[HN Gopher] Attack Surface Analyzer helps you analyze your OS's ...
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       Attack Surface Analyzer helps you analyze your OS's security
       configuration
        
       Author : Tomte
       Score  : 97 points
       Date   : 2021-06-22 10:25 UTC (12 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | sloshnmosh wrote:
       | Will this alert you if your OS is phoning home with telemetry? /s
        
         | srcmap wrote:
         | if it alerts/blocks apps from phoning home....
        
       | rjzzleep wrote:
       | How does this compare to security baselines with say inspec?
        
         | csydas wrote:
         | I've not used inspec but since I intercept a lot of security
         | related concerns/complaints from my client base, I decided to
         | try this out with my company's product.
         | 
         | Honestly, I'm not impressed, as it's about as it's just a
         | straight up diff of some collected metrics from different
         | snapshots with no real context or even mapping of events it
         | diffs to the application/user/process responsible, and the
         | discoverability of what actually changed isn't great.
         | 
         | The reports simply show as HTML text lists (all in red
         | strangely, which I don't like), and unless I'm mistaken,
         | there's no interactivity with them. I suppose it's a nice
         | before and after, but it feels very limited in the information
         | it offers, and I honestly don't like the UI presentation at
         | all. Similarly, the documentation references UI elements that
         | don't exist (for example, it mentions a Results item on the
         | main menu that is not present, and I believe they mean
         | Analyze).
         | 
         | Edit: added to last paragraph since I hit submit too soon.
        
           | rjzzleep wrote:
           | Interesting, anything you would recommend then?
        
             | IncludeSecurity wrote:
             | Recommend for OS diffing, or OS config vuln scanning?
             | 
             | Former, no idea, the latter is fine with any major COTS
             | product that does vuln scanning (Nessus/Rapid7/whatever)
             | they're all pretty decent for doing an authenticated scan
             | of a host's local config.
        
       | s_gourichon wrote:
       | "OS" is not specified. Page mentions "COM objects" which suggests
       | OS is Windows.
        
         | meowkit wrote:
         | "Attack Surface Analyzer (ASA) is a Microsoft-developed
         | Security tool that analyzes the attack surface of a Windows,
         | Linux or MacOS system and reports on system changes that may
         | have potential security implications that are introduced by the
         | installation of software or by system misconfiguration."
         | 
         | https://github.com/Microsoft/AttackSurfaceAnalyzer/wiki
        
           | Krasnol wrote:
           | https://github.com/microsoft/AttackSurfaceAnalyzer/releases/.
           | ..
           | 
           | ASA_linux_2.3.146-beta.zip
           | 
           | ASA_macos_2.3.146-beta.zip
           | 
           | ASA_netcoreapp_2.3.146-beta.zip
           | 
           | ASA_win_2.3.146-beta.zip
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | user3939382 wrote:
       | So this is like Microsoft's take on OpenSCAP but targeted at
       | Windows?
        
       | abarringer wrote:
       | Definitely beta.
       | 
       | I installed using dotnet tool install -g --version
       | 2.3.141-beta-g9aa8b4e9b5 Microsoft.CST.AttackSurfaceAnalyzer.CLI
       | 
       | None of the CSS components load when launch with asa gui.
       | 
       | This one needs to bake a few more months.
        
         | staticassertion wrote:
         | It's many many years old.
         | 
         | edit: Oh, so this is a new, open version of the 2012 system. So
         | perhaps not.
        
       | prettyWise wrote:
       | It's notable that if you run this tool on a computer that has
       | onedrive set up, it will start downloading cloud-hosted onedrive
       | files during the filesystem scan phase.
        
       | You-Are-Right wrote:
       | ONE MANTRA OF WISDOM ALWAYS TRUE:
       | 
       | Security and closed source OS do not live in the same house.
        
       | johnklos wrote:
       | To use the "Attack Surface Analyzer", you need to install
       | software that significantly alters your attack surface.
        
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       (page generated 2021-06-22 23:01 UTC)