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Recommended Baseline Audit Policy for Windows Server 2008

If you enable too wide an audit policy you will be innundated with "noise" events. I recommend starting with this and tweaking from there. This policy turns off the worst offenders and other categories whose events aren't typically worth much. 

Before using this recommendation make sure you review my article on auditpol and its related articles as well!

(Running all these commands at once also makes your hard drive emit a really cool sound pattern,too!)

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Security State Change" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Security System Extension" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"System Integrity" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"IPsec Driver" /success:disable /failure:disable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Other System Events" /success:disable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Logon" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Logoff" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Account Lockout" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"IPsec Main Mode" /success:disable /failure:disable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"IPsec Quick Mode" /success:disable /failure:disable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"IPsec Extended Mode" /success:disable /failure:disable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Special Logon" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Other Logon/Logoff Events" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Network Policy Server" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"File System" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Registry" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Kernel Object" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"SAM" /success:disable /failure:disable

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Certification Services" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Application Generated" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Handle Manipulation" /success:disable /failure:disable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"File Share" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Filtering Platform Packet Drop" /success:disable /failure:disable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Filtering Platform Connection" /success:disable /failure:disable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Other Object Access Events" /success:disable /failure:disable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Sensitive Privilege Use" /success:disable /failure:disable

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Non Sensitive Privilege Use" /success:disable /failure:disable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Other Privilege Use Events" /success:disable /failure:disable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Process Creation" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Process Termination" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"DPAPI Activity" /success:disable /failure:disable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"RPC Events" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Audit Policy Change" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Authentication Policy Change" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Authorization Policy Change" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"MPSSVC Rule-Level Policy Change" /success:disable /failure:disable

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Filtering Platform Policy Change" /success:disable /failure:disable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Other Policy Change Events" /success:disable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"User Account Management" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Computer Account Management" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Security Group Management" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Distribution Group Management" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Application Group Management" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Other Account Management Events" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Directory Service Access" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Directory Service Changes" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Directory Service Replication" /success:disable /failure:disable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Detailed Directory Service Replication" /success:disable /failure:disable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Credential Validation" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Kerberos Service Ticket Operations" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Other Account Logon Events" /success:enable /failure:enable 

auditpol /set /subcategory:"Kerberos Authentication Service" /success:enable /failure:enable

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