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Windows Server 2003 Security Guide 2.1

Friday, 28 April 2006 by Michel Roth

The Windows Server 2003 Security Guide has been updated to version 2.1. This updated version of the Windows Server 2003 Security Guide provides specific recommendations for hardening computers that run Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) in three distinct enterprise environments. The Legacy Client (LC) environment must support older operating systems such as Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 98. In the Enterprise Client (EC) environment, Windows 2000 is the earliest version of the Windows operating system in use. The Specialized Security - Limited Functionality (SSLF) environment is one in which concern about security is so great that significant loss of client functionality and manageability is considered an acceptable tradeoff to achieve maximum security.

Guidance about how to harden computers in these three environments is provided for a group of distinct server roles. The guidance and provided tools assume that each server will have a single role, but if you need to combine roles for some of the servers in your environment you can customize the included security templates to create the appropriate combination of services and security options. The referenced server roles in this guide include the following:

� Domain controllers that also provide DNS services
� Infrastructure servers that provide WINS and DHCP services
� File servers
� Print servers
� Internet Information Services (IIS) servers
� Internet Authentication Services (IAS) servers
� Certificate Services servers
� Bastion hosts

This guide is a companion to two other Microsoft publications: the Threats and Countermeasures Guide and the Windows XP Security Guide.

This guide is intended primarily for consultants, security specialists, systems architects, and IT professionals who are responsible for the planning stages of application or infrastructure development and the deployment of computers that run Windows Server 2003 with SP1 in enterprise environments. This guide is not intended for home users.

Download the Windows Server 2003 Security Guide 2.1 here.