New Baseline Security Analyzer Uncovers Patch Problems

A new version of the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) can help customers detect and repair security vulnerabilities on their computers. MBSA version 1.2 is the best of Microsoft’s security scanning tools because it checks for both missing patches and configuration problems in the widest range of products However, the reports it creates require a high level of expertise to interpret correctly, and users will still sometimes get incorrect and inconsistent results. Bad results aren’t caused by the MBSA, but by the uneven quality of patches and patch detection information supplied by the individual product groups.

What Is MBSA?

Microsoft offers various tools, such as Windows Update, Office Update, and MBSA, to help customers examine the security state of their computers. All are free, but they differ in the way they scan a computer for problems and the problems they can detect.

MBSA is the most versatile of these tools in that it can scan multiple computers for the widest range of security problems, including missing patches and incorrect configurations that can create vulnerabilities, such as weak or nonexistent passwords. After installing the free MBSA download, users can select a single computer or group of computers (by domain or IP address range) that they want to check. MBSA then downloads the latest version of an XML-formatted file from Microsoft (mssecure.xml) that contains the information MBSA needs to determine whether the correct patches are installed and whether the configuration is optimized for security.