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Part IV: Hacking Operating Systems
I recommend running authenticated scans as a regular local or domain user
and as an administrator or any other user type you might have. This will
show you who has access to what in the event that a vulnerability is present.
You’ll likely be surprised to find out that a large portion of vulnerabilities,
such as those listed in Figure 11-21, are accessible via a standard user
account. You don’t necessarily need to run authenticated scans every time
you test for security flaws, but doing so at least once or twice per year is not
a bad idea.
You can also use Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) to check for
basic vulnerabilities and missing patches. MBSA is a free utility from Microsoft
that you can download at www.microsoft.com/technet/security/tools/
mbsahome.mspx. MBSA checks all Windows 2000 and later (Windows 8 is not
yet supported) operating systems for missing patches. It also tests Windows,
SQL Server, and IIS for basic security settings, such as weak passwords. You
can use these tests to identify security weaknesses in your systems.
With MBSA, you can scan either the local system you’re logged in to or
computers across the network. One caveat: MBSA requires an administrator
account on the local machines you’re scanning.