The text highlights the importance of securing system configurations in Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, as misconfigured systems can create entry points for attackers. The focus is on hardening systems across the pipeline, not just credential hygiene. Cloudsmith's approach to secure configuration by default mitigates risks such as outdated Jenkins or GitLab runners with known vulnerabilities, artifact repositories exposing ports or APIs publicly, and poor logging setups. Cloudsmith's immutable infrastructure, fine-grained access controls, secure defaults, and audit trails provide a secure foundation for managing artifacts. The text emphasizes the need to scan infrastructure, review configurations, and consider using a hardened platform like Cloudsmith to harden CI/CD pipelines end-to-end.