CIS Benchmarks: The 2024 ultimate guide

Attackers can exfiltrate your data from various access points, networks, and systems. 

A functioning system does not guarantee that any product will be secure. With new features constantly being introduced to improve product efficiency, integrations of multiple systems can introduce additional levels of complexity and more threats to the environment. 

System hardening can help close unsecured ports, endpoints, and other unauthorized entry paths an attacker can exploit.  

In this blog, we’ll highlight the importance of why your production environments need to be CIS-compliant and the many benefits of system hardening to prevent cyber threats.

What are CIS Benchmarks?

Center for Internet Security (CIS) Benchmarks are a set of best practices and guidelines designed to help organizations secure their IT systems and data against cyber threats. Developed by a global community of cyber security experts, CIS Benchmarks provide a framework for improving compliance and tightening security measures, such as restricting user access and configuring system settings.

The challenge is finding out how long it has been there and if there are plans on patching it before any products can ship out. 

CIS benchmarks help give security teams step-by-step remediation guidelines for addressing these critical misconfigurations early in the development process.

Securing your infrastructure with system hardening

Research taken from Sonatype’s 9th State of the Software Supply Chain report found 245,000 malicious packages and 1 in 8 open source downloads had known risk.

It only takes one malicious package to disrupt your entire software supply chain and impact customers. Focusing mitigation efforts on such a high volume of malicious open-source packages without context is like finding a needle in a haystack. Not an ideal scenario. 

So, where should mitigation efforts be focused? 

Security tests help you understand how new changes or releases can affect the production environment. Aligning with system hardening guidelines such as CIS and NIST is key to protecting your infrastructure through continuous monitoring to ensure ongoing system security. 

System hardening involves following best practices and implementing controls using tools and techniques to reduce threats. This is achieved by strengthening the systems, network, and infrastructure.

But even if code undergoes rigorous application security testing before production, the system or the infrastructure that it is hosted on can still contain critical vulnerabilities that might eventually escalate into a future breach. 

One of the main advantages of system hardening is that it assists organizations in reducing the attack surface by eliminating weaknesses such as insecure configurations, risky logins, and weak data encryptions. System hardening guidelines outlined by the CIS provide extensive recommendations to help minimize potential weaknesses, such as an attacker gaining unauthorized access to the environment and avoiding possible exploitation. 

Read more: SDLC and secure coding practices: the ultimate guide for 2024 >>

The importance of system hardening

Even if you’re using advanced technologies like endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to monitor the environment, adhering to best practices remains crucial for system hardening.

It’s equally important to implement proactive security measures rather than relying solely on detection and prevention systems

System hardening offers numerous advantages, including:

• Improved security posture: System hardening increases the security score of the systems with security controls by reducing the attack surface. This includes applying regular security patching and updates and enforcing least privilege access permissions to user accounts and groups.
• Simplifying compliance and auditing: Another major advantage of system hardening is that it can help remove the complexity of compliance by reducing the number of accounts and programs that need to be managed. 
• Improve system functionality: In system hardening, it is recommended to disable services and functionalities that are not necessary for operations and may be enabled by default. This eliminates many operational issues, incompatibilities, misconfigurations, and potential compromises. Reducing the number of active components helps minimize configuration errors, which are contributing factors to security breaches. 

Since production systems are mostly exposed to the external environment, this poses a greater security risk compared to systems limited only to internal use. Following CIS guidelines in the production environment and implementing controls can help reduce the attack surface.

This is especially important for remote workers who often access production systems from various locations and devices.

An insecure production environment is a prime target for a threat actor to perform lateral movement across the network via privilege escalation. Organizations must implement role-based access controls (RBAC) and least-privilege concepts to prevent such attacks. 

A third-party contractor should not be able to access confidential financial records or transactions that a CFO can access. They should have isolated access to perform the needed tasks instead. 

RBAC applies to the code level.  

RBAC should also be administered to secure Kubernetes clusters and applications during the build phase of their deployment. Data shows why. A recent Kubernetes study identified 350+ API servers that could be exploited by attackers.

Further analysis revealed that the majority of K8s clusters (72%) had HTTPS ports 443 and 6443 exposed. Components, ports, and protocols that are no longer needed can be overlooked and easily used as backdoors.

Periodic reviews are also essential for removing inactive users or roles that no longer require access to corporate resources. RBAC can also be applied to system hardening.

Hardening can block opportunities for attackers to compromise your system through:

• Patch management
• Disabling insecure ports and protocols
• Regular backup routines 
• Network segmentation 
• Access control management
• Error handling

Read more: 8 common cloud misconfiguration types (and how to avoid them) >>

Exploring the six various types of system hardening

The system hardening process typically begins with an audit of the environment to identify any gaps. This evaluation displays the company’s current security score and where it needs to be. 

This gap analysis or hardening is not only limited to software. 

Let’s examine the six main types of system hardening and their best practices:

Software application hardening

• Remove default passwords and control access of application users
• Remove unnecessary components and functionalities
• Implement secure coding practices and conduct regular security code reviews

Database hardening

• Implement strict controls on privileged user accounts (RBAC)
• Encrypt the database to protect the information
• Enable auditing and logging for database activities

Operating system hardening

• Configure OS updates and automatic patching
• Regularly audit and review system logs for suspicious activities and anomalies
• Disable inactive accounts that may provide unnecessary access to the system

Network hardening

• Ensure proper configuration of firewalls and that firewall rules cover all aspects
• Block insecure ports and protocols
• Configure intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS)

Server hardening

• Make sure access control is aligned with the least-privilege principle
• Segregate servers and implement secure hosting
• Enforce MFA and SSO authentication and authorization

Endpoint hardening 

• Disable unnecessary servers and ports
• Regularly audit endpoint configurations and logs
• Encrypt the entire disk of each endpoint to protect data if a device is lost or stolen

Security audits and system hardening: Maintaining compliance status

No system is completely resistant to threats, especially when it comes to zero-day threats. 

System hardening is a mandatory requirement in most security audits. It can be achieved through fine-tuning configurations, implementing additional controls, and introducing security policies and procedures. Maintaining production environment security requires continuous monitoring to detect and prevent new threats from compromising system infrastructure. 

Read more: The new SEC cyber security disclosure rules: What you need to know >>

Streamline cyber security compliance with Vulcan Cyber

CIS Benchmarks help organizations secure their systems and applications from evolving threats. Following best practices can guide you in the right direction for meeting compliance regulations. The next step is having the right intelligence to prioritize and mitigate vulnerabilities effectively.

Vulcan Cyber provides complete exposure risk management across all attack surfaces, from a unified platform that simultaneously handles your vulnerability management and compliance with all regulatory standards. Take control of your cyber security compliance beyond CIS benchmarks and industry best practices.

Get a demo and find out how you can start owning your risk today.