SCT), which comprises tools that can assist admins in managing baselines in addition to the security baselines.

The security baselines are included in the Security Compliance Toolkit (SCT), which can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center. The SCT also includes tools to help admins manage the security baselines.

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What is the Security Compliance Toolkit (SCT)?

The Security Compliance Toolkit (SCT) is a set of tools that allows enterprise security administrators to download, analyze, test, edit, and store Microsoft-recommended security configuration baselines for Windows and other Microsoft products.

The SCT enables administrators to effectively manage their enterprise’s Group Policy Objects (GPOs). Using the toolkit, administrators can compare their current GPOs with Microsoft-recommended GPO baselines or other baselines, edit them, store them in GPO backup file format, and apply them broadly through Active Directory or individually through local policy.

The Security Compliance Toolkit consists of:

• Windows 10 security baselines

  • Windows 10 Version 1909 (November 2019 Update)
  • Windows 10 Version 1903 (May 2019 Update)
  • Windows 10 Version 1809 (October 2018 Update)
  • Windows 10 Version 1803 (April 2018 Update)
  • Windows 10 Version 1709 (Fall Creators Update)
  • Windows 10 Version 1607 (Anniversary Update)
  • Windows 10 Version 1507

• Windows Server security baselines

  • Windows Server 2019
  • Windows Server 2016
  • Windows Server 2012 R2

• Microsoft Office security baseline

  • Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise (Sept 2019)

• Microsoft Edge security baseline

  • Version 80

• Tools

  • Policy Analyzer tool
  • Local Group Policy Object (LGPO) tool

You can download the tools along with the baselines for the relevant Windows versions. For more details about security baseline recommendations, see the Microsoft Security Guidance blog.

What is the Policy Analyzer tool?

The Policy Analyzer is a utility for analyzing and comparing sets of Group Policy Objects (GPOs). Its main features include:

• Highlight when a set of Group Policies has redundant settings or internal inconsistencies
• Highlight the differences between versions or sets of Group Policies
• Compare GPOs against current local policy and local registry settings
• Export results to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet

Policy Analyzer lets you treat a set of GPOs as a single unit. This makes it easy to determine whether particular settings are duplicated across the GPOs or are set to conflicting values. Policy Analyzer also lets you capture a baseline and then compare it to a snapshot taken at a later time to identify changes anywhere across the set.

More information on the Policy Analyzer tool can be found on the Microsoft Security Guidance blog or by downloading the tool.

What is the Local Group Policy Object (LGPO) tool?

LGPO.exe is a command-line utility that is designed to help automate management of Local Group Policy.Using local policy gives administrators a simple way to verify the effects of Group Policy settings, and is also useful for managing non-domain-joined systems.LGPO.exe can import and apply settings from Registry Policy (Registry.pol) files, security templates, Advanced Auditing backup files, as well as from formatted “LGPO text” files.It can export local policy to a GPO backup.It can export the contents of a Registry Policy file to the “LGPO text” format that can then be edited, and can build a Registry Policy file from an LGPO text file.

Documentation for the LGPO tool can be found on the Microsoft Security Guidance blog or by downloading the tool.