cvechecker 3.0

cvechecker-3-0

Sven Vermeulen Tue 12 April 2011

I'm pleased to announce the immediate availability of cvechecker 3.0. It contains two major feature enhancements: watchlists and MySQL support.

watchlists allow cvechecker to track and report on CVEs for software that cvechecker didn't detect on the system (or perhaps even isn't installed on the system). You can use watchlists to stay informed of potential vulnerabilities in software used at work on servers where you are not allowed (or do not want) to run cvechecker on. To use watchlists, create a text file containing the CPE identifiers for the software that you want to watch out for, and add it to the database:

~$ cat watchlist.txt
cpe:/a:microsoft:excel:2003:::

~$ cvechecker -d -w watchlist.txt
Adding CPE entries
  - Added watch for cpe:/a:microsoft:excel:2003:::

The second major feature is support for MySQL. This is the first server-oriented RDBMS that cvechecker supports (earlier versions worked with sqlite only) although sqlite support remains available as well. I hope to extend the number of supported databases in the future (say PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, ...). With support for server RDBMSes came of course the requirement that multiple cvechecker clients are able to use the same server (as the CVE and CPE data itself can be shared). With the 3.0 release, this is supported as each client now "adds" to the data both his hostname as well as an (optional) user defined value (which can be anything you like). If unset, this user value is set to the hostname, but you can use things like the systems' serial ID or asset ID.

I'm hoping all users have fun with it - I know I have while writing it. Feedback, remarks, feature requests, bugs and other criticism is always very much appreciated.