Hardened baselines are a set of security best practices that reduce the vulnerability of a system to exploits by reducing its attack surface1. They are also known as security configurations or benchmarks, and they provide a standard level of system hardening for an organization23.
Checking the hardened baselines of the servers is the first step that a cloud administrator should take to ensure compliance with the company's security policy. This is because hardened baselines can help to:
Identify and eliminate common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) that attackers can exploit1.
Remove unnecessary or unused services, accounts, software, and ports that can increase the attack surface23.
Apply appropriate settings and controls for encryption, authentication, authorization, firewall, and logging23.
Streamline audits and testing by reducing complexity and providing a reliable benchmark23.