microsoft / microsoft/CSS-Exchange

[Feature Request] check for "Debug Programs" right on Default Domain Controller Policy object in HealthChecker

Open
#2,275 8 comments 0 reactions 1 assignee View on GitHub

@dpaulson45 is already working on this.

Since Apr 24, 2025.

Awaiting feedback Enhancement Health Checker Low Priority Need Investigation P2
Dominant language
PowerShell
Stars
1.3k
Forks
395
Avg merge
14h 7m
Merged PRs (30d)
5

Description

Is your request related to a problem? Please describe.
A clear and concise description of what the problem is and the results it had on the environment.

HealthChecker script should check for the presence of "Debug Programs" user rights assigned to the "Exchange Servers" and "Exchange Trusted Subsystem" groups and flag as an issue if found

i ran into this problem a few times recently doing some security audits using the Purple Knight tool which did identify the issue

in short, at some point in the Exchange 2016 lifecycle some extra rights were written into the Active Directory GPO, Default Domain Controller Policy

Describe The Request
A clear and concise description of the feature to add to a current tool or a new tool with what we all want to be checking with examples.

based on the support article below these debug rights are not necessary and can be safely removed.

as far as i can tell there wasnt a subsequent fix that rolled these rights back as i found these in some environments that have been updated man y times in the 2019 lifecycle and subsequent domainprep applications dont seem to have rolled these rights back

Additional context
Add any other context or screenshots about the feature request here.

reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/troubleshoot/exchange/exchangeserver/unexpected-debug-programs-user-right

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Assessment

This issue has not been assessed yet.

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.