Introduction to security misconfigurations and vulnerabilities

Misconfigurations and vulnerabilities are the biggest culprits that contribute to security incidents (see Figure 6.1). It’s critical for any organization to monitor these issues and remediate them quickly as they are potential weaknesses that can be exploited by attackers. To mitigate both security misconfigurations and vulnerabilities, it is essential to regularly assess security, apply patches, configure systems securely, and follow best practices in setting up systems and networks. Both security misconfigurations and vulnerabilities can make systems and data vulnerable to attack. However, attackers often find it easier to exploit security misconfigurations because they do not require the attacker to have any knowledge of the underlying software.

Figure 6.1 – Contributions to security risk

Security misconfigurations

A security misconfiguration is a weakness in a system or...