Eleventh Hour Security+

General OS Hardening

Operating system hardening involves making the operating system less vulnerable to threats. There are numerous best practices documents that can be followed in a step-by-step approach to harden an operating system. One of the first places to look at when securing a system is the structure and security settings on files and directories.

• Start with everything accessible and lock down the things to be restricted.
• Start with everything locked down and open up those files necessary to allow access to.

Of these two potential methods, the second, which is also referred to as the rule of least privilege, is the preferred method. Least privilege starts with the most secure environment and then loosens the controls as needed. ...