| Configuration settings are the configurable security-related parameters of information technology products that are part of the information system.
Security-related parameters are those parameters impacting the security state of the system including parameters related to meeting other security control requirements.
Security-related parameters include: registry settings; account, file, and directory settings (i.e., permissions); and settings for services, ports, protocols, and remote connections.
Rather than visiting each and every system when making configuration changes, organizations will employ automated tools that can make changes across all systems. This greatly increases efficiency and manageability of systems and applications in a large scale environment.
Centrally apply means to apply settings from a centralized location. In order to accommodate large scale environments, centralized solutions may also employ distributed systems used as configuration management proxies. This is allowable as long as these systems are centrally managed and controlled as part of the overall configuration management solution.
To support this requirement, configuration management applications will employ automated mechanisms to centrally apply configuration settings and applications in general will ensure they do not hinder the use of such tools. |
