Australian Information Security Manual
Guidelines for system hardening

Australian Information Security Manual ISM-1491: Blocking script execution engines for unprivileged users

Unprivileged users are prevented from running script execution engines, including: - Windows Script Host (cscript.exe and wscript.exe) - PowerShell (powershell.exe, powershell_ise.exe and pwsh.exe) - Command Prompt (cmd.exe) - Windows Management Instrumentation (wmic.exe) - Microsoft Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) Application Host (mshta.exe).

Maintained by Gerard BlokdykVerified against the published standard Control text last updated

What else in your programme already covers this

This control maps to 2 controls across 2 other frameworks. If you already hold one of them, the evidence you collected for it is the starting point here rather than new work.

CIS Controls v8 · 1 control

  • CIS-2.7 Allowlist Authorized Scripts

ISO 27002:2022 · 1 control

  • 8.18 Use of privileged utility programs

Every mapping shown was judged rather than inferred from wording similarity, and the ones that failed review are published too. See the coverage reports and what was rejected.

Other controls in Guidelines for system hardening

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The graph holds this control, the 2 it maps to, and the evidence behind each claim, over MCP and REST.