Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition - Zenk - Security - Repository

IP Security
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Security Implementation
Version 1.4b Option 1
All network activity uses IP by default. This tool will monitor both incoming and
outgoing traffic. It can also recognize specific IP traffic. You have the option of
blocking, permitting, or permitting traffic after securing it with authentication,
encryption, or both. IP Security negotiates a security association between
computers commonly known as End-to-End Security. Due to the complexity of
this setup you should refer to the Microsoft Documentation 39 referenced below for
more information and how to setup this utility.
http://search.microsoft.com/default.asp?IntCat=0&Boolean=ALL&Nq=new&qu=IP
Key
Sec&finish=Go&ig=1&siteid=us/products/windows/windowsxp
fingerprint = AF19 FA27 2F94 998D FDB5 DE3D F8B5 06E4 A169 4E46
Unfortunately blocking ports is not enough. Even carefully firewalled networks
can be porous to a wide variety of services. Also, outgoing web traffic is rarely
blocked. To help secure the computer even further, you need to minimize the
amount of software that is run on the system. You should only have essential
services and applications running. All other services or applications should be
disabled or stopped.
Services
Services are programs that run continuously in the background, processing
request from other programs on the network. Typically users rarely interact with
the services directly. By shutting down services that aren't needed your security
will improve as well as your system performance. There are a couple of ways to
view the services that are running on your system. From the Control Panel
select Administrative Tools (under Performance and Maintenance Category if
in category view). You can also type services.msc at the command. Once you
are in the Service Console there will be a list of all the services running on the
system. Services that are running have a STARTED in the status field. The
Startup Type indicates how the service is started and when it gets started.
There are three types of Startup Methods. The first is Automatic, which means
the service starts when Windows boots. Manual will start when a program
requests the feature that the service provides. Disable will never start.
© SANS Institute 2003, Author retains full rights
Key fingerprint = AF19 FA27 2F94 998D FDB5 DE3D F8B5 06E4 A169 4E46
39 Microsoft Documentation, Microsoft Corporation, http://www.microsoft.com
Page 46 of 53
© SANS Institute 2003, As part of the Information Security Reading Room. Author retains full rights.