The security configuration lockdown wizard for Windows Server 2003 that was supposed to be delivered shortly after the operating system shipped has now apparently been pushed into the first service pack.
Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates mentioned such functionality during his Microsoft Professional Developers Conference keynote in Los Angeles last week. While discussing security enhancements coming in future service packs, Gates said Windows 2003 SP1 could contain a "simple configuration where you can say what the type of the server is, and have all things locked down according to exactly that use."
The decision to put the security feature in SP1 means the feature has been delayed by at least a year. Windows Server 2003 SP1 is expected to go into beta in the first half of next year and be finished in the second half.
Originally Microsoft had talked about including functionality to securely lock down servers by role in the base operating system, which shipped in April. Shortly before the RTM of Windows Server 2003, Microsoft announced that it was packaging the functionality separately for a summer release as a Security Configuration Wizard.
News source: entmag.com
