Windows 10: Is it safe to disable Windows Control Flow Guard

/u/vishykeh · Aug 16, 2020

Hey!

I saw some other threads stating that it improves stuttering in DX12 games. Would it be safe to just disable this feature for a game specifically and not globally. The games are play are offline singleplayer games anyway.

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:)

HariharanSreenivas · Aug 16, 2020

Control Flow Guard (CFG) not enabled in C# application.

I used Process Explorer to check if CFG is enabled in my C# application. CFG was disabled. I found only a Microsoft document on how to enable CFG in Visual Studio 2015. But that was only for C/C++ projects.

Control Flow Guard

I read that CFG is enabled by default in Windows 10 but it is not enabled in my application. I found another way to enable CFG for my application by enabling strict CFG in the Windows Security Center. But I encountered the following error:

"The specified image file was blocked from loading because it does not enable a feature required by the process: Control Flow Guard"

Is there any other way to enable CFG manually?

Brink · Aug 16, 2020

Credential Guard lab companion

If you have heard about Credential Guard in Windows Server 2016 (and in Windows 10), but do not have an environment to try it out, here is a lab environment we built for you to play.

Lab access

The link will lead you to a sign up page, after that, you will see the following labs listed for Windows Server 2016:

Windows Server 2016 labs

There are 3 exercises in the “Implementing Breach Resistance Security in Windows Server 2016”:

Credential Guard

Remote Credential Guard

Device Guard

This blogpost will walk you through the Credential Guard lab details.

After click on the link of Breach Resistance lab, you be required to sign in and then you can launch the lab:

Sign-in

Launch page

It takes a few minutes to create the VMs, and once it has done, you will see the following machines prepared:

Initialize

DC: domain controller, which is not used for this exercise.

SRV01 and SRV02: both are Windows Server 2016, and used for the lab exercise.

Lab exercise – Explained

The steps are listed in the Content section:

Content

This lab is structured to cover the following in sequence:

Understand how attackers can use the hash in memory to gain access to domain controllers

Configure Credential Guard

Verify the hash in memory is protected using Credential Guard

You can follow the steps listed under the content section to complete the lab, the intent of the blog, is to break the procedures into groups, to help you understand the exercise better.

Prep the hash

Lsass.exe is the process which handles user logon, it stores the user credential information in its memory. The memory is cleared when the machine starts up. In this lab environment, all the virtual machines start at the time lab launches, when you logon to the machine, you will only have the logon user credential information in memory. In order to demonstrate an attacker gaining user access using other account’s hash, the first part of the lab is to simulate a server which has been running for a while, different users had remotely or locally connected to it, therefore, lsass memory stored many different user credential information.
This is accomplished by step 1-8.

Retrieving credential hash

Mimikatz is a popular tool for retrieving lsass memory information. The tool has been copied to the lab machines, step 9-13 walk you through the process of dumping lsass memory using Mimikatz.

Pass the Hash

Pass the hash is a hacking technique that allows an attacker to authenticate by using the underlying NTLM, instead of specifying the user password. In step 14 to 24, you will extract LabAdmin hash from lsass using Mimikatz, and use the hash to open a PowerShell console, and perform a couple of operations using the LabAdmin privilege:

Add a user to the domain admin group

Open remote PowerShell connection to a domain controller

Both operations could not be performed by the logon user. But using the hash of the LabAdmin, an attacker will be able to do it using the information retrieve from Lsass memory.

Configure and verify Credential Guard

Step 25 to 36 illustrate the steps to configure credential guard, then verify its status using msinfo32.exe and PowerShell.

Step 37 to 43 goes further to use Mimikatz to show the hash in Lsass is now encrypted using Credential Guard.

More info

The exercise illustrated the benefit of Credential Guard in Windows Server 2016 as well as Windows 10. For more information, you can find here.
Click to expand...

Source: Credential Guard lab companion Datacenter and Private Cloud Security Blog

See also:

Enable or Disable Credential Guard in Windows 10 Windows 10 Security System Tutorials

Verify if Credential Guard is Enabled or Disabled in Windows 10 Windows 10 Security System Tutorials

Ramhound · Aug 16, 2020

VMware Workstation can be run after disabling Device/Credential Guard

I try to install windows sandbox in my windows 10 home
Click to expand...

Windows Sandbox cannot be enabled on Windows 10 Home. The workaround you most likely used, does not even work, and has never actually worked. However, when you attempted to enable Windows Sandbox, it also enabled Credential Guard and Device Guard.

The first thing you need to backup any critical files you cannot live without. Depending on the state of your system you might decide it's time to simply reinstall Windows 10 Home. An alternative is to upgrade to Windows 10 Professional so you can Enable Windows Sandbox then disable it properly. The following suggestion was written against an assumption that Windows Sandbox was properly enabled and not left in a broken state due to a workaround solution on Windows 10 Home.

Windows Security -->> Device Security -->> Core Isolation -->> Memory Integrity -->> Select Off

Since you are using Windows 10 Home you will have to install the group policy editor to perform next step.

Set Local Computer Policy ->> Computer Configuration ->> Administrative Templates ->> System - Device Guard ->> Turn on
Virtualization to Disabled

Be sure Enabled with UEFI lock is not enabled.

Download the Device Guard and Credential Guard Hardware Readiness Tool and run the following command as an Administrator.

DG_Readiness_Tool_v3.6.ps1 -Disable -AutoReboot

You also need to disable both Hyper-V and Windows Sandbox. The following commands assume you are running Windows 10 Professional or Windows 10 Enterprise.

Dism /online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:”Containers-DisposableClientVM” -All

Dism /online /Disable-Feature /FeatureName:”Containers-DisposableClientVM”

Dism /Online /Disable-Feature:Microsoft-Hyper-V

You should reboot your machine at this point

Click to expand...

Source:

Windows Sandbox Feature enables windows defender credential guard feature sets. Does not play well with VMware Workstation

Manage Windows Defender Credential Guard

VMware Player and Device/Credential Guard are not compatible

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