Reliable Baseline Management with Fortra's Tripwire Enterprise

When performing a security assessment, many folks will focus on asset management. This is an important first step, as it often reveals assets in the environment that were previously unknown. The next step in determining how to best secure the organization is to establish a baseline of the current state, and to define what the secure baseline should be. Too often, the existing baseline is far below the minimum standard.

How many devices would you expect to find in a small business? Even a typical household will have more than ten internet-connected devices. When expanded to a medium or large business, the devices can exceed even a modest estimate. Manually creating the catalog of every device in the organization and noting every configuration is not possible. Fortunately, a tool such as Fortra's Tripwire Enterprise can make the baseline task a possibility. In the Tripwire Enterprise application, baselines are a critical component used to ensure the integrity and security of an organization's IT environment:

Definition of Baselines

In Tripwire Enterprise, a baseline is essentially a snapshot or a reference point that captures the known state of a system, configuration, or file. This snapshot includes various attributes and settings that can then be used to define the desired, secure, and compliant state of the environment.

Purpose of Baselines

1. Change Detection: Baselines are used to detect unauthorized or unexpected changes. By comparing the current state of a system against the baseline, Tripwire Enterprise can identify deviations that may indicate security breaches, policy violations, or operational issues.
2. Compliance and Policy Enforcement: Baselines help ensure that systems remain in compliance with organizational policies, regulatory requirements, and industry standards. Deviations from the baseline can trigger alerts and remediation actions to bring the system back into compliance.
3. Operational Integrity: Maintaining baselines ensures that systems operate as intended. Any deviation from the baseline might indicate a potential problem that could affect the system's functionality, performance, or security.

How Baselines Work

Creation: Baselines are created by capturing the current state of a system in order to inspect the gaps between that and a state where it is considered to be in a desired, compliant, and secure condition. This involves recording the details of files, configurations, and other system attributes.

Comparison: The current state of the system should be continuously compared against the baseline. Tripwire Enterprise scans the system and checks for any differences between the baseline and the current state.

Alerting: If any changes that deviate from the baseline are detected, Tripwire Enterprise generates alerts. These alerts can be configured to trigger various actions, such as notifications, logging, or automated remediation processes.

Reporting: Tripwire Enterprise provides detailed reports about detected changes, highlighting what has changed, when it changed, and potentially who made the changes. This helps in auditing and forensic analysis.

Types of Baselines

1. Initial Baseline: The first baseline is created when Tripwire Enterprise is deployed. This captures the current state of the system.
2. Custom Baselines: Organizations can create custom baselines to reflect specific configurations or states required for particular applications, environments, or compliance frameworks.
3. Dynamic Baselines: These baselines can adjust over time to accommodate expected changes while still monitoring for unexpected deviations.

Benefits of Using Baselines in Tripwire Enterprise

• Enhanced Security
  By maintaining and monitoring baselines, Tripwire Enterprise helps protect against unauthorized changes that could compromise system integrity and security. It ensures that any deviation from the baseline is promptly detected and alerted.
• Regulatory Compliance
  Baselines can help in maintaining compliance with various regulatory frameworks that require organizations to monitor and maintain the integrity of their systems. Baselines in Tripwire Enterprise help meet these requirements by providing a documented and automated way to track and report system changes, ensuring that systems can be reset to the desired state.
• Operational Efficiency/Stability
  Maintaining baselines helps ensure that systems remain in a stable and predictable state. It reduces the risk of configuration drift, which can lead to performance issues, security vulnerabilities, and operational disruptions.
• Audit and Forensics
  In the event of a security incident, baselines provide a reference point to understand the state of the system before the incident occurred. This aids in forensic analysis and helps identify the root cause and impact of the incident. It also provides a clear audit trail of changes, facilitating easier investigations.

Next to asset inventory, baselining is vital to maintaining situational awareness and efficiency in a security operation. Lack of knowledge of the desired state of the environment is as bad as not knowing the assets that are being managed. The baseline monitoring feature of Tripwire Enterprise is a foundational tool for maintaining the integrity, security, and compliance of IT environments, allowing organizations to detect and respond to changes effectively.