Security Best Practices
Comprehensive security recommendations, deployment guidelines, compliance frameworks, and incident response procedures for SysManage environments.
Security Best Practices Overview
This guide provides enterprise-grade security recommendations for deploying and operating SysManage in production environments. Following these practices ensures robust security posture, regulatory compliance, and operational resilience.
Security Framework Pillars
🔐 Identity & Access
Strong authentication, authorization, and identity management practices
🛡️ Defense in Depth
Multiple security layers providing comprehensive protection
📊 Monitoring & Response
Continuous monitoring, threat detection, and incident response
🔄 Compliance & Governance
Regulatory compliance and security governance frameworks
Production Deployment Security
Pre-Deployment Security Checklist
Infrastructure Security
- ✅ Deploy on hardened operating systems (CIS benchmarks)
- ✅ Configure host-based firewalls with minimal open ports
- ✅ Enable SELinux/AppArmor mandatory access controls
- ✅ Implement fail2ban for intrusion prevention
- ✅ Configure log forwarding to centralized SIEM
- ✅ Enable audit logging at OS and application levels
- ✅ Implement time synchronization (NTP)
- ✅ Configure automated security updates
Application Security
- ✅ Change all default passwords and secrets
- ✅ Generate strong JWT secret keys
- ✅ Configure TLS certificates from trusted CA
- ✅ Enable database encryption at rest
- ✅ Configure secure session management
- ✅ Enable comprehensive audit logging
- ✅ Set up health monitoring and alerting
- ✅ Configure backup and disaster recovery
Network Security
- ✅ Implement network segmentation
- ✅ Configure VPN access for administrators
- ✅ Set up intrusion detection/prevention systems
- ✅ Enable DDoS protection
- ✅ Configure load balancer security features
- ✅ Implement API rate limiting and throttling
- ✅ Set up WAF (Web Application Firewall)
- ✅ Configure DNS security (DNSSEC)
Secure Configuration Templates
Production Environment Variables
# Production security configuration
ENVIRONMENT=production
DEBUG=false
LOG_LEVEL=INFO
# Database security
DATABASE_SSL_MODE=require
DATABASE_SSL_CERT=/path/to/client-cert.pem
DATABASE_SSL_KEY=/path/to/client-key.pem
DATABASE_SSL_CA=/path/to/ca-cert.pem
DATABASE_CONNECTION_POOL_SIZE=20
DATABASE_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT=30
# JWT security
JWT_SECRET_KEY=
JWT_ALGORITHM=HS256
JWT_ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES=15
JWT_REFRESH_TOKEN_EXPIRE_DAYS=7
JWT_BLACKLIST_ENABLED=true
# TLS configuration
TLS_VERSION_MIN=1.2
TLS_CERT_PATH=/etc/ssl/certs/sysmanage.crt
TLS_KEY_PATH=/etc/ssl/private/sysmanage.key
TLS_CA_PATH=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt
# Security headers
SECURITY_HEADERS_ENABLED=true
CSRF_PROTECTION_ENABLED=true
CORS_ORIGINS=["https://sysmanage.company.com"]
RATE_LIMITING_ENABLED=true
RATE_LIMIT_PER_MINUTE=100
# Audit and monitoring
AUDIT_LOGGING_ENABLED=true
AUDIT_LOG_LEVEL=INFO
SECURITY_EVENTS_ENABLED=true
PROMETHEUS_METRICS_ENABLED=true
HEALTH_CHECK_ENABLED=true
Nginx Security Configuration
# /etc/nginx/sites-available/sysmanage
server {
listen 443 ssl http2;
server_name sysmanage.company.com;
# TLS configuration
ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/sysmanage.crt;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/sysmanage.key;
ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
ssl_ciphers ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA512:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA512;
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers off;
ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:10m;
ssl_session_timeout 10m;
# Security headers
add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains" always;
add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN" always;
add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" always;
add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block" always;
add_header Referrer-Policy "strict-origin-when-cross-origin" always;
add_header Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'; script-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline'; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline';" always;
# Rate limiting
limit_req zone=sysmanage burst=20 nodelay;
limit_conn addr 10;
# Proxy configuration
location / {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
proxy_connect_timeout 60s;
proxy_send_timeout 60s;
proxy_read_timeout 60s;
}
# WebSocket configuration
location /ws {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
}
}
System Hardening
Operating System Hardening
🔒 Access Controls
- Disable unnecessary user accounts
- Configure sudo with minimal privileges
- Implement SSH key-based authentication
- Disable password authentication for SSH
- Configure account lockout policies
- Enable audit logging for privileged operations
🛡️ Network Hardening
- Disable unnecessary network services
- Configure iptables/firewalld rules
- Enable TCP wrappers (/etc/hosts.allow)
- Configure fail2ban for intrusion prevention
- Disable IPv6 if not required
- Enable SYN flood protection
📁 File System Security
- Set proper file permissions (644/755)
- Configure separate partitions for logs
- Enable file integrity monitoring
- Configure disk encryption (LUKS)
- Implement regular security scans
- Set up automated malware scanning
🔍 Monitoring & Logging
- Configure centralized log collection
- Enable process accounting (psacct)
- Set up file access monitoring (auditd)
- Configure system resource monitoring
- Implement log rotation and retention
- Set up security event alerting
CIS Benchmark Implementation
# Install and run CIS benchmark scanner
# For Ubuntu/Debian
wget https://workbench.cisecurity.org/files/cis-cat-lite.zip
unzip cis-cat-lite.zip
cd cis-cat-lite
sudo ./cis-cat-lite.sh -b benchmarks/CIS_Ubuntu_Linux_20.04_LTS_Benchmark_v1.1.0-xccdf.xml
# For RHEL/CentOS
sudo yum install -y scap-security-guide
sudo oscap xccdf eval --profile xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_profile_cis \
--results scan-results.xml \
/usr/share/xml/scap/ssg/content/ssg-centos8-ds.xml
# Automated hardening with Ansible
ansible-playbook -i inventory hardening-playbook.yml \
--extra-vars "compliance_profile=cis"
Compliance Frameworks
Supported Compliance Standards
📋 SOC 2 Type II
Security, Availability, Processing Integrity
- Access control implementation
- System monitoring and logging
- Change management procedures
- Incident response protocols
- Data protection measures
🔐 ISO 27001
Information Security Management
- Risk assessment and treatment
- Security policy documentation
- Asset management controls
- Supplier relationship security
- Business continuity planning
🏛️ FedRAMP
Federal Risk Authorization
- NIST 800-53 control implementation
- Continuous monitoring requirements
- Security assessment procedures
- Configuration management
- Incident response capabilities
💳 PCI DSS
Payment Card Industry
- Network security requirements
- Data protection standards
- Vulnerability management
- Access control implementation
- Regular security testing
Compliance Implementation Guide
SOC 2 Implementation
- Scope Definition: Identify systems and processes in scope
- Control Design: Implement required security controls
- Documentation: Create policies and procedures
- Testing: Perform control effectiveness testing
- Monitoring: Establish continuous monitoring processes
- Audit: Engage qualified auditor for assessment
Control Implementation Example
# SOC 2 Control: CC6.1 - Logical and Physical Access Controls
# Implementation in SysManage
# 1. Access control policy configuration
ACCESS_CONTROL_POLICY = {
"minimum_password_length": 12,
"require_mfa": True,
"session_timeout_minutes": 30,
"max_failed_attempts": 5,
"account_lockout_duration": 30,
"privilege_escalation_approval": True
}
# 2. Role-based access control matrix
RBAC_MATRIX = {
"admin": [
"system:configure", "users:manage", "security:audit",
"hosts:manage", "certificates:manage"
],
"operator": [
"hosts:manage", "packages:manage", "monitoring:view"
],
"viewer": [
"hosts:view", "packages:view", "monitoring:view"
],
"auditor": [
"audit:view", "logs:view", "reports:generate"
]
}
# 3. Access logging configuration
AUDIT_EVENTS = [
"user_login", "user_logout", "permission_granted",
"permission_denied", "role_assigned", "role_removed",
"system_configuration_change", "security_event"
]
Audit Procedures
Audit Framework
SysManage implements comprehensive audit capabilities for compliance and security monitoring.
Audit Event Categories
🔐 Authentication Events
- User login/logout activities
- Failed authentication attempts
- Account lockouts and unlocks
- Password changes and resets
- MFA enrollment and usage
⚙️ Administrative Actions
- User account management
- Role and permission changes
- System configuration modifications
- Security setting updates
- Certificate management operations
🖥️ System Operations
- Host approval and rejection
- Package installation and updates
- Task execution and results
- File transfers and deployments
- System monitoring access
🚨 Security Events
- Suspicious activity detection
- Privilege escalation attempts
- Unauthorized access attempts
- Certificate validation failures
- Data access violations
Audit Log Format
# Standard audit log entry format (JSON)
{
"timestamp": "2024-01-15T14:30:00.000Z",
"event_id": "evt_1234567890",
"event_type": "authentication",
"event_category": "login_success",
"severity": "info",
"source": {
"service": "sysmanage-server",
"version": "1.0.0",
"host": "sysmanage-prod-01"
},
"actor": {
"user_id": "user_123",
"username": "jdoe",
"session_id": "sess_abc123",
"ip_address": "192.168.1.100",
"user_agent": "Mozilla/5.0..."
},
"target": {
"resource_type": "system",
"resource_id": "sysmanage-server",
"action": "login"
},
"details": {
"authentication_method": "username_password",
"mfa_used": true,
"login_location": "New York, US",
"previous_login": "2024-01-15T08:00:00.000Z"
},
"outcome": {
"result": "success",
"reason": null,
"risk_score": 0.2
}
}
Audit Reporting
Automated Reporting
- Daily Security Summary: Authentication events, failed attempts, security alerts
- Weekly Access Report: User activities, permission changes, role assignments
- Monthly Compliance Report: Control effectiveness, policy violations, risk assessments
- Quarterly Audit Report: Comprehensive security posture review
Custom Report Generation
# Generate audit reports using SysManage API
curl -X POST "https://sysmanage.company.com/api/reports/audit" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $JWT_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"report_type": "security_events",
"date_range": {
"start": "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z",
"end": "2024-01-31T23:59:59Z"
},
"filters": {
"event_types": ["authentication", "authorization", "admin_action"],
"severity": ["medium", "high", "critical"],
"users": ["admin", "operator"]
},
"format": "pdf",
"delivery": {
"method": "email",
"recipients": ["security@company.com", "compliance@company.com"]
}
}'
Incident Response
Incident Response Framework
SysManage implements a structured incident response process following NIST guidelines.
Incident Response Phases
1. 📋 Preparation
- Incident response plan development
- Team roles and responsibilities
- Communication procedures
- Tool and resource preparation
- Training and awareness programs
2. 🔍 Detection & Analysis
- Automated threat detection
- Security event correlation
- Incident classification
- Impact assessment
- Evidence collection
3. 🚨 Containment & Eradication
- Immediate containment actions
- System isolation procedures
- Threat neutralization
- Vulnerability remediation
- System hardening
4. 🔄 Recovery & Lessons Learned
- System restoration procedures
- Monitoring for reoccurrence
- Post-incident analysis
- Process improvements
- Documentation updates
Automated Incident Detection
Security Event Rules
# Incident detection rules configuration
INCIDENT_RULES = {
"brute_force_attack": {
"condition": "failed_logins >= 10 within 5 minutes",
"severity": "high",
"actions": ["block_ip", "notify_admin", "create_incident"]
},
"privilege_escalation": {
"condition": "sudo_usage by non_admin_user",
"severity": "critical",
"actions": ["log_event", "notify_security_team", "require_justification"]
},
"unusual_access_pattern": {
"condition": "login from new_location AND new_device",
"severity": "medium",
"actions": ["require_mfa", "notify_user", "monitor_session"]
},
"certificate_validation_failure": {
"condition": "mtls_validation_failure >= 5 within 1 minute",
"severity": "high",
"actions": ["block_agent", "investigate_source", "notify_admin"]
}
}
# Automated response actions
def handle_security_incident(rule_name: str, event_data: dict):
incident = create_incident_record(rule_name, event_data)
# Execute automated responses
for action in INCIDENT_RULES[rule_name]["actions"]:
execute_response_action(action, event_data)
# Notify response team
notify_incident_response_team(incident)
return incident.id
Incident Response Playbooks
Compromised User Account Playbook
- Immediate Actions:
- Disable compromised user account
- Revoke all active JWT tokens
- Reset account password
- Block source IP addresses
- Investigation:
- Review audit logs for account activity
- Identify accessed resources and data
- Check for lateral movement attempts
- Analyze authentication patterns
- Recovery:
- Re-enable account with new credentials
- Require MFA re-enrollment
- Monitor account for suspicious activity
- Update security awareness training
Agent Communication Compromise
- Immediate Actions:
- Revoke suspected agent certificates
- Block agent IP addresses
- Isolate affected network segments
- Enable enhanced monitoring
- Investigation:
- Analyze mTLS certificate validation logs
- Review agent communication patterns
- Check for unauthorized commands
- Verify certificate chain integrity
- Recovery:
- Generate new agent certificates
- Update certificate authority if needed
- Strengthen certificate validation
- Implement additional monitoring
Continuous Security Monitoring
Monitoring Architecture
Implement comprehensive monitoring for real-time threat detection and response.
Monitoring Layers
🖥️ Infrastructure Monitoring
- System resource utilization
- Network traffic analysis
- Service availability monitoring
- Performance metrics tracking
📱 Application Monitoring
- API endpoint performance
- Database query monitoring
- Error rate and patterns
- User session tracking
🔒 Security Monitoring
- Authentication event monitoring
- Authorization failure tracking
- Suspicious activity detection
- Certificate status monitoring
📊 Business Monitoring
- Host management activities
- Package deployment metrics
- User adoption patterns
- Compliance status tracking
Monitoring Tool Integration
# Prometheus monitoring configuration
# /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml
global:
scrape_interval: 15s
evaluation_interval: 15s
rule_files:
- "sysmanage_alerts.yml"
scrape_configs:
- job_name: 'sysmanage-server'
static_configs:
- targets: ['localhost:8000']
metrics_path: '/metrics'
scrape_interval: 5s
- job_name: 'sysmanage-database'
static_configs:
- targets: ['localhost:9187']
scrape_interval: 10s
alerting:
alertmanagers:
- static_configs:
- targets:
- alertmanager:9093
# Alert rules for security events
groups:
- name: sysmanage_security
rules:
- alert: HighFailedLogins
expr: rate(sysmanage_failed_logins_total[5m]) > 0.1
for: 2m
labels:
severity: warning
annotations:
summary: "High rate of failed login attempts"
- alert: SuspiciousActivity
expr: sysmanage_security_events_total{severity="high"} > 0
for: 0m
labels:
severity: critical
annotations:
summary: "Critical security event detected"
Data Protection & Privacy
Data Classification
🔴 Highly Sensitive
- User passwords and authentication tokens
- Private keys and certificates
- Personal identifiable information (PII)
- Security configuration details
🟡 Sensitive
- System configuration data
- Host inventory information
- Package installation details
- User activity logs
🟢 Internal
- System performance metrics
- Non-sensitive log entries
- Public configuration templates
- Documentation and guides
Data Protection Measures
Encryption Implementation
# Data encryption configuration
ENCRYPTION_CONFIG = {
"database": {
"encryption_at_rest": True,
"algorithm": "AES-256",
"key_rotation_days": 90
},
"backups": {
"encryption_enabled": True,
"algorithm": "AES-256-GCM",
"compression": True
},
"logs": {
"pii_redaction": True,
"encryption_in_transit": True,
"retention_days": 365
},
"certificates": {
"storage_encryption": True,
"access_control": "strict",
"audit_logging": True
}
}
# PII redaction for logs
import re
def redact_sensitive_data(log_message: str) -> str:
# Redact email addresses
log_message = re.sub(r'\b[A-Za-z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Za-z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z|a-z]{2,}\b',
'[EMAIL_REDACTED]', log_message)
# Redact IP addresses
log_message = re.sub(r'\b(?:[0-9]{1,3}\.){3}[0-9]{1,3}\b',
'[IP_REDACTED]', log_message)
# Redact JWT tokens
log_message = re.sub(r'eyJ[A-Za-z0-9-_]+\.eyJ[A-Za-z0-9-_]+\.[A-Za-z0-9-_]+',
'[TOKEN_REDACTED]', log_message)
return log_message
Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity
Backup Strategy
3-2-1 Backup Rule Implementation
- 3 Copies: Production data + 2 backup copies
- 2 Media Types: Local storage + cloud storage
- 1 Offsite: Geographically separated location
Backup Components
# Automated backup script
#!/bin/bash
# /usr/local/bin/sysmanage-backup.sh
BACKUP_DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)
BACKUP_DIR="/var/backups/sysmanage"
S3_BUCKET="s3://company-backups/sysmanage"
# Database backup
pg_dump -h localhost -U sysmanage_user sysmanage_db | \
gzip > "$BACKUP_DIR/db_backup_$BACKUP_DATE.sql.gz"
# Configuration backup
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/config_backup_$BACKUP_DATE.tar.gz" \
/etc/sysmanage/ \
/etc/ssl/sysmanage/ \
/var/lib/sysmanage/
# Certificate backup (encrypted)
gpg --cipher-algo AES256 --compress-algo 1 --s2k-mode 3 \
--s2k-digest-algo SHA512 --s2k-count 65536 --symmetric \
--output "$BACKUP_DIR/certs_backup_$BACKUP_DATE.tar.gz.gpg" \
/var/lib/sysmanage/certs/
# Upload to cloud storage
aws s3 sync "$BACKUP_DIR" "$S3_BUCKET" --delete
# Clean old backups (keep 30 days local, 365 days cloud)
find "$BACKUP_DIR" -type f -mtime +30 -delete
aws s3 ls "$S3_BUCKET" --recursive | \
awk '$1 < "'$(date -d '365 days ago' '+%Y-%m-%d')'" {print $4}' | \
xargs -I {} aws s3 rm "$S3_BUCKET/{}"
Recovery Procedures
Recovery Time Objectives (RTO)
- Critical Systems: 1 hour
- Production Environment: 4 hours
- Full Service Restoration: 24 hours
Recovery Point Objectives (RPO)
- Database: 15 minutes (continuous replication)
- Configuration: 1 hour (hourly backups)
- Logs: 1 hour (real-time shipping)
Security Performance Optimization
Balancing Security and Performance
⚡ Authentication Optimization
- JWT token caching for validation
- Efficient RBAC permission lookups
- Connection pooling for external auth
- Optimized password hashing (Argon2)
🔒 TLS Performance
- TLS session resumption
- HTTP/2 with server push
- Certificate caching
- Cipher suite optimization
📊 Monitoring Efficiency
- Selective audit logging
- Asynchronous security checks
- Batched metric collection
- Intelligent alerting rules
Security Training & Awareness
Training Program
👤 User Security Training
- Password security best practices
- Multi-factor authentication setup
- Phishing and social engineering awareness
- Incident reporting procedures
👨💼 Administrator Training
- System hardening procedures
- Certificate management
- Incident response protocols
- Compliance requirements
🔧 Developer Security Training
- Secure coding practices
- API security implementation
- Vulnerability assessment
- Security testing methodologies