What is Network security: Restrict NTLM: Audit incoming NTLM traffic setting?

Written by Titus Manohar, IT security team, ManageEngine  •  Updated on April 2026

Network security: Restrict NTLM: Audit incoming network traffic is a security policy setting that audits all the incoming network traffic for NTLM authentication. NTLM is an older Windows authentication protocol that has been known to be vulnerable to man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, brute force attacks, SMB relay, and so on. Therefore, auditing the incoming traffic for NTLM authentication can help a network administrator decide whether NTLM authentication should be restricted on the network.

There are two ways to enable this policy setting:

• Enable auditing for domain accounts: If this option is enabled, the server will audit and log the domain accounts that attempt to logon with NTLM authentication.
• Enable auditing for all accounts: If this option is enabled, the server will audit and log all the accounts that attempt to logon with NTLM authentication.

These logs are stored in the 'Operational' log located under Applications and Services Log\Microsoft\Windows\NTLM.

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