windows-itpro-docs/windows/keep-secure/override-mitigation-options-for-app-related-security-policies.md

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title: Override Process Mitigation Options to help enforce app-related security policies (Windows 10) description: How to use Group Policy to override individual Process Mitigation Options settings and to help enforce specific app-related security policies. keywords: Process Mitigation Options, Mitigation Options, Group Policy Mitigation Options ms.prod: w10 ms.mktglfcycl: deploy ms.pagetype: security ms.sitesec: library

Override Process Mitigation Options to help enforce app-related security policies

Applies to:

• Windows 10, version 1607
• Windows Server 2016

Use Group Policy to override individual Process Mitigation Options settings and help to enforce specific app-related security policies.

To modify Process Mitigation Options

1. Open your Group Policy editor and go to the Administrative Templates\System\Mitigation Options\Process Mitigation Options setting.

   

2. Click Enabled, and then in the Options area, click Show to open the Show Contents box, where you’ll be able to add your apps and the appropriate bit flag values, as shown in the Setting the bit field and Example sections of this topic.

   Important
   For each app you want to include, you must include:

   • Value name. The app file name, including the extension. For example, iexplore.exe.

   • Value. A bit field with a series of bit flags in particular positions. Bits can be set to 0 (where the setting is forced off), 1 (where the setting is forced on), or ? (where the setting retains the previous, existing value).

     Note
     Setting bit flags in positions not specified here to anything other than ? might cause undefined behavior.

   

Setting the bit field

Here’s a visual representation of the bit flag locations for the various Process Mitigation Options settings:

Where the bit flags are read from right to left and are defined as:

Flag	Bit location	Setting	Details
A	0	PROCESS_CREATION_MITIGATION_POLICY_DEP_ENABLE (0x00000001)	Turns on Data Execution Prevention (DEP) for child processes.
B	1	PROCESS_CREATION_MITIGATION_POLICY_DEP_ATL_THUNK_ENABLE (0x00000002)	Turns on DEP-ATL thunk emulation for child processes. DEP-ATL thunk emulation lets the system intercept non-executable (NX) faults that originate from the Active Template Library (ATL) thunk layer, and then emulate and handle the instructions so the process can continue to run.
C	2	PROCESS_CREATION_MITIGATION_POLICY_SEHOP_ENABLE (0x00000004)	Turns on Structured Exception Handler Overwrite Protection (SEHOP) for child processes. SEHOP helps to block exploits that use the Structured Exception Handler (SEH) overwrite technique.
D	8	PROCESS_CREATION_MITIGATION_POLICY_FORCE_RELOCATE_IMAGES_ALWAYS_ON (0x00000100)	Uses the force Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) setting to act as though an image base collision happened at load time, forcibly rebasing images that aren’t dynamic base compatible. Images without the base relocation section won’t be loaded if relocations are required.
E	15	PROCESS_CREATION_MITIGATION_POLICY_BOTTOM_UP_ASLR_ALWAYS_ON (0x00010000)	Turns on the bottom-up randomization policy, which includes stack randomization options and causes a random location to be used as the lowest user address.
F	16	PROCESS_CREATION_MITIGATION_POLICY_BOTTOM_UP_ASLR_ALWAYS_OFF (0x00020000)	Turns off the bottom-up randomization policy, which includes stack randomization options and causes a random location to be used as the lowest user address.

Example

If you want to turn on the PROCESS_CREATION_MITIGATION_POLICY_DEP_ENABLE and PROCESS_CREATION_MITIGATION_POLICY_FORCE_RELOCATE_IMAGES_ALWAYS_ON settings, turn off the PROCESS_CREATION_MITIGATION_POLICY_BOTTOM_UP_ASLR_ALWAYS_OFF setting, and leave everything else as the default values, you’d want to type a value of ???????????????0???????1???????1.