Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Hardened Baseline Configuration is a crucial aspect of system security for cybersecurity experts and the risk management teams. The secure baseline configuration represents a set of security controls that have been carefully selected and implemented to provide a robust general level of system hardening. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, and specific configurations will vary depending on the type of system (server, desktop, etc.), role and its intended use.

The CIS Benchmarks cover a collection of recommended hardening policies specifying different hosts, applications, and operating systems that include detailed recommendations on system configuration, security settings, and other measures that can help organizations safeguard their IT infrastructure against a wide range of cyber threats. The benchmarks cover various platforms and technologies such as operating systems, cloud environments, databases, web browsers, and mobile devices.

Windows Remote Desktop Service(RDS) in Microsoft Windows allows users to control a remote computer or virtual machine over a network using the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). To secure this access, it’s crucial to implement strong passwords to prevent brute force attacks and unauthorized access.

Group Policies are part of every Active Directory. Group Policy (GP) is designed to be able to change every system's configurations, from the least to the most privileged layer. Since it is so fundamental in the network management process, it is also very powerful for attackers to use as an attack vector. Therefore, GPO hardening is necessary to ensure that these policies are secure and not easily exploited by attackers, protecting the integrity and security of the entire network.

Best practices for mitigating various attack vectors are changing depending on the environment and server functionality. CIS baselines cover most of the relevant scenarios by addressing the first stage of your Hardening Windows Server project. CIS Benchmarks -What are They and How to Use Them Microsoft has been doing some work related to default security configuration, but there is still a big gap between security best practices (i.e. common benchmarks) and the default Windows configuration.