Acunetix Vulnerability Scanner 5.1

Acunetix has pioneered the the web application security scanning technology: Its engineers have focused on web security as early as 1997 and developed an engineering lead in web site analysis and vulnerability detection. Acunetix Web

Vulnerability Scanner includes many innovative features:

* An automatic Javascript analyzer allowing for security testing of Ajax and Web 2.0 applications
* Industries' most advanced and in-depth SQL injection and Cross site scripting testing
* Visual macro recorder makes testing web forms and password protected areas easy
* Extensive reporting facilities including VISA PCI compliance reports
* Multi-threaded and lightning fast scanner crawls hundreds of thousands of pages with ease
* Intelligent crawler detects web server type and application language
* Acunetix crawls and analyzes websites including flash content, SOAP and AJAX

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HFNetChk

HFNetChk is a command-line tool that enables an administrator to check the patch status of all the machines in a network from a central location. The tool does this by referring to an XML database that's constantly updated by Microsoft. HFNetChk can be run on Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 systems, and will scan either the local system or remote ones for patches available for the following products:

• Windows NT 4.0
• Windows 2000
• All system services, including Internet Information Server 4.0 and 5.0
• SQL Server 7.0 and 2000 (including Microsoft Data Engine)
• Internet Explorer 5.01 and later

The HFNetChk tool uses an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file that contains information about which hotfixes are available for each product. The XML file contains security bulletin name and title, and detailed data about product-specific security hotfixes, including: files in each hotfix package and their file versions and checksums, registry keys that were applied by the hotfix installation package, information about which patches supersede which other patches, related Microsoft Knowledge Base article numbers, and much more.

When you run the HFNetChk tool for the first time from a command line (without any switches), the tool must obtain a copy of this XML file so that the tool can find the hotfixes that are available for each product. The XML file is available on the Microsoft Download Center Web site in compressed form. The file is a digitally signed .cab file. HFNetChk downloads the .cab file, verifies the signature, and then decompresses the .cab file to your local computer. Note that a .cab file is a compressed file that is similar to a .zip file.

Download the Latest Mssecure.cab

After the .cab file is decompressed, HFNetChk scans your computer (or the selected computers) to determine the operating system, service packs, and programs that you are running. HFNetChk then parses the XML file and identifies security patches that are available for your combination of installed software. Patches that are available for your computer but are not currently installed on your computer are displayed as "Patch NOT Found" in the resulting output. In the default configuration, HFNetChk output displays only those patches that are necessary to bring your computer up to date. HFNetChk recognizes roll-up packages and does not display those patches that are superseded by later patches.

HFNetChk first examines the computer to determine if the registry key that is associated with the patch exists. If the registry key does not exist, the patch is considered not installed. If the registry key does exist, HFNetChk searches for the related files on the computer and compares the file version and checksum from the XML file to the file version and checksum of the files on the computer. If any of the file tests are not successful, the hotfix is listed as "Patch NOT Found".

HFNetChk was developed for Microsoft by Shalvik Technologies LLC (http://www.shavlik.com/). More information about Shalvik, including a GUI version and an advanced command-line version of HFNetChk, is available on the http://www.shavlik.com/nshc.htm Web site.

The following are the requirements for a computer that is running HFNetChk:

• Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Microsoft Windows XP. HFNetChk does not operate on Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition, or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me).

• Internet Explorer 5.01 or greater or an XML parser (Microsoft XML Parser 3.0 Service Pack 2 Release) is required for the tool to function correctly. XML parsers are included in Internet Explorer 5.01 and later. If you are running Internet Explorer 5.01 or greater, you do not need to install a separate parser. If you are running an earlier version of Internet Explorer and you do not want to upgrade to Internet Explorer 5.01 or greater, you may download and install a stand-alone version of the Microsoft XML Core Services 4.0 SP2.

To run HFNetChk:

1. Download the Nshc33.exe file.
2. Double-click the Nshc33.exe file that you downloaded, and then follow the installation instructions.
3. Read the End-user License Agreement (EULA).
4. At a command prompt, locate the folder that you created.
5. Type hfnetchk -v -z -s 1, and then press Enter.
6. The tool will connect to Microsoft's website and download the XML file that contains information about which hotfixes are available for each product.

7. A report is generated:

Download Microsoft HFNetChk 3.3 (released January 17, 2001) (250kb)

Download Shalvik HFNetChk 3.86 (released November 20, 2002) (600kb)

GFi LANguard Network Security Scanner

Three pillars of network vulnerability management

GFI LANguard Network Security Scanner (N.S.S.) is an award-winning solution that allows you to scan, detect, assess and rectify any security vulnerabilities on your network. As an administrator, you often have to deal separately with problems related to vulnerability issues, patch management and network auditing, at times using multiple products. However, with GFI LANguard N.S.S., these three pillars of vulnerability management are addressed in one package. Using a single console with extensive reporting functionality, GFI LANguard N.S.S.’s integrated solution helps you address these issues faster and more effectively.

Detect security vulnerabilities on your network
GFI LANguard N.S.S. makes use of state of the art vulnerability check databases based on OVAL and SANS Top 20, providing over 15,000 vulnerability assessments when your network is scanned. GFI LANguard N.S.S. gives you the information and tools you need to perform multi-platform scans across all environments, to analyze your network’s security health and effectively install and manage patches on all machines across different operating systems and in different languages. This results in a consistently configured environment that is secure against all vulnerabilities.

Award winning security scanner and patch management
Voted the best commercial network security scanner by users of Nmap for two years running, named the winner in the Patch Management category in TechTarget’s 2006 'Products of the Year' awards, and voted the winner in the security category of the Best of TechEd Awards 2007, GFI LANguard N.S.S. is the most complete vulnerability management solution in one convenient integrated package. GFI LANguard N.S.S. is an essential, cost-effective solution for businesses to safeguard their systems and networks from hacker attacks and security breaches

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Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer

The Bottom Line

MBSA is not perfect- but for the money you can't beat it! Because it looks for registry keys and not actual vulnerabilities it may miss some things, but its great for a quick and free tool.

Pros

• It's free!
• Creates a report viewable in web browser
• Links to detailed information to fix weaknesses

Cons

• May conflict with Windows Update Info
• May not detect some workarounds

Description

• A free tool from Microsoft to analyze your security configuration
• The report will supply a checklist of problems found.
• The report contains instructions for repairing the problem with links to the relevant information.

Guide Review - Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer

In response to the avalanche of criticism Microsoft has received regarding the security of their products, Microsoft created a free tool to analyze your security configuration. Now in its second release, the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) can be used to detect security configuration errors on the local computer or remotely across a network.

The tool does not work flawlessly. Some Microsoft Security Bulletins contain workarounds or manual fixes rather than patches to install. For these items MBSA will report yellow X’s to signify that it can not tell whether or not you have applied the patch. There are also discrepancies at times between what MBSA finds and what Windows Update detects.

The report will supply a checklist of problems found- whether configuration errors or missing patches and updates. More importantly, the report contains instructions for how to repair the problem complete with links to the relevant information and downloads

Read Full Review

Nessus Vulnerability Scanner

What Is It?: Nessus is a freely available, open-source vulnerability scanner.

Why Use Nessus?: The power and performance of Nessus, combined with the price- FREE- make it a compelling choice for a vulnerability scanner.

Nessus also makes no assumptions regarding what services are running on what ports and it actively attempts to exploit vulnerabilities rather than just comparing version numbers of the active services.

What Are The System Requirements?: The Nessus Server component requires a POSIX system such as FreeBSD, GNU/Linux, NetBSD or Solaris.

The Nessus Client component is available for all Linux / Unix systems. There is also a Win32 GUI client that works with any version of Microsoft Windows.

Features of Nessus: The Nessus vulnerability database is updated daily. However, because of the modularity of Nessus it is also possible for you to create your own unique plugins to test against. Nessus is also smart enough to test services running on non-standard ports, or to test multiple instances of a service (for instance if you are running an HTTP server on both port 80 and port 8080). For a complete list of features click here: Nessus Features.

Related Tools: There are a host of 3rd-party open source tools that can be used in conjunction with Nessus to provide increased functionality and reporting capabilities. You can see the tools availabe here: Nessus Tools

Nessus Snapshot: I downloaded the Nessus Server component and attempted to install it- Linux-style. There isn't an EXE file that you just double-click. You must compile the code first and then run the installation. There are complete instructions available on the Nessus site.

I ran into a glitch though. I was told that I needed to install "sharutils" in order for the installation to work. Not being a Linux guru I turned to one of my Antionline.com compatriots for assistance. With some help from Sonny Discini, Sr. Network Security Engineer for Montgomery County Government (aka thehorse13), I was able to get the code compiled, installed and ready to run on my Redhat Linux machine.

I then installed the Win32 GUI Nessus Client component on my Windows XP Pro machine. That installation process was a little more "straight-forward" for someone familiar with Windows.

Nessus gives you a lot of options when it comes to running the actual vulnerability scan. You can scan individual computers, ranges of IP addresses or complete subnets. You can test against the entire collection of over 1200 vulnerability plugins, or you can specify an individual or set of specific vulnerabilities to test for.

Unlike some other open source and commercially available vulnerability scanners, Nessus does not assume that common services will be running on common ports. If you run an HTTP service on port 8000 it will still find vulnerabilities rather than assuming that it should find HTTP on port 80. It also does not simply check the version number of the services running and assume the system is vulnerable. Nessus actively attempts to exploit the vulnerabilities.

With such powerful and comprehensive tools available for free, it is difficult to make a case for spending thousand or tens of thousands of dollars to implement a commercial vulnerability scanning product. If you are in the market- I certainly suggest you add Nessus to your short list of products to test and consider.

Nessus Links

Nessus Vulnerability Scanning Step-By-Step

Nessus Installation Instructions

Nessus.org