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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

Encryption
The process of converting readable data into an unreadable format using algorithms, reversible only with the correct key.
Hashing
A one-way function that converts input data into a fixed-size string of characters, used for data integrity and password storage.
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.
Phishing
A social engineering attack that uses fraudulent communications to trick people into revealing sensitive information or installing malware.
Zero Trust
A security model that requires strict identity verification for every user and device, regardless of their network location.
JWT (JSON Web Token)
A compact, self-contained token format used for securely transmitting information between parties as a JSON object.
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