Enable Hardware-Enforced Stack Protection

Enable Hardware-Enforced Stack Protection is a Windows Group Policy setting located under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Exploit Guard > Exploit Guard > Exploit protection settings. It applies to the Computer Configuration branch and is classified as a Informational-level policy in the Exploit Protection category.

Enables Control-flow Enforcement Technology (CET) for hardware-based stack protection. Prevents stack-based ROP attacks on supported processors.

Microsoft sets the default value to 0 while industry security baselines (CIS, NIST, DISA STIG) recommend 1.

Under the hood, this policy is enforced through the Windows registry at HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\kernel using the value name CetEnabled. Modifying the value directly through regedit.exe or PowerShell produces the same effect as configuring the GPO, but going through Group Policy is preferred so that the setting is centrally managed and survives reboots, image rebuilds, and policy refresh cycles.

This is primarily an operational or user-experience setting. It does not directly raise or lower the security posture, but it standardizes behavior across the fleet, which is important for predictable support, training, and troubleshooting in an MSP-managed environment.

The policy is grouped under Exploit Protection, which means it is typically applied through a domain-wide GPO linked at the OU level. In a multi-tenant MSP context, scope it through WMI filters or security group filtering rather than linking at the domain root, so that you can roll out progressively (pilot OU → wider rings → all production).

The setting takes effect after the next Group Policy refresh (gpupdate /force for immediate testing, or by default within ~90 minutes for workstations and ~5 minutes on domain controllers). For computer-side policies a reboot may be required; for user-side policies, a sign-off/sign-on cycle is enough.

1. Open Group Policy Management Console (gpmc.msc) on a domain controller or a workstation with RSAT installed.
2. Create or edit a GPO linked to the OU containing the target computer configurations. We recommend a dedicated baseline GPO (e.g. SEC – Exploit Protection) instead of editing Default Domain Policy.
3. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Exploit Guard > Exploit Guard > Exploit protection settings.
4. Open Enable Hardware-Enforced Stack Protection and set it to 1.
5. Click OK and close the editor.
6. On the target endpoint, run gpupdate /force (or wait for the next refresh cycle), then verify with rsop.msc or gpresult /h report.html.

Direct registry path: HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\kernel\CetEnabled. You can apply the same change with PowerShell:

New-Item -Path 'HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\kernel' -Force | Out-Null
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\kernel' -Name 'CetEnabled' -Value <value> -Type DWord