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[ISN] Simple Settings That Could Curtail Some Attacks
http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerability-management/167901026/security/vulnerabilities/232602900/simple-settings-that-could-curtail-some-attacks.html
By Kelly Jackson Higgins
Dark Reading
March 20, 2012
Sometimes it's the little things -- a misconfigured network proxy or an
unused and forgotten port -- that can make the difference in whether an
organization suffers a major hack.
Organizations, especially those without the security resources to keep
on top of these basic hygiene configurations, often leave themselves
exposed as they struggle to keep track of the configurations. Even some
large companies forget the little things or are so overwhelmed with
volume that they miss them. "These little things -- not letting users
download .exe files, or [not] using proxies for filtering, that don't
impact the business in any way" basically raise the bar for the
attacker, says Marc Maiffret, CTO and co-founder of eEye Digital
Security.
So Maiffret says eEye later this week will roll out a free tool that
runs a quick "health-check" on some key and simple-to-fix configuration
best practices that can help shrink the attack surface. The so-called In
Configuration We Trust Tool isn't meant to replace a vulnerability
assessment, penetration test, or proper patch management programs, but
instead to take the pulse of some of the basic protective steps in
configuring a safer environment, Maiffret says.
The tool checks for 10 basic things you can do to properly configure
your environment: use digitally signed running processes; use digitally
signed DLLHost Services and egress port filtering; disable Microsoft
Office converters; update Windows operating system with the latest
releases; update Microsoft Office with the latest releases; remove
administrative privileges from end user accounts; disable WebDAV; block
direct downloads of executable files; and push egress traffic through a
Web proxy.
[...]
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