Microsoft has released a new security tool known as Attack Surface Analyzer. It is the same tool used by Microsoft’s internal product teams to catalogue changes made to the operating system by the installation of new software. It is designed to analyze changes to Windows Attack Surface. This helps highlighting changes in system state, runtime parameters and securable objects on the Windows operating system. This analysis helps developers, testers and IT professionals identify increases in the attack surface caused by installing applications on a machine.
The tool takes snapshots of an organization’s system and compares these to identify changes. The tool does not analyze a system based on signatures or known vulnerabilities; instead, it looks for classes of security weaknesses as applications are installed on the Windows operating system. It analyzes and reports about changed or newly added files, registry keys, services, ActiveX Controls, listening ports, ACL (Access Control Lists) and other parameters that affect a Windows system’s attack surface.
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