FIM Integration without GPO

Enabling Auditing for Particular File or Folder

Step 1: Enable Audit Object Access policy:

Go to windows machine and open Local Security Policy. Go to Security Settings and select Local Policies.

track-file-and-folder-creation-deletion-in-windows-audit-object-local-polices.

• Under Audit Policy, select 'Audit object access' and turn auditing on for both success and failure.

monitor-changes-to-files-and-folder-permissions-audit-object-access

Step 2: Edit auditing entry in the respective file/folder.

Locate the parent directory or folder in which you want to track creation and deletion of files/sub folders. Right click on it and go to Properties. Under the Security tab click Advanced.

monitor-file-and-folder-access-on-windows-file-server-security-properties

• In Advanced Security Settings, go to the Auditing tab and click Add to add a new auditing entry.

advanced-security-settings-active-directory

• In the Auditing Entry for Active Directory dialog box, enter the following details:

  1. Principal: Enter the names of the users whose access you wish to audit.

  2. Type: Select the type of access you want to audit. It is preferable to audit "All" changes.

  3. Applies to: Select whether you want to audit file/folder creation and deletion only in this folder, or in all sub folders.

  4. Basic permissions: Choose the types of permissions you want to audit. Click Advanced permissions button on the right and choose the following:

     1. Create files/write data.

     2. Create folders/append data.

     3. Delete sub folders and files.

track-file-and-folder-creation-deletion-in-windows-active-direectory-dialog-box

Step 3: View audit logs in Event Viewer

Every time a user accesses the selected file/folder and changes the permission on it, an event log will be recorded in the Event Viewer. Under Windows Logs, select Security. You can find all the audit logs in the middle pane as displayed below.

• To filter the event logs to view just the logs about the file/folders created and deleted, select Filter Current Log from the right pane. Simply search for the event ID 4656 which indicates that access handle to an object was requested.

audit-failed-access-attempts-to-shared-folder-security-windows-log

track-file-and-folder-creation-deletion-in-windows-filter-current-log

• Unfortunately, these filters don't simply give you a list of files/folders created. They would need to be coupled with access masks to understand exactly which files/folders were created or deleted.