Secure Guest Account
The first step is to enable guest accounts, which is disabled by default. Type computer into the Start Menu search box, as shown in Figure A, and then click on the Computer Management item in the results.
Figure A
Find the guest account setting.
Navigate the left tree hierarchy to the Users Folder under Local Users and Groups (Figure B). Double-click the Guest entry.
Figure B
Enable guest accounts.
On the next configuration screen (Figure C), uncheck the Account Is Disabled box to enable guest accounts.
Figure C
Uncheck to enable.
Set password
By default, the guest account password is blank, but that is an unnecessary security risk, so you should establish a password. Right-click the Guest entry in the Computer Management console and click the Set Password entry (Figure D). The ensuing warnings are not a concern if you just enabled the guest account.
Figure D
Set the guest account password.
No network access
Another potential security problem occurs if the guest account is accessible by other users across the network. To prevent this, type local security into the Start Menu search box and then click the Local Security Policy entry, as shown in Figure E.
Figure E
Modify the Local Security Policy.
Navigate to the Local Policies | User Rights Assignments entry. Scroll down the list of policies until you find Deny Access to This Computer from the Network. Guest should be one of the denied accounts listed. If it isn’t, add it (Figure F).
Figure F
Deny access.
Prevent shutdown
Another potential security vulnerability occurs during the PC shutdown process. You should deny the guest account the ability to shut down a PC. Go back to the Local Security Policy consoled as you did before, navigate to Local Policies | User Rights Assignments, and look for the entry Shut Down the System (Figure G). Double-click the entry to make sure the Guest account is not in the list (Figure H).
Figure G
Verify the Shut Down the System entry.
Figure H
Guest is not on the list.
Event logs
One last security concern is the Event logs. You don’t want a guest account to have access to that information. The most efficient way to manage these settings is with a Registry edit.
Warning: Editing the Windows Registry should be done with caution; we recommend that you have a verified backup of the file ready in case of a catastrophic failure.
Type regedit into the Start Menu Search box and then click the regedit.exe entry. Navigate down the keys until you reach this entry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Eventlog
Under this key are three important sub-keys: Application, Security, and System (Figure I). There should be a key under each section: Restrict Guest Access. And each of those keys should have a corresponding DWORD of “1″ that enables this restriction.
Figure I
DWORD should be 1.
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