Active

Hardening Validation

The organization shall validate that hardening measures have been applied correctly and are effective in achieving their security objectives. Validation shall include verification of hardening configurations, testing of effectiveness, and assessment of completeness.

Requirement ID
CFG-004-R004
Parent Control
CFG-004
Domain Code
CFG

Requirement Details & Guidance

CFG-004-R004 · CFG-004
Why This Requirement Exists

Automation reduces manual errors and enables consistent secure configuration at scale.

Implementation Guidance

Use configuration management, infrastructure-as-code, golden images, and controlled deployment pipelines with testing and rollback.

Practical Application & Audit Readiness

CFG-004-R004 · Field Guidance

Business Examples

    Common Audit Findings

      Common Mistakes

        Best Practices & Ownership

        CFG-004 · Recommended Approach

        Recommended Practices

          Typical Owner

          Cross-Mapped Regulatory Frameworks

          Harmonized Control Mappings
          FRAMEWORK CODE FRAMEWORK NAME & DETAILS FAMILY / CATEGORY VERSION ACTION
          CIS-V8 CIS Controls CIS Controls are a prioritized set of cybersecurit... Clause: Control 04 – Secure Configuration of Enterprise Assets and Software: 4.1 – Establish and Maintain a Secure Configuration Process
          CIS
          Best Practice
          		 vv8 View →
          COBIT2019 COBIT COBIT is an enterprise governance and management f... Clause: 4.4 – Deliver, Service and Support (DSS) > DSS05 – Managed Security Services > DSS05.03 – Manage endpoint security.
          COBIT
          Governance Framework
          		 v2019 View →
          DORA Digital Operational Resilience Act The EU Digital Operational Resilience Act establis... Clause: Article 9(2) – ICT security policies, procedures, protocols and tools for resilience and data security
          EU
          Regulation
          		 vCurrent View →
          GDPR General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) The General Data Protection Regulation is a bindin... Clause: Article 32(1) – Security of processing; Article 32(1)(d) – Testing, assessing and evaluating security measures
          EU
          Regulation
          		 vCurrent View →
          HIPAA Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act HIPAA is a U.S. federal law supported by implement... Clause: § 164.312(c) Standard: Configuration management
          US
          Law
          		 vCurrent View →
          IRDAI IRDAI Information & Cyber Security Guidelines IRDAI information and cyber-security requirements... Clause: §2.9-3.3 – Change life cycle
          India
          Guideline
          		 vLatest View →
          ISO27002 ISO/IEC 27002 ISO/IEC 27002 is a guidance standard containing a... Clause: 8.9 – Configuration management
          ISO
          Standard
          		 v2022 View →
          NIS2 NIS2 Directive The NIS2 Directive establishes EU-wide cybersecuri... Clause: Article 21(2)(f) – Policies and procedures to assess the effectiveness of cybersecurity risk-management measures
          EU
          Directive
          		 vCurrent View →
          NIST-CSF NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) The NIST Cybersecurity Framework provides high-lev... Clause: PR.PS – Platform Security | PR.PS-01 – Configuration management practices are established and applied
          NIST
          Framework
          		 v2 View →
          NIST80053 NIST SP 800-53 NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 presents control families, i... Clause: 3.5 – CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT; CM-6 – CONFIGURATION SETTINGS, CM-7 – LEAST FUNCTIONALITY
          NIST
          Control Catalog
          		 vRev. 5 View →
          NPCI-ISR NPCI Information Security Requirements NPCI information-security requirements define cont... Clause: Security Measures / Controls; Application Security – Hardening and Patching
          India
          Standard
          		 vLatest View →
          PCI-DSS PCI DSS PCI DSS is an industry security standard maintaine... Clause: 2.2.1 – Configuration standards are developed,; 2.2.4 – Only necessary services, protocols, daemons,; 2.2.6 – System security parameters are configured to
          PCI
          Standard
          		 v4 View →
          RBI-CSF RBI Cyber Security Framework / Master Directions RBI cyber-security requirements and directions set... Clause: 5) Secure Configuration – 5.1 Baseline security requirements/configurations across device categories and lifecycle, with periodic review
          India
          Regulation
          		 vLatest View →
          SEBI-CSCRF SEBI Cyber Security & Cyber Resilience Framework SEBI’s Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience Framewor... Clause: 3.4 PR.IP: Information Protection Processes and Procedures
          India
          Regulation
          		 vLatest View →
          SOC2 SOC 2 Trust Services Criteria SOC 2 is an independent examination and reporting... Clause: CC6.1 – Logical and Physical Access Controls – The entity implements logical access security software, infrastructure, and architectures over protected information assets to protect them from security events to meet the entity's objectives. CC7.1 – System Operations – To meet its objectives, the entity uses detection and monitoring procedures to identify (1) changes to configurations that result in the introduction of new vulnerabilities, and (2) susceptibilities to newly discovered vulnerabilities.
          AICPA
          Audit Framework
          		 vLatest View →

          Parent Domain Context

          Governance Domain Baseline
          Domain Name:
          Secure Configuration Management (CFG)
          Purpose:
          To enforce secure configurations for all systems and applications.
          Scope:
          Enterprise
          View

          Parent Control Context

          Control Baseline
          Control Name:
          Configuration Hardening (CFG-004)
          Summary:
          Establishes configuration hardening including standards definition, platform hardening, validation, maintenance, monitoring, exception management, and continuous improvement.
          Business Description:
          Establish and maintain secure hardening standards and procedures for enterprise technology assets using recognized security benchmarks and organizational requirements.
          View