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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.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
A strategy and set of tools that detect and prevent unauthorized transmission of sensitive data outside an organization.
PKI (Public Key Infrastructure)
A framework of policies, hardware, and software for creating, managing, distributing, and revoking digital certificates.
Man-in-the-Middle Attack
An attack where the attacker secretly intercepts and potentially alters communication between two parties who believe they are communicating directly.
OWASP Top 10
A regularly updated list of the ten most critical web application security risks, published by the Open Web Application Security Project.
SAST (Static Application Security Testing)
Automated analysis of source code to find security vulnerabilities without executing the application.
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