Hardening settings

  • Release version: Washingtondc
  • Updated February 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Hardening Settings

    The hardening settings within the ServiceNow Security Center provide detailed descriptions and compliance values for security-related system properties and plugins. This functionality allows you to manage security configurations directly from the Security Center, enhancing your instance's compliance with security standards. A daily compliance score, expressed as a percentage, reflects how well your current instance security settings align with these standards.

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    Key Features

    • Configuration Attributes: Each hardening setting includes a detailed overview, configuration name, type, data type, recommended and default values, category, security risk severity scores, and impact on instance operation.
    • Security Risk Scoring: Security risks are evaluated using the CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System), providing a score from 0.0 to 10.0 to indicate the potential risk of exploitation.
    • Dependencies: Some configurations may require related settings to be in place prior to implementation.
    • Support Indication: Certain configurations may only be completed with assistance from Customer Service and Support.

    Key Outcomes

    By utilizing the hardening settings, customers can significantly improve their instance's security posture, ensuring compliance with established standards. The Security Center’s scoring system helps identify areas needing attention, promoting proactive security management. Access to extensive documentation and resources further aids in understanding and applying these settings effectively.

    The ServiceNow, Inc. Security Center hardening settings content contains detailed descriptions and compliance values for the security-related system properties and plugins in the ServiceNow AI Platform. You can set these properties using the hardening settings app in the Security Center.

    Overview and purpose

    The Security Center calculates a daily compliance score, expressed as a percentage that is based on how compliant your current instance security settings are with the compliance values in Security Center hardening settings.

    You can manage the specific security configuration settings that may affect the score for your instance directly from the Security Center.

    The hardening settings configurations are explained with several attributes described in the table.

    Table 1. Hardening settings configuration details
    Configuration attribute Description
    Overview Provides a high level overview of the recommendation.
    Configuration name The property or plugin name.
    Configuration type Describes where the property can be configured outside of the Security Center, such as in system properties (sys_properties_list.do).
    Data type Describes the type of value required for the configuration. Examples are true/false boolean, installation, plugin, string, etc.
    Recommended value The value that is recommended by the Security Center to enhance security compliance in your instance.
    Default value The value that the configuration is set to in the base system.
    Category The name and link to the category for the hardening setting.
    Security risk Severity score: The score indicates the potential security risk to your instance as per the likelihood of the vulnerability to be exploited. The security vulnerability is considered and scored individually using the CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) score on a scale ranging from 0.0 to 10.0. See https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln-metrics/cvss/v3-calculator for additional information.
    Severity rating per CVSS score:
    • Critical: 9.0-10.0
    • High: 7.0-8.9
    • Medium: 4.0-6.9
    • Low: .01-3.9
    • None: 0.0
    Security risk details: Describes the importance of the setting configuration and the risk of not utilizing the recommended configuration.

    Dependencies and prerequisites

    		 Related settings or configurations that are required before or in conjunction with the hardening configuration.
    Functional impact The impact this hardening setting has on the operation of your instance.
    References Links to configuration documentation or other helpful information.
    Note:
    Some of the configurations can only be completed by Customer Service and Support and will be indicated as such.

    To learn more about ensuring your instances meet hardening requirements, see Security hardening.

    Other resources

    For user reference, the ServiceNow AI Platform maintains extensive configuration capabilities information in the product documentation. You access most of the security content using the links found in Secure your instance. Also, see the following: