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Security Intermediate

What is Security Hardening?

The process of reducing a system's attack surface by disabling unnecessary services, applying patches, and configuring security controls.

Security hardening systematically reduces vulnerabilities in servers, applications, and networks. Steps include removing unused software and services, applying security patches promptly, configuring firewalls (deny by default), enabling SELinux/AppArmor, setting strong password policies, disabling root SSH login, using key-based authentication, implementing file integrity monitoring, securing boot processes, and following CIS Benchmarks. For web servers: disable directory listing, remove version headers, configure secure TLS ciphers, set security headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options). Hardening should be automated through configuration management tools (Ansible, Chef) and validated regularly through vulnerability scanning.

Related Terms

Webhook Signature Verification
A security mechanism that verifies webhook payloads are authentic and unmodified using cryptographic signatures.
SOC (Security Operations Center)
A centralized team and facility responsible for monitoring, detecting, analyzing, and responding to cybersecurity threats 24/7.
XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)
An attack that injects malicious scripts into web pages viewed by other users, potentially stealing data or session tokens.
Cryptographic Key Management
The practices and procedures for generating, storing, distributing, rotating, and revoking encryption keys securely.
DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service)
An attack that floods a target server or network with traffic from multiple sources to overwhelm it and deny service to legitimate users.
Certificate Pinning
A security technique that associates a host with its expected TLS certificate or public key, preventing man-in-the-middle attacks with fraudulent certificates.
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