Free network vulnerability scanning software for windows

Windows NT Registry Permissions Vulnerability Patch 1.0 has come as a helpful program to deal with a problem in Windows NT. Microsoft has released a tool that corrects the permissions on several registry values in Microsoft Windows NT 4.0. The default permissions could allow a malicious user to gain additional privileges on an affected machine.

Excel 2000 REGISTER.ID Function Vulnerability Patch has come as an effective tool to resolve a vulnerability discovered in REGISTER.ID, a worksheet function, when referencing a DLL created by a malicious user. When REGISTER.ID is invoked from an Excel worksheet it can reference any DLL on the system and can be harmful if the referenced DLL contains malicious code. By design, there is no warning given to the user when REGISTER.ID calls a DLL, from a worksheet.

In order for a malicious user to exploit this vulnerability the referenced (malicious) DLL would have to reside on the affected user's computer or on a machine accessible via a UNC path on the user's network.

Windows NT 4.0 "Winsock Mutex" Vulnerability Patch MS01-003 is a highly-efficient, high-quality patch which eliminates a security vulnerability in Windows NT 4.0.

The vulnerability could allow a malicious user to run a special program to disable an affected computer's network functionality. Like all other objects under Windows NT 4.0, mutexes--synchronization objects that govern access to resources--have permissions associated with them that govern how they can be accessed. However, a particular mutex used to govern access to a networking resource has inappropriately loose permissions. This could enable an attacker who had the ability to run code on a local machine to monopolize the mutex, thereby preventing any other processes from using the resource that it controlled. This would have the effect of preventing the machine from participating in the network.

The attacker would require interactive logon access to the affected machine. This significantly limits the scope of the vulnerability because, if normal security recommendations have been followed, unprivileged users will not be granted interactive logon rights to critical machines such as servers. Unprivileged users typically are granted interactive logon rights to workstations and terminal servers. However, a workstation would not be a tempting target for an attacker, because he could only use this vulnerability to deny service to himself. The machines most likely to be affected would be terminal servers.

Windows 2000 Group Policy File Vulnerability Patch MS02-016 has come as a useful program designed to deal with the "Opening Group Policy Files for Exclusive Read Access Blocks Policy Application" issue affecting Windows 2000 domain controllers, discussed in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS02-016. Download it to prevent an attacker from blocking the application of Group Policy within a Windows 2000 domain.

Group Policy enables a domain administrator to specify settings for groups of computers and users on a network, such as security settings, desktop settings, and applications that can be installed. Blocking the policy allows an attacker to retain older policy settings rather than being subject to any new ones the administrator had instituted.