A method for controlling remote configuration includes: a configuration management terminal requesting a configuration file to be remotely configured and managed from a configuration management server; the configuration management server returning a configuration item of the configuration file to the configuration management terminal according to a configuration definition corresponding to the configuration file, with the configuration definition including the attributes of the configuration item in the corresponding configuration file; and the configuration management terminal modifying the configuration item and then submitting the modified configuration item to the configuration management server, and the configuration management terminal modifying the configuration file after modifying and verifying the submitted configuration item according to the attributes of the configuration item. A system for controlling remote configuration maintains and manages the configuration items of various configuration files according to the configuration definitions corresponding to the configuration files, so as to achieve universal management of configuration files.