Over the past seven days, two major companies, Dell and Google, have Open-Sourced two security-related tools aimed at helping system administrators around the world strengthen their local security measures.
The first was Dell, which Open-Sourced a tool called DCEPT (Domain Controller Enticing Password Tripwire), which is, in a simplified explanation, a honeypot server for detecting attackers who might try and exploit local Windows domains and Active Directory settings.
DCEPT works by creating a fake Windows domain and distributing so-called honeytokens to every client on the real network. It then starts listening for any users who try to authenticate with one of the fake honeytokens. When this happens, based on the honeytoken, DCEPT can alert the system administrator that a workstation is at risk.
Google 's tool is called VSAQ (Vendor Security Assessment Questionnaire) and is a "self-adaptive questionnaire to assess multiple aspects of a vendor's stance on security and privacy."
VSAQ is not necessarily a “tool”, but more of a generic framework that contains a series of standard security questionnaires that system and network administrators can answer to get a general sense of the security measures their company has implemented so far.
Both tools, DCEPT and VSAQ, are available under open source licenses and can be downloaded via their GitHub repositories. Demos for some VSAQ questionnaires are also available online.
