Security evaluation of operating systems considering compliance policies

Abstract

Currently, to search, mitigate and solve security vulnerabilities is considered a relevant and complex task. New software are being developed everyday, and each one of them may bring its own vulnerabilities. In addition, the configurations of these applications can also increase these vulnerabilities. In this context, there is a lack of securityoriented configurations in a significant part of the current operating systems. These assets, which are usually not properly configured considering security requirements, become easy targets for a considered number of security attacks. The application of compliance policies in an operating system helps to preserve the environment from malicious exploitation. The main objective of this work is to evaluate the use of compliance policies to assess and improve the security level of operating systems. To achieve this, a methodology is proposed and described. This methodology is also applied to a case study with server operating systems. For this purpose, faults in the factory configuration of the operating systems were considered, which were identified using the Center for Internet Security (CIS) compliance policies. Thus, it became possible to evaluate the system security level and to classify the main recommendations for prioritizing the corrections that users can follow. Such recommendations aim to reduce the attacks surface on systems and increase the security level by mitigating the vulnerabilities to which the systems are exposed.