PROXMOX HARDENING
FRAMEWORK
Proxmox VE, hardened
to the level required.
A standard installation survives day-to-day operations. It does not survive an audit. Where obligations apply, we harden Proxmox VE to our own framework. It grew out of years of production clusters and proves itself where critical-infrastructure rules, NIS2, ISO 27001 and IT-Grundschutz apply: in industry, research and the public sector.
Enterprise and regulated operators do not ask
whether it runs. They ask whether it holds.
Anyone operating under obligations has to do two things at once: harden the platform against attack, and evidence every single measure to assessors. Both are handwork the first time you do it. With us it is a catalog.
Critical infrastructure, NIS2, ISO 27001
State of the art is mandatory, not optional. The virtualization layer carries everything above it and is therefore squarely in the assessor's focus.
The hypervisor as the target
Whoever takes the virtualization takes everything. Management access, interfaces and backups are the first targets of modern attackers.
The audit will come
Internal auditor, certifier or regulator: without documented, justified configuration, every audit turns into a project.
Six building blocks.
One documented control catalog.
The Sysfacts Proxmox Hardening Framework grew over years, was sharpened on production environments and is aligned with recognized standards such as the BSI IT-Grundschutz and the CIS benchmarks. Every building block consists of concrete measures, the reasoning behind them and the matching evidence.
Access & roles
Connection to AD or LDAP, mandatory two-factor for management access, a role model following least privilege, four-eyes approval for critical operations and an audit-capable log.
Host & firmware
A minimal installation without unnecessary services, secure boot and TPM, hardened configuration of SSH and interfaces, signed packages and documented firmware levels per node.
Segmentation & management
Separated zones for management, storage, migration and workloads. Firewall rules down to the level of the single VM, the management plane reachable only from defined networks.
Backup & encryption
Encrypted backups with separate authentication and immutability against ransomware, tested restores, and encryption at rest where it is required.
Patching without internet
Mirrored, verified repositories for environments with no internet access, defined update windows and tested release levels. Including air-gapped operation.
Documentation & check runs
Every measure points to a requirement and a standard. Repeatable check runs evidence the target state: at build time, after changes and before every audit.
Proven where it gets checked:
in industry, research and the public sector.
Our hardened Proxmox environments run in manufacturing companies, scientific institutions and public administration. Where auditors come round regularly and downtime is not an option.
Three hardening levels.
One for each level of obligation.
Every package is delivered as a completed project: implementation to the catalog, sign-off with a check run, full documentation. Your regulation decides the right level, not our sales team.
Hardening Baseline
The hardened base configuration for any enterprise environment: identity, platform, network and backup to the catalog, with a sign-off check run and documentation.
For enterprise environments without special obligationsHardening Regulated
Baseline plus an evidence pack: measures referenced to IT-Grundschutz and ISO 27001, audit-capable documentation, and support during assessments and evidence under §8a BSIG.
For critical infrastructure, NIS2 and certified organizationsHardening Air-Gap
Regulated plus operation without internet: mirrored repositories, offline updates and separated management zones. For OT, production and closed networks.
For OT environments and closed networksEvery package at a fixed price per cluster. We also harden existing environments after the fact. The entry point then is the hardening review: the current state against the catalog, deviations prioritized, effort quantified.
Holding the hardened state over time is part of Managed Proxmox →
How far is your cluster from the control catalog?
The hardening review answers exactly that: your current state against our framework, every deviation prioritized, the path to sign-off quantified. At a fixed price.
Proxmox hardening review
A record of the current state against the control catalog, a prioritized list of deviations and an action plan with effort attached. A result that stands on its own.Request a review