[ISN] MS patch-scanner for Win-NT, 2K, IIS, SQL

From: InfoSec News (isnat_private)
Date: Wed Aug 15 2001 - 00:47:46 PDT

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    http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/21019.html
    
    MS patch-scanner for Win-NT, 2K, IIS, SQL
    By Thomas C Greene in Washington
    Posted: 15/08/2001 at 06:07 GMT
    
    We've been eager to spill the beans about this for weeks, and even
    hinted at it in a previous story...
    
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/20960.html
    
    Today it's official; MS has released a command-line application,
    HFNetChk, which will scan all NT and/or 2K machines in a network from
    a single location and compare their currently-installed patches with
    the latest ones available, making it easy for admins to identify and
    patch vulnerable machines.
    
    We gave it a whirl over the weekend and it performed as advertised. It
    covers Win-NT and 2K; IIS 4.0 and 5.0; SQL Server 7.0 and 2000
    (including MS Data Engine); and Internet Explorer 5.01 and later.
    
    The tool accesses an XML file, which it downloads automatically, and
    which contains information such as the files in each patch and their
    file versions and checksums, registry keys that would be applied by
    the hotfix, information about which patches supersede others, related
    Microsoft Knowledge Base article numbers, and the like.
    
    If any of the file or registry details on a scanned machine don't
    match the information in the XML file, the associated security patch
    is identified as not installed and the results are displayed on the
    screen. The corresponding Knowledge Base article number is also
    displayed.
    
    Switches can be used specify groups of computers to scan, output
    format, engine speed, types of checks, the location of the XML file
    and so on, according to the complete instructions, which should be
    available from MS later today.
    
    Related Links:
    
    The progie:
    
    http://download.microsoft.com/download/win2000platform/Utility/2.1/NT45/EN-U
    S/nshc.exe
    
    The instructions (note, going live some time Wednesday):
    http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q303/2/15.asp
    
    
    
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