Implementing Anti-Ransomware Group Policy

When to Use

• Hardening a Windows Active Directory environment against ransomware execution and propagation
• Implementing defense-in-depth by blocking ransomware execution paths via Group Policy
• Configuring AppLocker or WDAC rules to prevent unauthorized executables from running in user-writable directories
• Enabling Controlled Folder Access to protect critical directories from unauthorized file modifications
• Restricting lateral movement vectors (RDP, SMB, WMI) that ransomware uses to spread across the domain

Do not use as a standalone ransomware defense. GPO settings complement but do not replace endpoint detection, backups, network segmentation, and user awareness training.

Prerequisites

• Windows Server 2016+ Active Directory environment with Group Policy Management Console (GPMC)
• Domain Admin or Group Policy Creator Owners privileges
• Windows 10/11 Enterprise or Education (required for AppLocker and WDAC)
• Microsoft Defender Antivirus enabled (required for Controlled Folder Access and ASR rules)
• Python 3.8+ for audit script that validates GPO compliance
• Test OU for validating GPO settings before domain-wide deployment

Workflow

Step 1: Block Ransomware Execution Paths with AppLocker

Configure AppLocker to prevent executables from running in common ransomware staging locations:

AppLocker GPO Path:
  Computer Configuration → Policies → Windows Settings →
  Security Settings → Application Control Policies → AppLocker

Key Rules:
━━━━━━━━━
1. DENY executable rules for user-writable paths:
   - %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp\*     (email attachment extraction)
   - %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\*         (CryptoLocker staging)
   - %USERPROFILE%\Downloads\*               (web downloads)
   - %TEMP%\*                                (temporary extraction)
   - %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\*                 (social engineering drops)

2. ALLOW default rules:
   - C:\Windows\* (signed by Microsoft)
   - C:\Program Files\* and C:\Program Files (x86)\*
   - Administrator group: all paths

3. Enable Application Identity service:
   Computer Configuration → Policies → Windows Settings →
   Security Settings → System Services →
   Application Identity → Automatic

Step 2: Enable Controlled Folder Access

Protect critical directories from unauthorized modification:

Controlled Folder Access GPO Path:
  Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates →
  Windows Components → Microsoft Defender Antivirus →
  Microsoft Defender Exploit Guard → Controlled Folder Access

Settings:
━━━━━━━━━
1. Configure Controlled folder access: Enabled → Block mode
2. Configure protected folders: Add custom paths
   - \\fileserver\shares\finance
   - \\fileserver\shares\hr
   - C:\Users\*\Documents
   - C:\Users\*\Desktop

3. Configure allowed applications: Whitelist trusted apps
   - C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\*
   - C:\Program Files\Adobe\*
   - Line-of-business applications

Default protected folders (automatic):
  Documents, Pictures, Videos, Music, Desktop, Favorites

Step 3: Configure Attack Surface Reduction (ASR) Rules

Enable ASR rules that target ransomware delivery mechanisms:

ASR Rules GPO Path:
  Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates →
  Windows Components → Microsoft Defender Antivirus →
  Microsoft Defender Exploit Guard → Attack Surface Reduction

Critical ASR Rules for Ransomware Prevention:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
GUID                                    Rule
BE9BA2D9-53EA-4CDC-84E5-9B1EEEE46550   Block executable content from email
D4F940AB-401B-4EFC-AADC-AD5F3C50688A   Block Office apps from creating child processes
3B576869-A4EC-4529-8536-B80A7769E899   Block Office apps from creating executable content
75668C1F-73B5-4CF0-BB93-3ECF5CB7CC84   Block Office apps from injecting into processes
D3E037E1-3EB8-44C8-A917-57927947596D   Block JavaScript/VBScript from launching downloads
5BEB7EFE-FD9A-4556-801D-275E5FFC04CC   Block execution of obfuscated scripts
92E97FA1-2EDF-4476-BDD6-9DD0B4DDDC7B   Block Win32 API calls from Office macros
01443614-CD74-433A-B99E-2ECDC07BFC25   Block executable files unless they meet prevalence criteria

Set each rule to: Block (1) or Audit (2) for initial testing

Step 4: Restrict Lateral Movement Vectors

Lock down SMB, RDP, and WMI to limit ransomware propagation:

Network Restrictions:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1. Disable SMBv1:

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