Microsoft IIS 7 security best practices

Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) Web server has presented enterprises with more than its share of security problems over the years, including the infamous Code Red worm nearly a decade ago. A key security concern with IIS has always been the number of features that are automatically installed and enabled by default, such as scripting and virtual directories, many of which proved vulnerable to exploit and led to major security incidents.

With the release of IIS 6 a few years ago, a "lockdown by default" approach was introduced with several features either not being installed or installed but disabled by default. IIS 7, the newest iteration, goes even further. It's not even installed on Windows Server 2008 by default, and when it is installed, the Web server is configured to serve only static content with anonymous authentication and local administration, resulting in the simplest of Web servers and the smallest attack surface possible to would-be hackers.

This is possible because IIS 7 is completely modularized. Let's briefly dig into why that is and how it enables a more secure product. Essentially administrators can select from more than 40 separate feature modules to completely customize their installation. By only installing the feature modules required for a particular website, administrators can greatly reduce the potential attack surface and minimize resource utilization.