Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Security Handbook

General Service Security Considerations

Administrator and developer alike should be aware of some general issues to ensure that services are designed, written, and administered in a secure fashion. When considering machines that act as dedicated servers, it's important to underscore that services, both the ones that are included in a standard install of Windows as well as third-party tools, are Windows 2000's largest exposure to the network and thus present the largest security exposure. If you are developing server applications or are administering servers, you definitely want to pay attention to the next few sections.

The security issues raised in each of the following sections must be carefully weighed. There are no de facto rules; each implementation ...