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Difficulty: EasyMitigation Strategies and Enterprise Hardening Practices

A systems administrator is hardening a newly deployed web server before placing it into the production environment. To reduce the server's attack surface by ensuring only necessary network communications and operating system functions are active, which of the following host mitigation practices should the administrator perform FIRST?

  1. Disabling unneeded services and network protocolsAnswer
  2. B
    Relying on the edge network perimeter firewall to block all incoming traffic
  3. C
    Deploying an inline deception honeypot directly on the web server
  4. D
    Enforcing full-disk encryption across all server storage volumes

Answer

Disabling unneeded services and network protocols is the primary host-hardening technique used to reduce attack surface.
Disabling unnecessary services and network protocols reduces the overall attack surface of a server by turning off unused network ports and background processes, preventing attackers from exploiting unneeded running applications.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the primary administrative goal described in the scenario
The goal is host hardening to minimize the attack surface by stopping unnecessary ports and system functions.
Hardening a host system requires eliminating unneeded entry points.
2
Evaluate the effective control for reducing host attack surface
Disabling unneeded applications, daemons, and network protocols directly removes potential vulnerability vectors.
Fewer active services mean fewer potential targets for software exploitation or unauthorized network access.

Key Concept

Host Hardening and Attack Surface Reduction
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Topics

Mitigation Strategies and Enterprise Hardening Practices

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