Microsoft Windows Server

The Microsoft Windows Server operating system has gone through several changes over the last decade. One of the major changes that you will notice in the latest versions of Windows is that of the improvement and integration of security. It is clear that server security is essential in one form or another in the enterprise world. Since the latest version of Windows is Windows Sever 2012 R2, I will be using this operating system as my base operating system in this book.

All solutions listed in the book are validated on a Windows 2012 environment. However, most of the methods and configuration details included in this book can also be used in the previous versions of Windows.

According to Microsoft, the Windows Server 2012 operating system is "secure by default". In some aspects, this is true. However, you need to tweak or customize it based on your business and technical requirements to achieve the maximum benefit.

If you are thinking about using the Windows Server 2012 operation system for applications, data, network services, and so on, the actual server hardening or security process starts from the selection of the type of operating system. In Windows Server 2012, you can use the Server Core installation to minimize the security threat. The details and benefits of Server Core can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh846323(v=vs.85).aspx. Since Server Core installation contains only a few services, processes, and so on, it can minimize the number of malicious attacks (attack surface) on the server. These server attacks can lead to a major enterprise-wide attack. So, if your service runs on the Server Core operating system, it is recommend to select Server Core for this application.

The next step in this process is to select the correct (or minimum) server roles for your server. The details of selecting and configuring server roles based on your requirements are included in Chapter 3, Server Roles and Protocols.

From an operating system perspective, in order to achieve maximum security using native and built-in solutions, the security aspect can be summarized using the following diagram: