Retina Network Security Scanner

Vulnerability scanners are useful tools for identifying potential vulnerabilities and security breaches and suggesting tips on how to correct any problems found. Retina is an award winning network scanner developed by California based Eye Digital Security that scans all types of operating systems, hosts, servers, routers and firewalls and reports on more than 1500 vulnerabilities. Retina, like Nessus, has NMap, the open source vulnerability and network discovery tool, at its core.

Retina Functionality

Retina is a very easy to navigate scanner whose GUI resembles an Internet interface and contains four modules, browser, scanner, miner and tracer. To initiate a scan, you simply type in an IP address, range of IP addresses or domain name to start.

The scanner first discovers all responsive nodes and then launches predefined scans against the targets. Although intended usually to run scans without disruption to the system, Retina also uniquely has a technique called CHAM (common hacking attack method) which is designed to mimic hacker behaviour by performing repeated hacking attempts on protocols such as HTTP, FTP, POP3 and SMTP and allows customisable scans so that you can, for example, just scan web servers.

Retina is reputedly the fastest scanner available on the market with the ability to scan a class C network in around 15 minutes and provides amongst other data, Bugtraq IDs, Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) numbers, and vendor patch numbers where available. If you are concerned about keeping the list of vulnerabilities up to date fear not, Retina updates almost daily automatically at the beginning of every session.

Scan results are presented in a very clear format, vulnerabilities are listed hierarchically in order of severity, red for the highest risk and so on, with a description of the vulnerability found, how to fix it and related links for patch locations or further information.

Reporting functions are also customisable, professional looking and can be cut and pasted into other applications or posted over the web.

Two functions make Retina stand out amongst the competition. The auto-fix function lets administrators with appropriate access rights fix registry and permissions problems on remote nodes with one click, and its auditing tool allows you to develop specific queries about vulnerabilities you’re already aware of on your network.

Retina Operating Systems and Installation

Retina runs on Windows NT, 2000 and XP, installs easily using a standard Windows Installer and is then ready to go, ie there is no agent installation. Updating Retina for the latest vulnerabilities is simple too with automatic downloads over the Internet.

Retina Versions and Pricing

Retina is available to scale to any network up to Enterprise level and is priced from $995 to $6,520. Pricing is based on the number of IP addresses to be scanned and the number of users who will need access.

Conclusion

eEye Digital Security’s Retina Network Security Scanner is a versatile, well-organized, and full-featured security scanner, offering vulnerability tests for Linux, Unix, and Windows platforms, as well as automatic fixes of many detected problems and the ability to create your own audits.