Baseline Scanning Tools play a crucial role in maintaining robust cybersecurity defenses, particularly for ensuring patch compliance within an organization’s IT infrastructure. Historically, the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) served as a utility to verify if systems were up-to-date with security patches and to perform basic security checks on Windows, IIS, and SQL Server. While MBSA was valuable in its time, it’s essential to understand its limitations and the modern alternatives available for comprehensive baseline scanning.
The Role of Baseline Scanning in Security
Baseline scanning tools are designed to assess the security posture of a system or network by comparing its current configuration against a defined security baseline. This baseline represents a set of recommended security settings and patch levels that an organization aims to maintain. By performing a scan, administrators can identify deviations from this baseline, such as missing security updates or misconfigurations, allowing them to remediate vulnerabilities and strengthen overall security. MBSA, in its earlier iterations, was intended to be such a tool for Microsoft environments, checking for missing patches and certain security configurations.
However, MBSA’s effectiveness has diminished over time. The security checks beyond patch compliance were not consistently updated after Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Subsequent changes in Windows products rendered many of these checks outdated, and some recommendations even became counterproductive. While MBSA version 2.3 did introduce support for newer systems like Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1, it is now deprecated and no longer under active development. Crucially, MBSA 2.3 lacks full support for Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016, making it an insufficient solution for modern environments.
Modern Approaches to Patch Compliance Scanning
Given MBSA’s deprecation, organizations need to adopt contemporary methods for baseline scanning and patch compliance verification. For patch compliance specifically, scripting offers a viable alternative. Scripts, such as VBScript or PowerShell, can be employed to scan systems offline using the WSUS offline scan file (wsusscn2.cab). This file, still maintained by Microsoft, contains metadata for security updates, update rollups, and service packs. By leveraging scripts and the wsusscn2.cab file, administrators can obtain information on missing security updates comparable to what MBSA provided, without relying on an online connection to Windows Update or WSUS.
It’s important to note that the wsusscn2.cab file focuses solely on security updates and related critical updates; it does not include information on non-security updates, drivers, or tools. Furthermore, due to security enhancements, the wsusscn2.cab file is now signed using only SHA-256, and older versions of MBSA may report errors when attempting to use newer versions of this file.
For comprehensive security compliance and system hardening beyond just patch management, Microsoft recommends utilizing the Microsoft Security Baselines and the Security Compliance Toolkit. These resources provide more up-to-date and comprehensive guidance and tools for establishing and maintaining secure baseline configurations across Windows environments. While MBSA served a purpose in the past, modern security practices necessitate embracing more current and adaptable baseline scanning strategies and tools.
