Host Security Capability Construction Guide: Key Capabilities, Industry Priorities, and Implementation Process

Recently, QingTeng and XinTong Institute jointly released China's first "Host Security Capability Construction Guide", which analyzes the development trends and key technical requirements of host security, outlines priority needs for key industries, and clarifies construction processes and evaluation elements to help enterprises select suitable products and build an efficient host security capability system.

1. Host Security Key Capability Analysis

As attack techniques evolve, host security technologies continuously iterate, resulting in a range of specialized products. Host security capabilities are classified into three maturity levels: basic, enhanced, and advanced.

Figure 1: Different Levels of Host Security Capability

1. Basic Level: Four Core Capabilities

Targeted at enterprises with fewer than 1,000 hosts, small security teams (1‑5 people), and annual budgets of 200,000–1,000,000 CNY. The focus is on essential capabilities such as asset inventory, risk discovery, intrusion detection, and compliance baseline.

Figure 2: Basic Level Host Security Capability

Asset Inventory : Visibility of assets is a prerequisite for any security operation; automation reduces manual effort in large‑scale clusters.

Figure 3: Asset Inventory Use Cases

Risk Discovery : Enables proactive system hardening before attacks occur, reducing exposure.

Figure 4: Risk Discovery Scenarios

Intrusion Detection : Identifies and analyzes host intrusion events using misuse‑based (knowledge) and anomaly‑based (behavior) detection methods.

Figure 5: Intrusion Path and Detection Value

Compliance Baseline : Establishes fundamental security standards; insufficient baseline management hampers rapid response to incidents.

Figure 6: Compliance Baseline Challenges and Solutions

2. Enhanced Level: Four Core Capabilities

Targeted at enterprises with 1,000–6,000 hosts, security teams of 5–10 people, and budgets of 1–50 million CNY. In addition to basic capabilities, they require virus scanning, file integrity monitoring, memory‑horse detection, and host‑based honeypots.

Figure 7: Enhanced Level Host Security Capability

Virus Scanning : Prevents malicious code from entering the host, reducing remediation costs and protecting corporate reputation.

Figure 8: Virus Scanning Process

File Integrity : Monitors critical system files and directories to detect unauthorized changes, supporting security and compliance.

Figure 9: File Integrity Requirements

Memory‑Horse Detection : Detects in‑memory attacks such as memory webshells and malicious code, which bypass traditional file‑based defenses.

Figure 10: Memory‑Horse Detection Requirements

Host‑Based Honeypot : Deploys decoy hosts, services, or files to lure attackers, enabling capture and analysis of attack techniques.

Figure 11: Host‑Based Honeypot Use Cases

3. Advanced Level: Three Core Capabilities

Targeted at enterprises with more than 6,000 hosts, security teams over 10 people, and budgets exceeding 5 million CNY. These organizations require supply‑chain security, micro‑segmentation, and threat hunting.

Figure 12: Advanced Level Host Security Capability

Supply‑Chain Security : As enterprises strengthen internal defenses, attackers shift focus to suppliers, making supply‑chain protection essential.

Figure 13: Supply‑Chain Security Governance

Micro‑Segmentation : Provides east‑west traffic control within data centers, addressing the loss of traditional perimeter boundaries in cloud‑native environments.

Figure 14: Four Requirements of Micro‑Segmentation

Threat Hunting : A proactive, hypothesis‑driven activity that uncovers adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures not captured by passive monitoring.

Figure 15: Threat Hunting Process

2. Industry‑Specific Host Security Capability Priorities

Different industries face varying risk profiles and cost constraints, leading to distinct priority rankings for host security capabilities. The guide presents a matrix illustrating these priorities across sectors.

Figure 16: Industry‑Based Capability Priority Matrix

3. Host Security Construction Process

When building a host security platform, enterprises encounter two main challenges: unfamiliarity with relatively new agent‑based products, and diverse internal requirements across departments (e.g., security vs. operations). A successful implementation must align industry‑specific needs with overall platform performance, evaluating capabilities such as detection accuracy, scalability, integration, and management overhead.

Figure 17: Evaluation Elements for Host Security Platforms

In addition to technical evaluation, enterprises must consider qualification assessment, cost analysis, and contract negotiations when procuring host security solutions.

4. Conclusion

Hosts carry critical business data and are prime targets for attackers; securing the final mile is essential. Different industries and maturity levels prioritize distinct capabilities. By analyzing trends, technical requirements, and industry priorities, the "Host Security Capability Construction Guide" provides a clear construction workflow and evaluation criteria, helping enterprises select appropriate products and build an effective host security capability system.