Remote security auditing tools?

p

Hi,

Is there any remote security auditing tools, I don't know if that's the right term for them, but you probably get the idea.

Basically I don't know much practical stuff about securing servers etc.. but I know that if choosing a webhost I want one that is secure.

Taking their word on it isn't really much use to me though so I'd like a tool that'd check for basic stupid security problems on sites so i'd know whether they were cowboys or not.

Also, I don't want the software to be doing anything dogey. (o:

Thanks,

- Kevin

Meh

The legality of scanning someone else's machine for vulnerabilities is a bit of a grey area. You could get in trouble with your ISP as well -- check your ToS first. Not to mention, it's considered very impolite to portscan someone without their permission. I wouldn't recommend it, unless you get their permission first.

ecksor

nmap can enumerate services and grabbing banners will usually tell you what versions they're running.

Something like nessus might be more like what you want for generic vulnerability scanning, and there are plenty of web specific tools out there such as whisker and spike.

Two very big caveats to take into account here though.

First, if you're scanning without permission, then that may be considered dodgy or plain off-side by the hosting company and you may find yourself in some trouble. A pen-test of any sort should include some signed permission and a "get out of jail free" clause.

Second, automated auditing tools and scanners are great, but they have their limits and false positives are common. You will need to verify beyond doubt any claims that you make independent of the scanner's output. For example, an odd webserver config can make a cgi scanner think that it has found some vulnerable sample scripts, odd network configurations can make it look like they're running finger, etc etc.

theciscokid

Originally posted by Meh
The legality of scanning someone else's machine for vulnerabilities is a bit of a grey area. You could get in trouble with your ISP as well -- check your ToS first. Not to mention, it's considered very impolite to portscan someone without their permission. I wouldn't recommend it, unless you get their permission first.

2 port scans of a computer is allowed

30 is considered a probe and illegal

go figure

Ronin

just wondering how you figure that 2 port scans of a box/server is allowed.

did someone write a memo saying u can port scan a box twice but any more an they can moan about you?

scanning any box, at all, without permission is not allowed an your could get in trouble if someone was bothered to come looking for you.

Most ISP's won't bother due to the number of port scan's that go on on a daily basis. I'm sure regi could give some lovely stats on how many times a day boards gets scanned.

Ro

tom-thebox

One of the best remote scanners for windows I would have to say would be shadow scan, it does a full security audit to ISS standards on almost all platforms.

Originally posted by ecksor
nessus

As for a unixy tool like your man above says nessus is pretty good.

But remember its a lot easy to hack a system than it is to secure one.


Regards