Security Configuration Wizard

The Security Configuration Wizard is a new feature in Windows Server 2003 SP1. This feature helps reduce the attack-surface for your server, which is a fundamental security best practice. Reducing the attack surface of Windows servers can minimize the number of servers that need to be immediately patched when a vulnerability is exploited because a given vulnerability will not necessarily be present in all configurations. The wizard is highly recommended for configuring Windows Firewall and creating security lockdown templates for servers based on their roles.

The wizard guides you through a series of questions to determine the functional requirements of your server. It then disables nny functionality that is not required by the roles the server is performing.

With the Security Configuration Wizard, you can easily do the following:

  • Disable unnecessary services

  • Disable unnecessary Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) Web extensions

  • Block unused ports, including support for multihomed scenarios

  • Secure ports that are left open using IPSec

  • Reduce protocol exposure for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), LAN Manager, and Server Message Block (SMB)

  • Configure audit settings with a high signal-to-noise ratio

  • Import Windows security templates for coverage of settings that are not configured by the wizard

In addition to role-based security policy authoring, the wizard also supports the following:

  • Rollback. You can return your server to its previous state (before you applied the Security Configuration Wizard security policy). This is useful if applied policies affect service in unexpected ways.

  • Analysis. You can check whether servers are in compliance with expected policies.

  • Remote access. You can use remote access for configuration and analysis operations.

  • Command-line support. A command-line tool is provided for remote configuration and analysis of groups of servers.

  • Active Directory integration. You can deploy Security Configuration Wizard policies using Group Policy.

  • Editing. You can modify security policies created using Security Configuration Wizard—for example, when machines are repurposed.

  • XSL views. You can view the data stored in the Knowledge Base, policies, and analysis results XML files.

The Security Configuration Wizard is an authoring tool that allows you to create a custom security policy by answering a series of questions. For settings that are not configured by the wizard, the administrator can import existing security templates.

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