What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on 11 Operating system hardening (Very Good)?

Approved list of services and software permitted in the standard operating system build, with the owner of each; Operating system hardening baseline referencing ASD and vendor guidance; Scan results showing unneeded software, services and open ports removed from standard builds; Configuration drift reports comparing live systems against the hardened baseline.

What is the most common gap auditors find on 11?

Standard image still includes unused services and bundled vendor software

ASD Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents · Preventing Malware Delivery and Execution

`11` Operating system hardening (Very Good)

Harden operating systems based on vendor guidance and ASD guidance. Remove unneeded software, services and ports.

Source: ASD Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents, 11. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open ASD Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents in the compliance library.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

easy

to go live

Vulnerability scanner / patch tooling

where the evidence lives

teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

Scan results showing unneeded software, services and open ports removed from standard builds · Vulnerability scanner / patch tooling
Configuration drift reports comparing live systems against the hardened baseline · Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

none for this control

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Approved list of services and software permitted in the standard operating system build, with the owner of each · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Operating system hardening baseline referencing ASD and vendor guidance · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Automate the pull from your Vulnerability scanner / patch tooling. Scan schedule, findings and remediation age straight from the scanner; patch compliance from the patch console.

Common gaps auditors find

Standard image still includes unused services and bundled vendor software
Listening ports open on servers with no business owner or justification
Hardening baseline written years ago and not updated for current OS versions

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

Build my evidence sheet

10 Server application hardening (Very Good) · 12 Antivirus software with heuristics (Very Good)