Question

Difficulty: EasyMitigation Strategies and Enterprise Hardening Practices

An IT technician is tasked with applying baseline security hardening controls to enterprise endpoints. Match each system hardening technique on the left with its corresponding security mitigation goal on the right.

  • Disabling Unused ServicesReduces the endpoint attack surface by eliminating unneeded system entry points.
  • Application AllowlistingPrevents unauthorized or unapproved binary files and scripts from executing.
  • Patch ManagementRemediates software flaws and known security vulnerabilities.

Answer

Disabling Unused Services matches with reducing the attack surface by eliminating unneeded entry points; Application Allowlisting matches with preventing unauthorized files and scripts from executing; Patch Management matches with remediating software flaws and known security vulnerabilities.
Each system hardening strategy addresses a specific risk area: disabling unused services limits active exposure points, application allowlisting enforces approved program execution, and patch management fixes identified software defects.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the primary mechanism of Disabling Unused Services
Turning off unneeded system daemons and features reduces open ports and background software entry points.
Minimizing active features directly decreases the available attack surface.
2
Identify the primary mechanism of Application Allowlisting
Enforcing an explicit list of authorized executables blocks untrusted or malicious scripts.
Execution control prevents unauthorized software from running.
3
Identify the primary mechanism of Patch Management
Deploying vendor updates addresses known code defects.
Routine updates eliminate security weaknesses that attackers could exploit.

Key Concept

Mitigation Strategies and Enterprise Hardening Practices
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