Guide > From Open Source to Vendor‑Backed Assurance
Frequently Asked Questions About Puppet Core
What Is Automated Continuous Compliance and How Does It Work?
Automation transforms compliance from a reactive burden to a proactive safeguard.
What automated solutions deliver:
- Continuous monitoring: Every change on every node is validated in real time.
- Policy‑as‑code enforcement: CIS Benchmarks and DISA STIGs applied automatically.
- Immediate drift remediation: Issues corrected before they create vulnerabilities.
- Automated evidence collection: No more screenshot chases.
- Faster vulnerability response: Shorter, more consistent remediation windows.
Measurable outcomes:
- Stronger security posture
- Faster CVE resolution
- Streamlined audits
- Reduced operational overhead
- Consistent baselines across environments
Read about how the world's largest stock exchange cut provisioning time from 2 days to 21 minutes.
How Quickly Does Puppet Core Patch Vulnerabilities?
We adhere to strict SLAs for vulnerability remediation. We patch Critical vulnerabilities (CVSS 9–10) within 14 days and High vulnerabilities (CVSS 7–8.9) within 30 days.
Using Policy as Code to Enforce CIS Benchmarks and DISA Stigs
Policy-as-code translates compliance requirements and hardened security standards, such as CIS Benchmarks or DISA STIGs, into machine-readable rules that enforcement systems can evaluate consistently. These rules are:
- Applied automatically: Ensuring every node adheres to the relevant secure standards.
- Continuously enforced: Validating changes and immediately eliminating drift.
- Scalable: Managing compliance across complex, distributed environments without manual intervention.
What are CIS Benchmarks?
CIS Benchmarks are security best practices published by the Center for Internet Security (CIS) to help organizations establish secure baseline configurations across systems, applications, and cloud platforms. They provide detailed guidance on how to configure technology in ways that reduce exposure to common threats and dangerous misconfigurations.
Organizations use these widely adopted benchmarks as a common reference point for strengthening security, improving consistency, and reducing configuration-related risk. By aligning systems to CIS Benchmarks, teams create a shared baseline that supports repeatability, simplifies audits, and makes it easier to identify drift as environments change over time.
What are DISA STIGs?
Security Technical Implementation Guides, or STIGs, define security configuration requirements developed by the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to protect systems and networks. Department of Defense organizations and their contractors are required to comply with applicable STIGs to maintain eligibility for government contracts.
STIGs are technology-specific, with separate guides for platforms such as Windows, Linux, databases, and network devices. More than 490 STIGs exist today, each containing hundreds of controls that teams must track, implement, and maintain.
Can Automation Eliminate Audit Evidence Collection?
Automation can eliminate the need for manual evidence collection. With automated compliance tools:
- Evidence is collected continuously: Logs and reports are generated automatically as systems run.
- No more screenshot chases: Compliance data is centralized and maintained in an audit-ready state.
- Faster, lower-effort audits: Teams spend less time gathering evidence and more time reviewing and validating results.
Read More About Streamlining Audits
Back to topDoes Puppet Core Support Network Devices?
Yes. Puppet Core supports declarative, agent-based automation for servers and—when combined with Puppet Edge—imperative, agentless automation for network devices and edge systems.