During an assessment, a penetration tester found an application with the default credentials enabled. Which of the following best describes the technical control required to fix this issue?

The correct answer is B. System hardening. System hardening refers to the process of securing a system by reducing its attack surface, which includes changing or disabling default credentials, removing unnecessary services, and applying secure configurations. Default credentials are a configuration weakness - not a…

Vulnerability discovery and analysis

Question

Options

APassword encryption
BSystem hardening
CMultifactor authentication
DPatch management

How the community answered

(33 responses)

B
94% (31)
C
3% (1)
D
3% (1)

Explanation

System hardening refers to the process of securing a system by reducing its attack surface, which includes changing or disabling default credentials, removing unnecessary services, and applying secure configurations. Default credentials are a configuration weakness - not a patching issue, not an encryption issue, and not solved by adding MFA alone. The correct remediation is system hardening, which addresses misconfigured defaults at the OS and application level. Password encryption (A) protects stored credentials but doesn't fix the problem of defaults being left enabled. MFA (C) adds a layer of authentication but doesn't remove the underlying default credential risk. Patch management (D) addresses software vulnerabilities, not configuration issues.

Topics

#System Hardening#Default Credentials#Vulnerability Remediation#Security Controls

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