Section 6 - Hardening Flashcards
What is “hardening”?
The act of configuring an operating system securely by updating it, creating rules and policies to govern it, and remove unnecessary applications and services.
*** Essentially, you are attempting to mitigate the risks by minimizing the vulnerabilities.
What is the concept of “least functionality”?
This is the process of configuring a work station or a server to only provide essential applications and services that are required by the user.
In large networks, what is the best solution for protecting computers from having unused programs on their computers?
Preventing excessive installations
*** In corporate networks, it’s common to create a secure baseline image that is used at all work stations across the company. This has an OS, minimum applications and strict configuration policies.
What is “application allowlisting”?
Only applications that are on the approved list are allowed to be run by the OS
*** With this, everything is denied by default unless its on that list
What is “application blocklisting”?
Any application that’s placed on a list will be prevented from running
*** With this, everything is allowed except what’s explicitly denied, every new variation of malware or new program would be allowed until you create a blocklist rule for it.
What is “Microsoft Active Directory domain controller”?
This allows you to centrally manage your lists (blocklist and allowlist) and deploy them through your group policies
What is a “service” on a computer?
A type of application that runs in the background of the operating system, and it performs various functions like the print spooler.
Where can you go on a Windows machine to see the services installed on your machine?
Type in “service” in the windows key. You can also go into command prompt, and type in sc or net command.
For Mac computers, you would go into Activity Monitor or your command line (Linux uses command line too)
What is a “Trusted Operating System”?
Any operating system that meets the requirements set forth by the government and it contains multilevel security
What are some examples of Trusted Operating Systems?
- Every version of Windows since Windows 7
- Every version of MAC OS since 10.6
- Red Hat Enterprise Server
- TrustedBSD extensions
How does a software manufacturer remain as a Trusted Operating System?
They must routinely provide patches and updates to the software in order to maintain its security
What is a patch?
A single problem-fixing piece of software for an operation system or application
*** When a bug is found in the code a patch is created to correct this.
What is a Hotfix?
A single problem-fixing piece of software for an operating system
What is the difference between a patch and a hotfix?
A hotfix can be installed without requiring a reboot of your system. A patch requires a system reboot.
These are often used interchangeably.
What are the five different categories of updates?
- Security Updates
- Critical Update
- Service Pack
- Windows Update
- Drivers Update
What is a Security Update?
Software code that is issued for a product-specific security-related vulnerability
** If a hacker finds a bug in the code for Microsoft Word that might be a breach of security. So Microsoft would release a security update that contains a patch to correct the bug for that code.
What is a Critical Update?
A piece of software that’s designed for a specific problem that addresses a critical, non-security bug in a piece of software.
** For example, if Google Chrome kept crashing every time you tried to load Facebook then Google would release a Critical Update that patches this non-security focused bug.