Question

Difficulty: HardPatch and Configuration Management

An enterprise security team manages a geographically distributed fleet of edge servers running containerized microservices. Following an emergency zero-day patch deployment, several edge nodes experience configuration drift, causing unauthorized modifications to local system baselines and security settings. Which TWO of the following technical controls should the security team implement to remediate this configuration drift and prevent future baseline deviations?

  1. Redeploy validated Infrastructure as Code (IaC) templates through the automated deployment pipeline to restore systems to a compliant state.Answer
  2. B
    Manually modify local configuration parameters directly on affected edge nodes to quickly match production baseline specifications.
  3. Deploy continuous automated configuration auditing agents to monitor systems against established benchmarks and detect unauthorized changes.Answer
  4. D
    Configure host-based firewall network access control lists (ACLs) to block management traffic until manual verification is complete.

Answer

The security team should redeploy validated Infrastructure as Code (IaC) templates through the automated pipeline and deploy continuous automated configuration auditing agents.
Redeploying validated Infrastructure as Code (IaC) templates through an automated pipeline guarantees that edge nodes return to a tested, immutable baseline without manual intervention. Combining this with continuous automated configuration auditing agents ensures ongoing compliance monitoring and instant detection of unauthorized modifications.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the cause of system configuration drift after emergency patching.
Identified that out-of-band updates bypassed automated build pipelines, resulting in inconsistent baseline enforcement across edge nodes.
Understanding why drift occurred is necessary to select effective automated remediation strategies.
2
Restore standard system baselines using pipeline automation.
Nodes are returned to a verified, compliant state by executing validated IaC templates.
Automated deployment eliminates manual errors and enforces declarative, immutable configuration baselines.
3
Establish real-time visibility into system state deviations.
Automated compliance agents continuously evaluate system state against hardened baseline profiles.
Continuous auditing ensures rapid detection and notification when unauthorized local modifications or drift occur.

Key Concept

Configuration Baseline Enforcement and Drift Management
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