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Inspired by this question:

What tools are available to audit security on an existing Windows server, say Windows 2003, for my case, but what else, for which Windows Server version?

What can I do to test the existing protections on the network?

I'm looking for tools that can identify configuration errors, common and less common flaws, known issues, antivirus tools, any tool at all that can help identify and fix problems in the server. Extra bonus karma feel-good coffee bean points for tools that can be used network- or domain-wide.

6 Answers 6

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The Penetration Testing Framework may be worth reading as a starting point. For the tools, there is a lot of them for auditing security, for example you may be interested in the following ones among many others:

Eeye retina

Nessus

Nmap

OpenVAS

Metasploit

and the many others that are gonna be reported in this thread.

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For starters there is the MBSA http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/cc184924.aspx

This is a windows based scanner that will give you errors in configurations as well as patch levels.

There is also nessus http://www.nessus.org/nessus/ which is a far more capable scanning and auditing tool, with plenty of plugins for diferent types of scans.

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Have you looked into Nessus? http://www.nessus.org/nessus/ It's been a Linux tool but they have a port for Windows now.

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Depending on the number of Windows servers you need to manage, Microsoft's own System Center Operatinos Manager comes with all kinds of management packs that contain rules and baselines for pretty much all aspects of windows server operations. If you need an out-of-the-box ready solution it's a very good choice. For smaller environments, look into System Center Essentials.

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A good place to start is the Center for Internet Security benchmark for securing Windows.

http://www.cisecurity.org/benchmarks.html

Josh

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  • I cannot download any tool, the only thing they provide is a bunch of pdf. Oct 5, 2017 at 8:43
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Free, Nessus is good to use, but it has a bit of a learning curve as you'll have to work to tweak your exact config. It's a vulnerability scanner. Eeye, Qualys, and others like them are purchasable vulnerability scanners.

Otherwise, System Center Operations Manager/Configuration Manager, Symantec's Control Compliance Suite, and Altiris' equivalent to System Center can all determine configuration settings. These solutions also give you additional options beyond just a vulnerability scanner. For instance, they can manage configuration settings, too.

Another option you have is to determine what settings you want to enforce and build them as GPOs. That way you have mandatory enforcement.

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