Unable to Perform Nessus Authenticated Scan on a CIS Benchmarked Windows Server 2019-Azure Image

Question

When it was tried to perform an Authenticated Scan on a CIS Hardened Azure Image of Windows Server 2019 to verify the compliance against CIS Benchmark, I was unable to do .

Being an Local Administrator, tried changing the LocalAccountFilterPolicy registry value from (0) to (1) , but after restart of the machine, the registry value reverts to the same old value as 0.

FYI, the machine is not a part of any domain and it is in Workgroup.

Tried the steps as mentioned at the link https://superuser.com/questions/1534032/registry-key-values-reverted-to-default-after-reboot-in-windows-2019 , but NOTHING worked. So, Need a solution for the same to perform an Authenticated scan on the Machine.

Answer 1

Hi. Thank you for your question and reaching out. I’d be more than happy to help you with your query.

One of the following prerequisites might not be satisfied if you are unable to run a Nessus authenticated scan on a CIS Benchmarked Windows Server 2019-Azure Image:

1. To enable remote registry access for Nessus, confirm that the Remote Registry service is up and working on the target server.
2. Verify the user credentials you are using for authentication are legitimate and have the necessary access rights for the scan to perform.
3. Check to see if the server is not blocking any of the required ports for the scan to function.
4. Make sure the credentials are specified properly if you're utilizing a classic password-based authentication method.
5. Make that the Certificate Revocation List (CRL) is current if you're utilizing a certificate-based authentication method.

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