Windows Server GPO Hardening & Compliance Lab

Project Overview

This lab demonstrates the practical application of Group Policy Objects (GPO) to secure a corporate network. I focused on "Least Privilege" principles and department-specific security scoping within a Windows Server 2022 environment.

Key Security Implementations

• Granular Scoping: Created and linked the GPO_Finance_Desktop_Lockdown policy specifically to the Finance Organizational Unit (OU) to ensure high-security restrictions didn't disrupt other departments.
• System Hardening: - Command Prompt Restriction: Disabled access to cmd.exe to prevent unauthorized script execution.
  • Control Panel Lockdown: Restricted access to system settings to maintain a standardized user environment.
  • Task Manager Block: Prevented users from killing critical security processes or monitoring tools.
• Desktop Environment Control: Forced a uniform corporate wallpaper and restricted desktop icon modifications to ensure brand compliance and professional standards.

Skills Demonstrated

• Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)
• Group Policy Management (GPMC)
• Security Compliance & Hardening
• Organizational Unit (OU) Management
• Troubleshooting (GPUpdate /force & Resultant Set of Policy)

Documentation

The full lab report, including configuration screenshots and policy validation, is available below:

View Control & Compliance Lab PDF