Per User Audit Policy was changed (4912) how to monitor with email alert

[bob]

Man, that event ID 4912 pops up in the Event Viewer when someone tweaks the per-user audit policy on your Windows Server. It's like the system yelling that changes hit those settings tied to individual user accounts. You know, the ones controlling what gets logged for audits on a person-by-person basis. This could mean an admin made a legit adjustment, or worse, some sneaky user trying to cover tracks by messing with logging rules. I see it log the old policy, the new one, who did it, and from where, all in that XML blob inside the event details. Keeps things traceable if you're watching for fishy stuff. But ignoring it? Nah, that's how breaches sneak by.

You want to monitor this bad boy with an email alert? Fire up Event Viewer on your server. I do this all the time when I'm poking around logs. Right-click the Windows Logs, Security channel. Go to Create Custom View. Filter it to just event ID 4912. Hit OK, name it something like Policy Change Watch. Now, in that custom view, right-click again and pick Attach Task To This Custom View. Give the task a name, say Alert Me. Check the box for sending an email right there in the actions tab. Yeah, you can plug in your SMTP server details, the from and to addresses, even a subject like "Hey, audit policy just flipped." Make sure it triggers on any instance of that event. Test it by changing a dummy policy if you dare. Boom, next time it happens, your inbox dings. Keeps you looped in without babysitting the server.

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At the end here is the automatic email solution.

Note, the PowerShell email alert code was moved to this post.