Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer 1.2 Now Available

Microsoft released a new version of its Baseline Security Analyzer, MBSA 1.2, which now has a graphical command line interface and support for English, French, German, Japanese languages. In addition the new version also generate Unicode output, which might be helpful for Japanese users.

MBSA 1.2 scans the security of Exchange Server 2003, BizTalk Server (2000, 2002, and 2004), Commerce Server (2000 and 2002), Content Management Server (2001 and 2002), Host Integration Server (2000, 2004, and SNA Server 4.0), MDAC (2.5, 2.6, 2.7, and 2.8), MSXML 2.5, 2.6, 3.0, and 4.0, and Microsoft's Virtual Machine (VM). MBSA 1.2 will also perform local scans of Microsoft Office.

The new version also checks the configurations of Internet Connection Firewall, Windows Automatic Updates service, Internet Explorer zones, and also checks for new releases of the MBSA tool itself, where that feature which can be disabled with a new command line switch.

MBSA 1.2 runs on Windows 2000, XP, and 2003, and can scan systems running Windows NT, 2000, XP, and 2003, but not Windows 95, 98, and ME. For a list of system requirements and more complete details about MBSA 1.2 be sure to read Microsoft's article Q320454, which also contains links to download the tool. Or you can download the English version directly by visiting Microsoft's download page.