Hardening is the process of reducing a system's attack surface by removing or disabling everything it does not need and securing what remains. Systems usually ship with convenience in mind: many services enabled, default accounts and passwords, sample files and extra software. Each of those is a potential entry point. Hardening applies to servers, workstations, network devices, mobile devices, cloud resources, databases and embedded or IoT devices, and Security+ expects you to know the common steps and why each one matters.
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