Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer 1.2.1 (supports XP SP2)

[Paul Adams]

A tool I'm not sure if many people are familiar with, the MBSA is a handy way to check a Windows system is up to date and common security options checked.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec.../mbsahome.mspx

Latest version is now XP SP2-aware.

MBSA is the free, best practices vulnerability assessment tool for the Microsoft platform. It is a tool designed for the IT Professional that helps with the assessment phase of an overall security management strategy. MBSA Version 1.2.1 includes a graphical and command line interface that can perform local or remote scans of Windows systems.

MBSA runs on:

• Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 systems


MBSA will scan for common system misconfigurations in the following products:

• Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003

• Internet Information Server (IIS), SQL Server, Internet Explorer, Office


MBSA will also scan for missing security updates for the following products:

• Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003

• IIS, SQL Server, Internet Explorer, Office, Exchange Server, Windows Media Player, Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC), MSXML, Microsoft Virtual Machine, Commerce Server, Content Management Server, BizTalk Server, Host Integration Server

Can be scripted and can run on remote computers, useful for sysadmins.

[TiG]

used this a lot even though it wasn't my responsibility to ensure machines where up to date, i really like this tool very good for big MS offices imo

TiG

[Apex]

A tool I'm not sure if many people are familiar with, the MBSA is a handy way to check a Windows system is up to date and common security options checked.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec.../mbsahome.mspx

Latest version is now XP SP2-aware.



Can be scripted and can run on remote computers, useful for sysadmins.

Yeah i do use this, but i like the old fashion way of doing it with cmd line checker

[Apex]

o look at that am getting script erros on every page when i run it......

[Paul Adams]

o look at that am getting script erros on every page when i run it......

Odd, never had a problem with it at all, and my default browser is Firefox on my home PC...

Did you check the system requirements?
Look in the Help folder in the MBSA folder and open 'mbsahelp.html':

System Requirements

The following are the requirements when scanning a local computer:

* Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003, Windows 2000, or Windows XP
* Internet Explorer 5.01 or greater
* An XML parser is required in order for the tool to function correctly. It is recommended that the most recent version of the MSXML parser be installed (see notes below on obtaining an XML parser separately). On Windows 2000 systems that do not have MSXML 3.0 or greater installed, setup will not continue until the user installs the latest MSXML parser.
* The World Wide Web Service is required to perform local IIS administrative vulnerability checks.
* The following services must be enabled: Workstation service and Server service.

Failing that, give me the script errors and I'll see what I can find in the internal KBs at work.