CertiGuide to Security+  9  Chapter 3:  Infrastructure Security (Domain 3.0; 20%)       9  3.5  Security Baselines            9  3.5.1  OS/NOS Hardening

3.5.1  OS/NOS Hardening 1 2 3 4 3.5.1.1  File System

Installed Options

Operating systems typically don’t come in just one configuration. Rather, at installation time, you can select from a wide variety of installation options to customize the OS to your particular needs. The more components that are installed on an OS, the more possible targets there are for intruders to exploit. In the past, most OS’s defaulted to installing any option a user might possibly want, to make it easy for naïve users who “just took the defaults” to access these OS features.

In recent years, the pendulum has swung back the other way, favoring security over ease of installation and variety of features, and vendors are now thinking carefully about security implications before installing an option by default. The next version of Windows, .NET Server, includes a limited set of features in its default installation. And some Linux distributions don’t even include an FTP server by default – quite a surprise to those who consider UNIX to be the quintessential “Internet OS”.

3.5.1  OS/NOS Hardening 1 2 3 4 3.5.1.1  File System