Is it considered bad practice to run a service under a local admin account?

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I have a windows service that watches local file system and edits images. It runs under Local Admin account. Is that risky? Machine is not online. But accessible by a domain that is.

What I have tried:

I tried running it as Local Admin Account. The IT department objected.

Posted 1-Aug-16 5:24am

Teashirt2

Updated 1-Aug-16 6:08am

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2 solutions

Solution 1

The IT department does not like because local administration permissions allow your service to do anything, and they probably will not look at the code.

If your service has a single point of failure, the machine can be compromised.

What is the real need to have a windows service with admin rights?

Posted 1-Aug-16 5:36am

José Amílcar Casimiro

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Dave Kreskowiak · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-01T06:08:00

YES, it's bad practice. Normally you would create a user account for the service to run under and modify the account appropriately for your services requirements and give it only the minimum permissions it needs to do its job.

This cuts down on the attack surface of your service and cuts down on the security risk should your service become compromised.

Your IT department is correct in denying you this access.