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Perform volume maintenance tasks

  • Article

Applies to

  • Windows 11
  • Windows 10

Describes the best practices, location, values, policy management, and security considerations for the Perform volume maintenance tasks security policy setting.

Reference

This policy setting determines which users can perform volume or disk management tasks, such as defragmenting an existing volume, creating or removing volumes, and running the Disk Cleanup tool.

Use caution when assigning this user right. Users with this user right can explore disks and extend files in to memory that contains other data. When the extended files are opened, the user might be able to read and modify the acquired data.

Constant: SeManageVolumePrivilege

Possible values

  • User-defined list of accounts
  • Not Defined

Best practices

  • Ensure that only the local Administrators group is assigned the Perform volume maintenance tasks user right.

Location

Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\User Rights Assignment

Default values

By default this setting is Administrators on domain controllers and on stand-alone servers.

The following table lists the actual and effective default policy values. Default values are also listed on the policy’s property page.

Server type or GPO Default value
Default Domain Policy Not defined
Default Domain Controller Policy Administrators
Stand-Alone Server Default Settings Administrators
DC Effective Default Settings Administrators
Member Server Effective Default Settings Administrators
Client Computer Effective Default Settings Administrators

Policy management

This section describes features, tools, and guidance to help you manage this policy.

A restart of the device isn't required for this policy setting to be effective.

Any change to the user rights assignment for an account becomes effective the next time the owner of the account logs on.

Group Policy

Settings are applied in the following order through a Group Policy Object (GPO), which will overwrite settings on the local computer at the next Group Policy update:

  1. Local policy settings
  2. Site policy settings
  3. Domain policy settings
  4. OU policy settings

When a local setting is greyed out, it indicates that a GPO currently controls that setting.

Security considerations

This section describes how an attacker might exploit a feature or its configuration, how to implement the countermeasure, and the possible negative consequences of countermeasure implementation.

Vulnerability

A user who is assigned the Perform volume maintenance tasks user right could delete a volume, which could result in the loss of data or a denial-of- service condition. Also, disk maintenance tasks can be used to modify data on the disk, such as user rights assignments that might lead to escalation of privileges.

Countermeasure

Ensure that only the local Administrators group is assigned the Perform volume maintenance tasks user right.

Potential impact

None. Restricting the Perform volume maintenance tasks user right to the local Administrators group is the default configuration.