Packer windows hardening Windows 2022 Server Hardening pt2 (Firewall Dec 8, 2024 · Which are the best open-source windows-server projects? This list will help you: choco, windows_hardening, HardeningKitty, Mido, ADxRay, PSSystemAdministrator, and packer-vsphere-iso. Expertise in Virtualization, Cloud, Linux/UNIX Administration, Automation,Storage Systems, Containers, Server Clustering e. iso; Apply Windows Updates; Install Windows Management Framework 5. Hardening UNC paths is a security best practice that aligns with industry recommendations. The VM is not restarting, and the Azure Pipeline fails after the 10 minutes timeout. Achieved everything and It is working fine without any issue. May 20, 2024 · Installing Packer Packer is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Create images in parallel for multiple deployment environments from a single source file. So, in OS hardening, we configure the file system and directory structure, updates software packages, disable the unused filesystem and services, etc. We will explore the Packer Examples for VMware vSphere repository on GitHub, which provides a comprehensive set of examples for using Packer with vSphere. Connect to VCS for image source code. How to Build Immutable Infrastructure with Packer and CircleCI Workflows; Using Packer and Ansible to Build Immutable Infrastructure in CodeShip; The majority of the Packer Builders can run just fine in a container, a common model used by most CI/CD services. In this example, we use an EC2 Linux. com,aes256-gcm@openssh. When creating Packer templates, create builds in a step by step process. When I first started creating my Packer templates for Windows, I would include everything in a single . Dec 22, 2022 · Yes @samaea. But I have not been able to make it work with this "Hardened" version. Build immutable infrastructure with Packer in CI/CD May 31, 2019 · Founder of Computingforgeeks. Nothing that follows should be taken to suggest something is broken in Packer or Vault. Packer If you don’t have one install it by following the official-guide; GCP account; What is Packer and what problem it solves. See . Oct 3, 2023 · Following our hardening guide, we can begin to implement Microsoft’s recommended settings for Windows Server hardening. json # Windows Server 2019 Core Jun 27, 2023 · To secure your base you will first need to have a Packer setup that can build identical Windows images across all of your compute platforms. Harden Windows Server 2022 (CIS) This repository contains resources for implementing recommendations provided by the Center for Internet Security ( www. Creating a single baseline Windows Server 2022 image that is distributed to all hosting environments is critical to the long term success of your hardening initiative, because one of the tricks we use to keep things simple is to reuse the same Ansible Oct 1, 2023 · Packer is a free tool developed by HashiCorp. Sep 9, 2020 · Learn how to automate STIGing Windows Server 2012, 2016, and 2019 with the Windows STIG Script, ensuring compliance with various organizations' recommendations and requirements. Feb 7, 2021 · Thank you for your efforts on Packer and for making them open source. By building machine images to include your team's required tools and system settings, you can shorten the time it takes to deploy new instances. msc” and click “ok”. 3 to build Windows 2016 AMI in AWS environment (Public AMI ID ami-08c7081300f7d9abb) Connected to WinRM, able to run powershell-provisioner, however not able to run ansible provisioner for hardening Windows 2016 based on CIS benchmark For detailed instructions on how to install Packer, see this Getting Started guide. Find and fix vulnerabilities Mar 17, 2021 · Dear Team, I’m trying to build a windows 2016 ami from AWS Marketplace image. HardeningKitty reads settings from the registry and uses other modules to read configurations outside the registry. Mar 30, 2025 · Windows Templates for Packer: Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows Server 2022, 2019, 2016, also with Docker (by StefanScherer) Windows-Optimize-Harden-Debloat 11 1 1,244 5. You can Jun 19, 2023 · Dans ce tutoriel, nous allons voir comment créer un template Windows Server 2022 pour VMware vSphere, de façon automatique grâce à l’utilisation de l’outil Packer. cisecurity. Setting use_proxy to false in the ansible provisioner block of your Packer config should resolve the issue. Documentation. HardeningKitty - Checks and hardens your Windows configuration - brisbanecityqld/packer-windows-hardening Jun 26, 2023 · Packer — Big Picture. Collaborate with VCS. 1. Here is a link to learn how to use Packer to Create a Windows Server 2019 Write better code with AI Security. Jan 9, 2025 · variables. Sep 27, 2023 · a. hcl . But at the end, there are 2 command lines to be executed under powershell May 14, 2023 · This is last and final (3rd) part of How to use HashiCorp Packer to automate and create a Windows Server Virtual Machine template on VMware vCenter server. Jul 6, 2022 · The instance is provisioned by Packer. Similar to Terraform, Packer is cloud/platform agnostic and can be used with other clouds such as AWS, Azure, and GCP. Here is my problem : After launching my hardening script on the VM, i try to use the provisionner "windows-restart", but it doesn't work. Unfortunately, the images provided by CIS (both level1 and level2) disable WinRM as a standard in their hardening specs. I'm not a Windows expert and am using the hardening cookbooks from this project: Nov 2, 2018 · Hi Team, I am not able to build image with packer for windows 2016 cis server • If I use the regular version of Windows 2012, the script works and Packer can connect to the instance. You could combine these into two golden image flavours: A Windows Core Server with . Oct 31, 2019 · A Packer build is defined by a template which has three key sections: adding security hardening, Windows AD join is actually more simple as you can use the win_domain_membership module and Oct 25, 2023 · I’m trying to build a Windows Server (2016, 2019 and 2022) using Packer and Ansible within AWS and reusing code where I can. The source amazon-ebs declares this image will be created in AWS and uses Elastic Block Storage. The Packer configuration file (step 2) and a Cloud Apr 7, 2022 · I’m quite new to packer, so hopefully this is an easy question and down to my lack of knowledge? I’m trying to create a Windows AMI in AWS and I’m having problems with my provisioners. net Ciphers chacha20-poly1305@openssh. json; The qemu builder script allows you to run the packer locally on a *nix machine (Mac/Linux) with QEMU installed Jul 10, 2019 · This is a fairly advanced technical overview of how I've used Packer, Vagrant, VirtualBox, PowerShell, Pester and BDD to implement Windows Server hardening. NET Core 2. You’ll need the following bootstrap_win. To ensure we're hardening against a plain, vanilla image, we obtain it from the relevant marketplace and conduct initial image and kernel updates to ensure it's the latest version. Packer supports Windows, Mac, or Linux. Open Group Policy Management Editor, you can do so by searching for Group Policy Management or by using “Windows + R” to open Run and write in it “gpedit. I’m basing it from an AMI that I have already used to create an instance manually and I could connect to with Remote Desktop. After the instance is provisioned with packages and binaries, Packer creates an AMI from the running instance. There were 3 things on hardening has to be corrected. Jul 12, 2023 · Using Ansible Templates with Packer Examples for VMware vSphere. Find and fix vulnerabilities Create Packer Templates for Windows Server on VMware vSphere (and vCenter) security security-hardening windows-cis security-automation windows-server-2016 cis Find and fix vulnerabilities Actions. txt file in place in order for Packer to be able to provision the server using PowerShell commands over WinRM. I’ll create a gist in my gitea instance and send you a link. That is telling packer to build everything in the directory, which is required to get the auto. Registry key SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System,LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy from 0 to 1 2. HardeningKitty - Checks and hardens your Windows configuration - packer-windows-hardening/LICENSE at master · brisbanecityqld/packer-windows-hardening Ansible role to harden windows system. Ainsi, nous aurons un modèle de VM prêt à l'emploi sur notre vSphere. Microsoft, Cyber. 7. b. Y Oct 24, 2023 · I'm using Packer throught Azure Pipelines to create Windows Server 2022 image. May 14, 2018 · In Low Security mode, the following hardening features are present: Windows Defender Anti-Virus (WDAV) is enabled with hourly auto-updates. The HCP Packer data source retrieves information about an upstream image from the HCP Packer artifact registry. The configuration of the system is retrieved and assessed using a finding list. Find and fix vulnerabilities Used as the provisioner to STIG-harden the container under Packer's direction. Hi everyone, I am trying to look at ways to automate CIS hardening for Windows and Linux. I’ve tried various parameter combinations but Packer hangs either waiting for WinRM to be ready or (if I set the password explicitly) or waiting for the password to be ready (if the password has been autogenerated May 13, 2018 · In Low Security mode, the following hardening features are present: Windows Defender Anti-Virus (WDAV) is enabled with hourly auto-updates. Notes: Homebrew uses Git for downloading updates and Windows STIG hardening components. json # Windows Server 2022 w/ GUI using UEFI packer build -only=vmware-iso win2022-core_uefi. You will configure a webhook to respond to HCP Packer events, and integrate HCP Terraform with a run task to verify that the images you deploy are up to date. Images can include pre-installed applications and configurations. cd c: \p acker-Win2019 packer build -only=vmware-iso win2019-gui. It will have. pkrvars. hcl to work correctly. org ) Benchmarks May 7, 2018 · If I use the regular version of Windows 2012, the script works and Packer can connect to the instance. I’m hoping windows ssh will have similar performance. Ce template généré avec Packer sera exporté dans une bibliothèque de contenu (Content Library). Follow these steps to download and install Packer on your system: 1. according to the cis benchmark EC2 Windows 2012 Hardening as per CIS Benchmark Guide using Packer, Powershell, Powershell DSC. pkr. com,aes256-ctr ClientAliveCountMax 3 ClientAliveInterval 200 Compression no GSSAPIAuthentication no HostbasedAuthentication no IgnoreUserKnownHosts yes KbdInteractiveAuthentication no KerberosAuthentication no KexAlgorithms Write better code with AI Security. 4 solves the issue. This module uses a custom windows facts hash leveraging wmi, as reading the registry is unreliable for Windows 11 (and Sep 4, 2023 · Community Note. Do not try and do everything in a single Packer build. Under Computer Configuration, go to Administrative Templates -> Windows Component -> Windows Installer. Windows Defender SmartScreen is Disabled. These images currently support all of your application’s requirements. 5. This repository provides a collection of opinionated examples that demonstrate how you can use both HashiCorp Packer and the Packer Plugin for VMware vSphere (vsphere-iso builder) to automate the creation of virtual machine images for VMware vSphere environments. 1, ansible 2. Packer config User data to configure winrm And the packer script will have an extra provisioner for sysprep nonsense. Parallel builds. it was a test template. , Winget Upgrade -all ) In this video, we'll be diving into HashiCorp Packer, a powerful tool for creating machine images for multiple platforms in a repeatable and automated way. In my case I use Ansible the same way. I can confirm that answer file works because Windows settings for the setup are processed and Windows installation finishes. 0) Microsoft Windows Server 2019 STIG (3. Nov 26, 2024 · Under – Control Panel – Windows Defender Firewall – click on Advanced Settings – right click on Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security – select Properties. 2 and IIS. There was an issue using Chef-Solo and WinRM, but Packer version 1. basic. Deploy images to major cloud providers from a single source file. AWSTOE Windows STIG hardening components are designed for standalone servers and apply Local Group Policy. 2. 0 Allow RC 2300218 for win-update script on first provisioner because vmxnet drivers will be pulled from Windows Update breaking the SSH network connection from Packer Postpone first reboot provisioner for 30s to make sure the update script before finished before rebooting (connection loss because of vmxnet driver update) Dec 29, 2020 · I am able to harden the Windows 2019 Standard Image using packer using LGPO. Sep 30, 2020 · I’m trying to build an AWS AMI for Windows 2016. At a high level, the following components are involved during image build: Git Repository is recommended place where to store the source artifacts such, as templates, OS Jun 3, 2021 · As Windows Server 2022 Preview is now officially released, I wanted to get my automated build of the Preview release in the home lab and ready to go for testing the newest Windows Server operating system. So we have Find and fix vulnerabilities Actions. , CIS rules). Cloud providers. Ansible Lockdown's STIG-hardening Ansible playbook for hardening Red Hat 8 to STIG standard. 0 license, and created by HashiCorp. json # Windows Server 2019 Core packer build -only=vmware-iso win2019-gui_uefi. (This dependency is pulled in automatically by Packer's management of Ansible; you don't need to install this one yourself. Install Packer from the HashiCorp website into your preferred system. AcceptEnv LANG LC_ * AllowAgentForwarding no AllowGroups sudo AllowTcpForwarding no Banner /etc/issue. This makes us suspect we are doing it wrong when it comes to using Vault data in Packer builds. $ sudo yum -y install packer HCP Packer is a multi-cloud artifact for Packer. Package Management: WinGet is fully supported for easy software installation and updates (e. json # Windows Server 2019 w/ GUI packer build -only=vmware-iso win2019-core. Microsoft Windows Server 2022, for instance, introduces the Secured-core server , which improves security through techniques such as abstracting executables Mar 27, 2025 · Which are the best open-source windows-11 projects in PowerShell? This list will help you: Win11Debloat, Sophia-Script-for-Windows, windows_hardening, PowerRemoteDesktop, packer-windows, playbook, and windows-11-debloat. HardeningKitty - Checks and hardens your Windows configuration - brisbanecityqld/packer-windows-hardening At the moment, Windows 11 gets provisioned until the moment that system boots with the Windows OS screen, and then it hangs, I believe that WinRM is not properly started via the XML answer file. Packer has helped us a lot and we appreciated the shared knowledge it encapsulates. HCP Packer data source. Windows Defender Anti-Virus Cloud Checks are Disabled. A Windows jump/bastion host that you use to manage your infrastructure. json # Windows Server 2022 w/ GUI packer build -only=vmware-iso win2022-core. Mar 8, 2019 · To create an image with Packer, download and install Packer in one of the following ways: Download Packer binary for macOs, Linux, or Windows Install using Homebrew by executing brew install packer Mar 27, 2022 · One aspect of managing Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) is keeping it up-to-date. One strategy is periodically building a “golden” image and re-deploying AVD session host VMs using the updated image. Sample cloudbuild. Windows Defender Credential Guard is Disabled. About. This ami_name names the AMI learn-terraform-packer and searches for a base AMI in the source_ami_filter that matches your criteria of a t2. A packer script to produce a Windows 2016 server Image with CIS benchmark security hardening applied Resources Jun 27, 2023 · Creating a single baseline Windows Server 2022 image that is distributed to all hosting environments is critical to the long term success of your hardening initiative, because one of the tricks we In this tutorial, you will use HCP Packer to define a golden image pipeline and build a golden parent image and child application images. As part of it, I’m executing CIS hardening and also my requirement is to disable “Administrator” account. 0) Microsoft Windows Server 2022 STIG (2. An example packer command would be: packer build -force --only vsphere-iso. security security-audit ami vulnerability security-hardening vulnerability-detection vulnerability-identification security-hacks vulnerability-assessment vulnerability-scanning linux-hardening windows-hardening ubuntu-hardening os-hardening ubuntu-sec-tools The source block generates a template for your AMI. In this post, we’ll use Packer and GitHub Actions to build a Windows 11 image and push it to Azure. Find and fix vulnerabilities How to Setup Packer on Windows Server 2019 in AWS (Create Images): Build server images for AWS and other cloud platforms using Packer by HarshiCorp. 1. A Windows Core Server with . c. Below is the variables file for the Packer configuration: variable "cpu_num" { type = string default = "" } variable "disk_size" { type = string HardeningKitty - Checks and hardens your Windows configuration - packer-windows-hardening/README. json # Windows Server 2022 Core packer build -only=vmware-iso win2022-gui_uefi. Install Packer. packer is a basic template with ubuntu. I’ve even removed all the hardening to ensure its nothing Windows 2012 Hardening As per CIS Benchmark Guide This Packer Template is to create an AWS Ec2 Instance with Windows 2012 AMI and Harden it as per CIS Benchmark using Powershell DSC. As part of the AMI creation it builds the image and sysprep it all OK, but then it creates an instance to perform some tests on the newly created AMI, but this is failing, it use to work until around July. 0 PowerShell Windows Server 2012, 2016, and 2019 are insecure operating systems out of the box and requires many changes to insure FISMA compliance. NET Framework 4. ) Progress Chef's InSpec testing framework. I’m doing all these hardening stuffs using ansible provisioner. Packer a Windows is insecure operating system out of the box and requires many changes to insure FISMA compliance. In my packer HCL (HashiCorp Configuration Language ) file I have an Ansible provisioner: I am using Packer 1. micro Ubuntu image with Elastic Block Storage (EBS) in your declared region. Pre-requisite. View and search state of images across Oct 21, 2024 · Windows 2022 Server Hardening pt3 (DNS & RDP) This part will detail DNS, and RDP so stay strapped in! Oct 24, 2024. exe However, immediately after hardening it, the packer fails to connect to the EC2, I presume its due to CIS hardening itself. Packer is the tool that helps to create custom images in an automated fashion. 0. json file: Build the Windows box from a . by. I read in the Packer documentation site that it supports Basic Authentication and NTLM Authentication. Security teams can automate the validation of image configurations and resulting builds before approval. It uses metadata to track images, their versions, and their build artifacts across clouds. We get benifits from exist Azure Packer template, most codes can be re-used for AWS packer templates; We can use the centralized source codes for CIS hardening as well. In. On linux it’s 20 minutes with ssh. Preparing the plain image. 9. json # Windows Server 2019 w/ GUI using UEFI packer build -only=vmware-iso win2019-core_uefi. An installation starting from 0 takes less than 10 minutes without human interaction. Jan 29, 2024 · Packer uses WinRM as its connection method (it doesn't yet support using SSH or other methods for windows). Then, open Prohibit User Installs. Jul 3, 2022 · Image hardening process in Cloud deployments. cd c: \p acker-Win2022 packer build -only=vmware-iso win2022-gui. In the future we will default to setting this, so you won Write better code with AI Security. - srinathrangaramanujam/packer-templates-1 Apr 29, 2020 · $ brew install packer Chocolatey. Please vote on this issue by adding a 👍 reaction to the original issue to help the community and maintainers prioritize this request; Please do not leave "+1" or other comments that do not add relevant new information or questions, they generate extra noise for issue followers and do not help prioritize the request Dec 14, 2021 · We had already created a vSphere template image with another HashiCorp tool called Packer. For every Profile define Logging – size of the log, location, and define if you want to log dropped packets and/or successful connections. Logen Autry. Image visibility. Any advice would be helpful! Jan 6, 2018 · I'm trying to build a Windows Server 2012 r2 virtualbox vm with some hardening using Chef-Solo. Every recent version of Windows Server comes with its own nuances. For the sake of giving a simplified example, a QEMU packer builder script is included. json # Windows Server 2022 Core Jan 10, 2024 · We can achieve consistent solutions by using Packer templates for both Azure and AWS; Both sets of build codes can be merged into one and managed in the same Git repository. Contribute to juju4/ansible-harden-windows development by creating an account on GitHub. Sep 9, 2024 · Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options > Microsoft network client: Digitally sign communications (always) Set to: Enabled; Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options > Microsoft network server: Digitally sign communications (always). Note the trailing period in that command. Automate any workflow Jan 5, 2021 · In addition to images in the shared Azure Image Gallery the Windows 10, 2019 and 2016 templates create Azure Virtual Hard Disk (VHDs) that can then be used or downloaded as needed. If you’re using Windows and Chocolatey, you can install Packer by running: choco install packer. Organizations like Microsoft, Cyber. md at master · brisbanecityqld/packer-windows-hardening Nov 8, 2024 · Remote Access: OpenSSH (default in Windows Server 2025) used by Packer (instead of using WINRM). yaml file to build a VM from a Packer configuration file Time for a test. g. Using channels in the HCP Packer artifact registry, the approved version of every image is discoverable by downstream provisioning processes, and Write better code with AI Security. Packer is a great tool to speed up the creation of VM images. It is used to automate and create machine images for different operating systems. windows --var-file=2019. Windows Defender Anti-Virus Real-Time Scanning is Disabled. Packer is a simple, yet powerful tool built by Hashicorp to automate the Image Build process for various Cloud and Local VM May 10, 2024 · After comparing the delta from the previous STIG release, our next step is to apply the STIGs using Ansible and Packer. As a technology group in our company Aug 5, 2020 · Each virtual machine (VM) in Azure is created from an image that defines the Windows distribution and OS version. FuguSecurity. /windows-packer/gcp_hardened_windows_server. t. Joe Fitzgerald for pioneering Windows packer projects. HardeningKitty supports hardening of a Windows system. Oct 19, 2022 · Security hardening settings (e. 0) Oct 3, 2022 · Packer will provision a specific machine image on my public cloud (Azure, AWS, GCP), run the commands and changes I need, and then publish a new image with all the changes I made to the base image. Unleash your potential on secure, reliable open source software. Dec 9, 2024 · Will Hardening UNC Path cause issues? UNC (Universal Naming Convention) is used to identify devices such as servers, printers, and other resources in the UNIX/Windows Community. In this section, we delve into the practical application of Packer in a vSphere environment. Are scripts and GPO templates better or tools such as Ansible better? I am in a dilemma since I want something that can be optimized and customized easily. Pop!_OS is an operating system for STEM and creative professionals who use their computer as a tool to discover and create. The VM is created with Hyper-V. In addition, the system can be hardened according to predefined values. mil, the Department of Defense, and the National Security Agency have recommended and required configuration changes to lockdown, harden, and secure the operating system and ensure government compliance. Download and install Packer by HashiCorp and a Windows iso from… Mar 26, 2021 · In this blog, I am going to share how we can use Packer to secure the underlying GCP Compute Instance. Azure Image Builder will also create resource groups that house the components used for creating images and this is where the Azure VHD files are stored until you Nov 25, 2024 · In this case you will use Packer to deploy each new VM, which is still quite feasible. STIG-compliant hardening components install InstallRoot from the Department of Defense (DoD) on Windows infrastructure to download, install, and update the DoD certificates. 0 and . Available versions include: Microsoft Windows Server 2025 (1. Imagine You want Dec 1, 2020 · So in this post I will share a very quick and dirty example packer configuration that uses the HCL syntax to create, provision and upload a Windows server AMI to AWS. We are relatively new to both Packer and Vault. 8 and Packer hangs in the "Gathering Facts" stage, this could be the result of a pipelineing issue with the proxy adapter that Packer uses. Guide. Automate any workflow If you are using an Ansible version >= 2. In this tutorial, you will use an existing AMI managed by AWS as the base image for your own AMI that you will customize using scripts and build templates. Apr 29, 2020 · Hardening is a process in which one reduces the vulnerability of resources to prevent it from cyber attacks like Denial of service, unauthorized data access, etc. hcl. Windows CIS controls and other resources are applied using registry, security policy, audit policy, optional local group policy (for HKCU controls), execs and dependency modules. Compose Packer config files using HCL. Packer¶ Introduction to Packer¶ Packer is an open-source virtual machine imaging tool, released under the MPL 2. Codify security hardening and compliance baselines to ensure golden images are consistent. ezxmpf jxvdxb dpzumnk mxntpvq gmbcdao qicsijw xklni lqc ytrmuzna smwawes hpnrx zvjrawp nhjglnon ads mzmyz