microsoft’s waca v2.0 released: web/app/sql scanner

Microsoft has recently released their Microsoft Web Application Configuration Analyzer v2.0 tool. This is such a straight-forward tool to use, and includes rather clear checks and fixes, that it’s really not acceptable to *not* run something like this, especially if you run Microsoft IIS web servers or SQL instances.

The tool has a nice array of checks when pointed against an IIS box, and even does decent surface checks against SQL. While this tool does include “web app” in the name, I don’t think it goes much beyond inspecting a site’s web.config file on that front. It also requires Microsoft .NET 4.0 on the system you install the tool on, and predictably needs admin rights on any target systems it scans. If you’re curious about any checks, they’re pretty clearly spelled out. Also, if you want to supress any checks because they don’t apply, you can do so. The report then mentions the presence of suppressions (yay!), and you can even take off the supressions after the fact, since the tool still does the checks but just doesn’t include them in the end tallies.

This does make a great companion scan tool to add to your toolbelt for appropriate systems, even if it has a herky-jerky interface.

As a sort of cautionary piece of advice, I wouldn’t be totally surprised if some organizations request this tool be run by potential vendors/service providers whose systems meet the tool’s criteria. Which means you hopefully will have run this tool before such a request! It’s much more palatable to request something like this as part of an initial security/fit checkbox when it is an official Microsoft tool. Just sayin’…