Objective 2.2: Assess the Current Status of Service Packs and Hotfixes

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The Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) is a tool that is not included on the Windows Server 2003 installation media, but that must be downloaded from the Microsoft Web site. The URL for this tool is located in the “Further Reading” section earlier in this chapter. This URL will provide you with the latest version of this tool, though the exam is written based on version 1.1.1. The MBSA tool is used for the identification of common security problems that occur on Windows Server 2003. The tool can be installed on computers running Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. The MBSA tool is able to analyze the following products for misconfiguration: Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0 and IIS 5.0, SQL Server 7.0 and 2000, Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 or later, and Office 2000, 2002, and 2003.

The MBSA tool will also scan for missing security updates for the following Microsoft products: Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, IIS 4.0 and IIS 5.0, SQL Server 7.0 and 2000, Internet Explorer 5.01 or later, Exchange Server 5.5 and 2000 (version 1.1.1 does not support Exchange Server 2003, though later versions will), and Windows Media Player 6.4 or later.

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