Windows Server® 2008 Security Resource Kit

The Security Configuration Wizard

The new role and feature metaphors for server management are quite helpful and go a long way toward helping us configure a server with the smallest attack surface possible. However, while the Add Roles and Add Features wizards open ports in the firewall, they do not permit you to restrict them to only certain hosts. Nor do they close the ports again when you remove a role. They merely install the roles/features, configure the services and other settings they need, and open the necessary ports to everyone on the network. To maximize security you also need to configure the firewall to minimize access to the server. This used to be extremely difficult, requiring sophisticated analysis of what ports needed to be exposed, ...