Hardening
What is Hardening?
The process of securing a system by reducing its attack surface through removing unnecessary software, disabling unused services, applying patches, and configuring security settings according to established baselines such as CIS Benchmarks.
Terms that appear alongside hardening
Each of these is named in at least one of the same controls as hardening. The number is how many controls name both.
- system hardening 15 shared controls
- baseline 14 shared controls
- secure configuration 13 shared controls
- vulnerability 12 shared controls
- integrity 12 shared controls
- nist 11 shared controls
- patch management 10 shared controls
- authentication 9 shared controls
Frameworks that govern hardening
What the standards actually require on hardening
Requirements naming hardening across 6 standards, quoted from the control text.
Windows PowerShell 2.0 is disabled or removed. Required at Maturity Level Three of the User application hardening mitigation strategy (Appendix C); ISM control ISM-1621 in ASD's Essential Eight to ISM mapping (December 2023).
acsc-essential-eight::E8-UAH-ISM-1621 · User application hardening (ISM-1621): Windows PowerShell 2.0 is disabled or removed →When using a software-based isolation mechanism to share a physical server's hardware, the underlying operating system is hardened.
ISM-1605 · Hardening the isolation host operating system →Harden container images: minimal base images, removal of unnecessary packages, non-root users and reduced attack surface.
CNCF-DIST-IMGHARDEN · Image Hardening →Measure the size of shipped hardening guides and make it shrink with each release by turning their contents into the default configuration, a result that depends on partnership with customers and product teams including user experience.
secure-by-design-a-guide-for-manufacturers-cisa::DF-7 · Track and reduce hardening guide size →Site hardening places natural and built obstacles that steer, deter, slow, reveal and ultimately deny anyone trying to reach a facility, asset or operation.
ansi-asis-pap-1-2012-physical-asset-protection::B.1.6 · B.1.6 Site hardening on delay in depth →Harden operating systems based on vendor guidance and ASD guidance. Remove unneeded software, services and ports.
ASD37-11 · Operating system hardening (Very Good) →Questions people ask about hardening
What is Hardening?
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See how Hardening applies across compliance frameworks
Our platform maps 1,016 frameworks with 316K cross-framework control mappings. Explore how this concept is addressed across standards.