Why harden a server

Systems hardening recovers continuous effort, but the diligence will pay off in substantive ways across your organization via:. Enhanced system functionality: Since fewer programs and less functionality means there is less risk of operational issues, misconfigurations, incompatibilities, and compromise. Significantly improved security: A reduced attack surface translates into a lower risk of data breaches, unauthorized access, systems hacking, or malware.

Simplified compliance and auditability: Fewer programs and accounts coupled with a less complex environment means auditing the environment will usually be more transparent and straightforward. Partners Support Search. Privileged Password Management Discover, manage, audit, and monitor privileged accounts and credentials. Secure Remote Access Centrally manage remote access for service desks, vendors, and operators. Remote Support Privileged Remote Access.

Cloud Privilege Protection Enforce least privilege and manage access across cloud infrastructure. Cloud Privilege Broker. Solutions The BeyondTrust Privileged Access Management portfolio is an integrated solution that provides visibility and control over all privileged accounts and users. Universal Privilege Management Our innovative Universal Privilege Management approach secures every user, asset, and session across your entire enterprise. Glossary Systems Hardening.

There are several types of system hardening activities, including: Application hardening Operating system hardening Server hardening Database hardening Network hardening Although the principles of system hardening are universal, specific tools and techniques do vary depending on the type of hardening you are carrying out. From here, you will see a collection of links to configure the security of your server. There are additional security settings recommended by cPanel, you can see a comprehensive list in their Recommended Security Settings Checklist.

You can also learn about Getting Started with ModSecurity to set up your server firewall. Find answers to hosting questions. Articles What is Hardening Your Server? What is Hardening Your Server? Information Article Content. Security Best Practices The Help Center has general articles for overall security, implementing these on your server as well as in other areas will help to begin the process of hardening your server.

Referrer safety check. This will help protect your server from mail attacks. Verify signatures of third-party cPaddons. Enable to block email that the nobody user sent to the remote address. Nobody is the username for Apache. Many of the vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system can be fixed by changing specific keys, as detailed below.

Configure registry permissions. Protect the registry from anonymous access. Disallow remote registry access if not required. Set AutoShareServer to 0. Set AutoShareWks to 0. General Security Settings Disable unneeded services. Most servers have the default install of the operating system, which often contains extraneous services that are not needed for the system to function and that represent a security vulnerability.

Therefore, it is critical to remove all unnecessary services from the system. Remove unneeded Windows components. Any unnecessary Windows components should be removed from critical systems to keep the servers in a secure state. If the workstation has significant random access memory RAM , disable the Windows swapfile.

This will increase performance and security because no sensitive data can be written to the hard drive. Otherwise, untrusted code can be run without the direct knowledge of the user; for example, attackers might put a CD into the machine and cause their own script to run. Configure a machine inactivity limit to protect idle interactive sessions.

Ensure all volumes are using the NTFS file system. Another important but often overlooked security procedure is to lock down the file-level permissions for the server. By default, Windows does not apply specific restrictions on any local files or folders; the Everyone group is given full permissions to most of the machine.

Remove this group and instead grant access to files and folders using role-based groups based on the least-privilege principle. With this configuration Windows will be more secure. Configure a screen saver to lock the console's screen automatically if it is left unattended. Audit Policy Settings Enable Audit policy according to audit policy best practices. Windows audit policy defines what types of events are written in the Security logs of your Windows servers. Configure the Event Log retention method to overwrite as needed and size up to 4GB.

Configure log shipping to SIEM for monitoring. Software Security Guide Install and enable anti-virus software.