Configure credentialed scanning for Windows systems

You can provide credentials to a Managed Risk Scanner to allow the scanner to scan your environment with elevated permissions.

Note: To configure credentialed scanning in the Arctic Wolf Unified Portal, see Configure credentialed scanning for Windows systems in the Unified Portal.
On Windows, credentialed scans use SMB on port 139 and 445 to authenticate using a username and password.
  • Newer versions of SMB use port 445 to directly operate over TCP/IP. NetBIOS is not used.
  • Older versions of SMB use port 139 over TCP/IP. This port is used for file and printer sharing over NetBIOS.
Note:
  • If you rotate your credentials, you must reset them on the scanner as well.
  • To minimize security risks, Arctic Wolf recommends that you use these credentials for scanning only. Do not provide more permissions to these credentials or use them with systems other than the scanner.

These resources are required:

  • A valid username, which can contain these characters:
    • Any alphanumeric character
    • -
    • _
    • @
    • .
    • \
  • A user account that:
    • Has administrator access privileges.
    • Has PowerShell execution privileges.
    • If your system is not attached to a domain controller (DC), or if you are using a local administrator account on a system that is attached to a DC — Uses this registry key:
      SHELL 
      HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\
DWORD: LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy = 1
    • If your system is attached to a DC — Is a group domain administrator.

These actions are required:

  • Make sure that the scanner can sign into scan targets without access policy restrictions on targets.
  • Make sure that the Remote Registry service is active. The Remote Registry Service must be active so that the scanner can access the registry.
    Note: You can configure the system to automatically start the registry service at startup. If you configure the system to start the registry service manually, the service starts during credential scans by the scanner and is disabled afterwards.
  • Activate file and printer sharing on the target systems.
  • You may need to create an exception rule for the scanner in your firewall. Make sure that there are no security policies that would block the scanner from performing credential checks.
  1. Sign in to the Risk Dashboard.
  2. In the navigation menu, click Scanner Config.
  3. Do one of these actions:
    • If you are adding new scan credentials — In the Credentialed Scanning section, click Add new scan credentials.
    • If you are updated existing scan credentials — In the Credentialed Scanning section, next to the scan credentials you want to updated, click Edit.
    The Configure Credentials for Target Hosts dialog appears.
  4. Configure these settings:
    • Name — Enter a name for the credential.
      Note: This name cannot be the same as another credential.
    • Description — (Optional) Enter a description for the credential.
    • Hosts — Enter the IP addresses of the target hosts in a comma-separated list.
      Tip: This field also accepts IP ranges using a hyphen. For example, 10.0.0.1-3.
      Note: These IP addresses cannot overlap with the targets of another scan credential.
  5. In the Type list, select Username/Password and enter the Username and Password.
  6. Click Okay.