Educause Security Discussion mailing list archives

Re: Checking for AV software on students' machines


From: "Dunker, Mary" <dunker () VT EDU>
Date: Thu, 10 Jun 2004 09:12:43 -0400

Thank you for this excellent report from UC Davis.  Virginia Tech is
making similar plans for network registration and scanning, and we
appreciate everyone sharing their experiences.
Mary

--------------------------------------------
Mary Dunker
Secure Enterprise Technology Initiatives
Virginia Tech Information Technology
1700 Pratt Drive
Blacksburg, VA 24060
(540) 231-9327
FAX: (540) 231-7413
dunker () vt edu


-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Ono [mailto:raono () UCDAVIS EDU] 
Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2004 4:02 PM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Checking for AV software on students' machines


Jeff,
We are in the process of expanding our vulnerability scan that takes
place as part of our authentication to campus-wide web-based
applications. See http://security.ucdavis.edu/vulnscanrpt.pdf for
further information. Let me know if you have any questions.

Bob

Nathan-

I unfortunately don't have an answer to your questions regarding 
verification of AV software on client machines, but I was wondering if

you could provide some details on how you accomplished your first goal

- verifying for patches before a student machine is allowed on the
network.

We are currently investigating ways to drop student machines into a 
"quarantine" VLAN if they are not up to the latest Windows patches, 
but so far have not found an effective way to do that check. Does your

solution require some kind of pre-installed client agent?

I didn't see anything in a previous thread, but if you've already 
answered that question my apologies. Any insight, advice, horror 
stories you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jeff Giacobbe
Director of Systems, Security, and Networking
Montclair State University


Nathan Hall wrote:
Now that we have found a way to check students' machines for missing

patches before they are allowed on the network, we are looking to
expand
to checking for the presence of updated anti-virus software. This 
requires access to the students' machines, so we are looking at 
using
a
web page with a .NET component to perform the check. A few 
questions:

1) Is anyone else doing something like this currently?
2) How have you implemented this (web page w/ ActiveX/.Net,
downloadable
program...)?
3) What do you look for to determine if AV software is present
(registry
entries, services, running processes...)?
4) How successful has it been?
5) Pitfalls?

Any other input would be appreciated too. Thanks in advance.

Nathan Hall
System Administrator
SUNY Oneonta
Oneonta, NY 13820
(607) 436-2708

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Robert Ono, CISSP
IT Security Coordinator
Office of the Vice Provost, Information and Educational Technology UC
Davis 530.757.5795 Desk

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