The Hardening Framework is a security automation framework that applies secure default configuration while allowing customization for each deployment. It adds a layer into your automation framework, that configures your operating systems and services. Hardening Framework also takes care of difficult settings, compliance guidelines, cryptography recommendations, and secure defaults.
The framework actually support Ubuntu (12.04, 14.04), Debian 7, Redhat, Centos and Oracle (6.4, 6.5) and include the SSH and Operating system hardening in the OS Layer, in addition to PostgreSQL, MySQL, Apache, and Nginx harderning in the application layer. That’s almost perfect, but just one missing point for web application developers : The programming language !
You can find a demo of the Harderning Framework in the video below :
PHPMagazine.net asked Dominik Richter, leading expert at both security and automation and Core team member of the Harderning Framework, about their plans to add programming languages to the Framework :
“This has been on our list for a while. Coincidentally: PHP is at the very top of it. It should be released in the next two months. Once it’s out there, I hope we get a lot of feedback from the community. Nothing is set in stone and we want to create something many people will use and appreciate.”
When asked about the maturity level of the framework, the current status and future plans, Dominik told us :
If all goes well, we should have a major announcement in the next couple of months.” The framework has reached maturity during the the last half year. It originally started 2011 internally at Deutsche Telekom and was then developed into the open-source project last year. Thanks to everyone who contributed, this framework has a strong test-suite with many different operating systems. This way, we can validate all changes that come into this project and provide compatibility for older releases.
Nevertheless, this is only the start. We have been working on some exciting changes to the existing projects and also adding new services (including PHP). Most of all: We want to add more flexibility. For this to happen, this project will undergo a change in its structure, i.e. to allow more people and other companies to add input. It will become more independent.”
For more information about the Harderning Framework : http://telekomlabs.github.io/
