5.1 Security Considerations for Implementers

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The Task Scheduler Remoting Protocol has no integral method of security. Instead, this protocol relies upon the underlying transports, such as Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) Remote Protocol [MS-DCOM] and RPC, to provide security across the wire.

Authentication Levels: Due to credentials being transferred between client and server on this remote protocol, implementers are advised to use PKT_PRIVACY authentication level only, as specified in [MS-RPCE] section 2.2.1.1.8.<82>

Preferred security providers: Implementers are advised to use Windows NT LAN Manager (NTLM) as the security provider, that is, RPC_C_AUTHN_WINNT – NTLM, as specified in [MS-RPCE] section 2.2.1.1.8.

Authentication Methods: For all three protocol interfaces, the RPC server requires RPC_C_AUTHN_GSS_NEGOTIATE or RPC_C_AUTHN_WINNT authorization. The RPC client uses an authentication level of RPC_C_AUTHN_LEVEL_PKT_PRIVACY (value = 6), as specified in [MS-RPCE] section 2.2.1.1.8.

The SAGetAccountInformation method in the SASec interface (section 3.2.5.3.7) has a wszBuffer input/output parameter. To avoid sending uninitialized memory, implementers are advised to create the client such that it initializes the buffer before it is sent.

The SchRpcRetrieveTask method in the ITaskSchedulerService interface (section 3.2.5.4.3) has a pulNumLanguages input parameter that is unused. To avoid sending uninitialized memory, implementers are advised to create the client implementation such that it specifies the address of an initialized DWORD.