CIS benchmark tool

What are CIS benchmarks?

Developed by the Center for Internet Security (CIS), the CIS benchmarks are essentially a checklist for configuring various technologies to reduce risks and vulnerabilities and strengthen security posture. There are over 140 CIS benchmarks to date, covering a broad range of platforms including operating systems, cloud providers, network devices, and enterprise applications.

ADAudit Plus' CIS benchmark scanner leverages the CIS configuration guidelines for the Microsoft Windows operating system—including both server and desktop platforms— to detect exposed and potentially vulnerable systems.

Evaluating exposure using ADAudit Plus' CIS risk assessment

• Scan through Domain Controllers (DCs), Windows Servers, and workstations configuration settings and compare it with 350+ predefined benchmark settings to spot misconfigurations and possible exposure.
• Compare recommended and actual values across critical policy categories, including Password Policies, Firewall Profiles, User Rights Assignment, Administrative Templates, and more to spot critical deviations.
• Assess each benchmark setting to categorize the misconfigurations and prioritize remediation based on their severity into—high, medium, or low—using the step-by-step instructions provided.
• Use the detailed CIS risk assessment summary to locate the originating GPO for each setting, along with insights such as rationale behind recommended settings, potential impact of unresolved exposure, and more.

Strengthen security posture with ADAudit Plus' CIS security scanner

• Conduct daily or point-in-time CIS risk assessment scans to validate the GPO settings employed across your Domain Controllers (DC), Windows Servers, and workstations and effectively reduce your network's attack surface.
• Create customizable profiles using CIS benchmark templates and group specific Windows machines to streamline CIS risk assessment scanning.
• Compare the Resultant Set of Policy (RSoP) with industry standards and classify scanned systems into high, medium, and low exposure tiers according to the severity of CIS compliance gaps to enable targeted remediation.
• Use multiple versions of CIS benchmarks to scan for historical comparison data and empower version-specific compliance adherence.

Harden your defenses using ADAudit Plus' CIS security scanner

CIS benchmark reports

• Get a quick in-depth risk exposure visualization across multiple systems to identify the most vulnerable systems.
• Find the details relevant to the previous and upcoming scan schedule.

Configuration drift summary

• Identify misalignments between the configured value and CIS recommended value and prioritize remediation efforts based on the risk severity.
• Trace the root cause by pinpointing the GPO responsible for the misconfigured setting.

Risk insight

• Find more details on configuration deviation, recommended setting details, the rationale behind it, and more for each of the 350+ benchmark settings available.