M5   Windows NT Security
Rik Farrow, Consultant

Who should attend: System and network administrators and programmers who work with NT systems and need to understand its security principles. Those accustomed to working with UNIX systems will benefit from the comparisons between UNIX and NT.

Windows NT is the result of an unusual marriage between disparate operating systems: a completely reworked replacement for DECs VMS and Windows 3.1. On the one hand, there are security features to satisfy the most avid control freak: centralized control over user accounts, file sharing, desktop appearance, fine grained object access, encryption, a security monitor, and auditing sensitive enough to capture most security related events. On the other hand, most programmers writing for NT have no concept of writing secure software for multiuser systems. After taking this tutorial participants will understand the complex security model of Windows NT which, when correctly configured, can make it reasonably secure.

This tutorial explains the security mechanisms in Windows NT, and how it can best be used to improve the security of networked NT systems. We will not only review NT's security related GUI's, we will go behind the scenes and discover the file and directory hierarchy of the trusted computing block, Web server (IIS), registery and event logs, and system files and libraries. Wherever possible we will explore the command line interfaces and tools for controlling and auditing security of NT systems. In this course you will learn about:

	The NT registry, a file system-like construct for storing device and application configuration, passwords, and other system values, all of which is protected by access control lists (ACLs);
	User accounts, local and global groups, rights, and privileges
	Domains, domain controllers, local and network authentication
	NT passwords, and collecting and cracking passwords
	ACLs for file, directories, and other objects
	NT's event and audit mechanism
	Correct configuration of IIS, RAS, network services, and protecting NT systems with firewalls