Back to All Scenarios
PASSEDsecurity / cis_benchmark_drift
CIS Benchmark Drift — Hardening Configuration Reverted
A weekly CIS benchmark compliance scan detects that 43 production servers have drifted from their hardened baseline. An unauthorized configuration management change reverted SSH hardening, disabled audit logging, and re-enabled insecure protocols across the production fleet.
Pattern
SSL_ERROR
Severity
CRITICAL
Confidence
90%
Remediation
Remote Hands
Test Results
| Metric | Expected | Actual | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pattern Recognition | SSL_ERROR | SSL_ERROR | |
| Severity Assessment | CRITICAL | CRITICAL | |
| Incident Correlation | Yes | 18 linked | |
| Cascade Escalation | N/A | No | |
| Remediation | — | Remote Hands — Corax contacts on-site support via call, email, or API |
Scenario Conditions
200 production servers with CIS Level 2 hardening. Weekly compliance scan. 43 servers show drift from baseline. SSH root login re-enabled. Audit logging disabled. TLS 1.0 re-enabled. Configuration management tool shows unauthorized change.
Injected Error Messages (2)
Qualys CIS benchmark scan CRITICAL — 43 of 200 production servers failing CIS Level 2 compliance checks, drift detected in: SSH configuration (PermitRootLogin changed from 'no' to 'yes' on 43 servers), auditd service stopped and disabled (43 servers), TLS 1.0 and SSLv3 re-enabled in OpenSSL config (43 servers), password complexity requirements removed (43 servers), overall CIS compliance score dropped from 98% to 71%, baseline drift first detected in today's scan
Chef configuration management anomaly — cookbook 'server-hardening' version 3.2.1 overwritten with version 2.0.4 (18 months old) by user 'deploy-bot' at 2026-03-28T03:00:00Z, change not associated with any approved change request, 43 nodes converged with old cookbook reverting all CIS hardening, git blame shows force-push to cookbook repository from unrecognized IP, configuration management integrity compromised
Neural Engine Root Cause Analysis
This is not a simple SSL error but a widespread security compliance regression affecting 43 production servers simultaneously. The identical configuration drift pattern (SSH root login enabled, auditd disabled, weak SSL protocols re-enabled, password complexity removed) suggests either a coordinated attack, malicious insider activity, or a catastrophic automated deployment/configuration management system rollback. The Qualys scanner is functional but reporting critical security posture degradation that poses immediate organizational risk.
Remediation Plan
1. IMMEDIATE: Isolate affected 43 servers from network to prevent lateral movement 2. Verify if this is an active security incident by checking system logs, user activities, and deployment history 3. Engage security incident response team 4. Audit configuration management systems (Ansible, Puppet, Chef) for unauthorized changes 5. Review access logs for the affected timeframe 6. Once threat is contained, restore secure configurations: disable root SSH, enable auditd, disable weak SSL protocols, restore password complexity 7. Perform forensic analysis on affected systems 8. Update monitoring to detect similar configuration drift in real-time
Tested: 2026-03-30Monitors: 2 | Incidents: 2Test ID: cmnckehhk08wpobqeva25o9i5