4956(S): Windows Firewall has changed the active profile.

Event 4956 illustration

Subcategory: Audit MPSSVC Rule-Level Policy Change

Event Description:

This event generates when Windows Firewall has changed the active profile.

Note  For recommendations, see Security Monitoring Recommendations for this event.


Event XML:

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
 <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing" Guid="{54849625-5478-4994-A5BA-3E3B0328C30D}" /> 
 <EventID>4956</EventID> 
 <Version>0</Version> 
 <Level>0</Level> 
 <Task>13571</Task> 
 <Opcode>0</Opcode> 
 <Keywords>0x8020000000000000</Keywords> 
 <TimeCreated SystemTime="2015-10-03T00:14:56.676017600Z" /> 
 <EventRecordID>1050811</EventRecordID> 
 <Correlation /> 
 <Execution ProcessID="500" ThreadID="2216" /> 
 <Channel>Security</Channel> 
 <Computer>DC01.contoso.local</Computer> 
 <Security /> 
 </System>
- <EventData>
 <Data Name="ActiveProfile">Domain</Data> 
 </EventData>
 </Event>

Required Server Roles: None.

Minimum OS Version: Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista.

Event Versions: 0.

Field Descriptions:

New Active Profile [Type = UnicodeString]: the name of the new active profile. Possible values are:

  • Domain

  • Public

  • Private

Security Monitoring Recommendations

For 4956(S): Windows Firewall has changed the active profile.

  • Typically this event has an informational purpose.

  • For domain joined machines you could monitor for all events where New Active Profile doesn’t equal “Domain”. This indicates that the computer was connected to another non-domain network.