Patch Validation

The Challenge

Patches are used to keep environments up-to-date and secure, and make up an important part of any compliance and security endeavor. Unfortunately, managing them is a tedious task that involves multiple steps like acquiring the patches from vendors, testing that they work, and installing them. Administrators tasked with patch management are responsible for ensuring that their knowledge of available patches is up-to-date in order to make decisions about which ones are appropriate for their environments. After installation, they must validate proper installation, potentially make configuration changes, and document all steps. With a variety of patches from different sources being released frequently, and the many steps it takes to ensure proper patch verification and administration, patch validation and management can quickly become a nightmare.

The Solution

The StealthAUDIT Management Platform for Systems Governance & Compliance features advanced patch validation capabilities that provide administrators in environments both large and small with a fast, simple, and accurate view of patch/hotfix levels across the enterprise. Whether it’s the latest monthly release from Microsoft, your Anti-Virus vendor, or any other application residing on a Windows Operation System, SMP's comprehensive data collection abilities and light-weight agent-less architecture makes assessing patch compliance a problem of the past.

SMP's PatchCheck Data Collector provides direct, secure communication with Microsoft's Knowledge Base for fast and easy query creation, as well as granular visibility into the File System (not the Registry alone) to eliminate false-positive and false-negative readings from Registry checks alone.

As part of our standard support agreement, STEALTHbits Technologies builds all Microsoft Patch/Hotfix queries, jobs, and reports for distribution to all StealthAUDIT users on a monthly basis within 48-72 hours of their release.

SMP provides you with quick checks and data points to ensure:

• Desktops and Servers connected to the network
• Corporate-defined provisioning agent presence, service-state, and configuration (pre-patch push)
• Patch status per host, operating system type, region, or any other user-defined criteria
• Offline Hosts
• Mobile Laptop Users not connected to the network
• Rogue Hosts (Hosts denying access, not listed within Active Directory, etc.)