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Use Secunia PSI to find your PC's Achilles heel
I'm sure our loyal DS readers are intelligent enough that their Windows install is likely riddled with security risks. Even if you've got Windows fully patched, any one of the applications on your system could be a potential
Secunia PSI scans your system for vulnerabilities and reports its findings. The overview provides an overall score (given as a percentage) as well as basic information about your programs, displaying the total number that are patched, insecure, and no longer supported (EOL). There's also a simple pie chart for visual reference.
The scan did an excellent job of locating flaws on my test system, finding 19 programs that required patching. It's also smart enough to detect programs that have been installed or changed since the last scan. To no one's surprise, several Adobe apps, Java, and Office 2003 topped my list of risks.
Apart from providing an exhaustive listing of potential threats, Secunia does an excellent job of linking to the downloads needed to correct them. You'll have to download and install each file individually, but at least they're all accessible from a single page.
Secunia PSI is a free download for Windows only.
Secunia PSI scans your system for vulnerabilities and reports its findings. The overview provides an overall score (given as a percentage) as well as basic information about your programs, displaying the total number that are patched, insecure, and no longer supported (EOL). There's also a simple pie chart for visual reference.
The scan did an excellent job of locating flaws on my test system, finding 19 programs that required patching. It's also smart enough to detect programs that have been installed or changed since the last scan. To no one's surprise, several Adobe apps, Java, and Office 2003 topped my list of risks.
Apart from providing an exhaustive listing of potential threats, Secunia does an excellent job of linking to the downloads needed to correct them. You'll have to download and install each file individually, but at least they're all accessible from a single page.
Secunia PSI is a free download for Windows only.
Comments
5
Subscribe to commentsRickNov 14th 2008 7:32PM
Secunia works great with just about anything EXCEPT JAVA.......it does not take you directly to the correct download..............what it does is it takes you to SUN's Java downloads.....................you try and figure out the right one
NapalmNov 15th 2008 7:04AM
This is telling me I need to patch prorgrams that arent even installed on my PC such as skype and vlc. Its also telling me to patch Firefox with 3.0.4 which I already have installed. Providing links to these programs that arent from third party locations not from the original creators.
This program has potential, or rather a program like this has potential but this one smells fishy!
blogwardNov 15th 2008 11:18AM
Agree with Napalm. this is a bit like installing nagware without the ware.
EvenioNov 15th 2008 12:00PM
Hmm...if this covers third-party software, too, I'd like to see something like it for OS X (without the above-mentioned annoyances, naturally). Everybody throws up a fuss when a security report dings OS X for a hole in Safari while dutifully ignoring those in IE, but nobody really talks about the risks that third-party apps may expose your system to.
StayOnFeb 3rd 2009 4:21PM
Another such program UpdateChecker from http://www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/. But it doesn't find many of the open source softwares. Maybe this one will do better.
http://43vents.com