Using the Application Scanner v2.0, IT administrators can check their applications with the Lumension Endpoint Integrity Service and identify what endpoints have the most validated known applications and pinpoint those endpoints with unvalidated applications for further investigation, Lumension said in a release.
"In developing the Lumension Application Scanner v2.0 we took a thin slice of our Lumension Intelligent Whitelisting solution and provided IT with a tool that can be used to help address one of their biggest challenges – identifying applications that reside on the endpoint environment", said Jerome Bei, EIC director at Lumension.
The update Application Scanner enables IT managers to see "every single file" in an application, explained Chris Andrew, vice president of security technology at Lumension. "It gives you a finer-grain look at what is really running in your systems. Any of those files, if they are not digitally signed, are a potential vulnerability in your systems", Andrew told Infosecurity.
The Application Scanner v.2.0 scans a "large-scale environment and pulls the metadata from all the binary code it sees and brings that back, randomizes it, and pulls it into our integrity service", explained Paul Zimski, vice president of solution marketing at Lumension. "We can tell you that it looks like a legitimate application for your environment."
In addition, Lumension is launching its EIC, which brings together intelligence on four streams of information: threats, vulnerabilities, malware, and application validation. "This capability is vital in today's diverse and dynamic endpoint environment where third-party application risk visibility continues to be a leading challenge for IT", Lumension said.
Last year, Lumension teamed up with the Ponemon Institute to conduct an endpoint risk study, which found increasing malware attack vectors are focusing on exploiting third-party applications. A majority of those surveyed in the study said that preventing applications from being installed or executed is a top challenge for IT security managers.
At the same time, one-third of respondents admitted to putting no restrictions on which applications run on their network, while another one-third employed application policies, but did not actively enforce them.
One feature of the EIC is an application search and validation that maps known applications to their explicit hash. IT can insert a hash digest from an application in their environment and query the Endpoint Integrity Service to verify if the application is from a known and validated publisher or unknown, the company said.
Lumension has also launched its Early Adopter Program for its Intelligent Whitelisting solution, which provides early adopter customers with access to pre-general availability (GA) software technologies along with support from Lumension's software development and professional services organizations.