Security Baselines
Chapter 4: Security BaselinesSecurity+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals Second Edition Objectives•Disable nonessential systems•Harden operating systems•Harden applications •Harden networks Disabling Nonessential Systems•First step in establishing a defense against computer attacks is to turn off all nonessential systems•The background program waits in the computer’s random access memory (RAM) until the user presses a specific combination of keys (a hot key), such as Ctrl+Shift+P•Then, the idling program springs to life Disabling Nonessential Systems (continued)•Early terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs performed functions such as displaying an instant calculator, small notepad, or address book•In Microsoft Windows, a background program, such as Svchost.exe, is called a process•The process provides a service to the operating system indicated by the service name, such as AppMgmt Disabling Nonessential Systems (continued)•Users can view the display name of a service, which gives a detailed description, such as Application Management•A single process can provide multiple services Disabling Nonessential Systems (continued) Disabling Nonessential Systems (continued) Disabling Nonessential Systems (continued)•A service can be set to one of the following modes:–Automatic–Manual–Disabled•Besides preventing attackers from attaching malicious code to services, disabling nonessential services blocks entries into the system Disabling Nonessential Systems (continued)•The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) provides for a connectionless TCP/IP transfer•TCP and UDP are based on port numbers•Socket: combination of an IP address and a port number–The IP address is separated from the port number by a colon, as in 198.146.118.20:80 Disabling Nonessential Systems (continued) [...]... provides a centralized method of defining security on the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) – A Windows utility that accepts additional components (snap-ins) – After you apply a security template to organize security settings, you can import the settings to a group of computers (Group Policy object) Chapter 4: Security Baselines Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals Second Edition ... fixes a security flaw or other problem – May be released on a regular or irregular basis, depending on the vendor or support team – A good patch management system includes the features listed on pages 111 and 112 of the text Network Configuration (continued) Hardening Data Repositories (continued) • Active Directory is the directory service for Windows • Active Directory is stored in the Security . Chapter 4: Security BaselinesSecurity+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals Second Edition Objectives•Disable. defining security on the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) –A Windows utility that accepts additional components (snap-ins)–After you apply a security