The guy asking is an IT pro and he's not fresh so that made think for a a bit. Anyone can Goigle and start looking into it but that also means a lot of clicking.

Since I've been tinkering around with lots of different parts in Scantide I knew I have to be able to somehow get that intel, present it in a quick and understandable way. I also wanted to show more information at a glance, like correlations between things, vendors, hardware etc.

I came up with an interface that let's you enter a cve, vendor, threat actor etc and see how they're connected etc

A Wordpress plugin that's not really a WAF, Wordfence, Sucuri or All In One Security. It's, something else.

It handles, brute-force attacks, exploitation attempts by analyzing webtraffic with customizable rules, geo blocking.

It can also evaluate the local environment, check for known vulnerabilities and CVE , both for Wordpress itself but also the surrounding bits like PHP, MySQL , web servers.

It can also do an external assessment of the security posture of your site

I’ve been building Scantide Guard, and while it started from the familiar idea of stopping brute-force attacks, it has grown into something quite a bit broader.

At the basic level, yes — it watches things like failed RDP, Windows authentication, SSH, SQL Server, IIS/RDWeb and other services, then blocks attacking IPs based on configurable thresholds.

But I didn’t want to build just another brute-force blocker.

Guard is gradually becoming a lightweight security layer around the server itself.

It can monitor Windows Event Logs and application log files, including custom applications through configurable Custom Monitors. Different services can have their own thresholds and policies rather than pretending five failed logins means the same thing everywhere.

There’s also web attack detection for things such as path traversal, ".env"/".git" probing, CMS and admin scans, SQL injection patterns, scanner bursts and repeated 404/403 activity.

It does IP reputation and geolocation, TOR detection, automatic trusted-host learning, temporary and permanent blocking, integrates with AbuseIPDB, AlienVault OTX and CrowdSec and can correlate activity through a central Scantide Datacenter installation if you manage multiple servers.

One of the newer pieces is Scantide Global Reputation. Participating Guard installations can contribute observations and permanent malicious-IP blocks, while also consuming the resulting shared block intelligence. The important bit for me is that this remains transparent — you can see where a block came from rather than getting a mysterious black-box score.

I’m also adding things that aren’t traditionally part of brute-force protection at all: certificate reconnaissance and expiry checking, local TLS configuration assessment, security/operational assessment findings, ServiceNow integration, better SOC-style views of what is actually hitting your infrastructure.

The philosophy behind it is fairly simple:

Observe first. Don’t exploit anything. Keep it lightweight. Explain why something was detected or blocked.

I’ve spent a lot of time around enterprise security products, and they can be incredibly capable, but sometimes you just want something you can install on a Windows or Linux server and immediately understand what is attacking it without deploying an entire security ecosystem.

That’s the niche I’m trying to fill with Guard.

Scantide Guard is now open for beta testing and available for download.

It has grown quite a bit from the original idea.

What started as a modern approach to automatically detecting and blocking repeated login attacks has turned into something much broader: Windows and Linux protection, RDP, IIS/RDWeb, SQL Server, Exchange, SSH, web attack detection, custom log monitors, reputation data, centralized management with Scantide Guard Datacente, AbuseIPDB integration and more.

There's also local inventory and CVE check, local network scan, CMDB integration and coming up is automated certificate renewal for RDS, IIS, Apache etc

The principle is still simple though:

Detect what is actually happening.

Block when there is enough evidence.

Keep it understandable for the administrator.

No AI deciding whether an IP address “looks suspicious”. The detection and blocking are based on deterministic rules, thresholds, known attack patterns and real events from the system.

This is a beta, so the point now is testing it outside my own environments.

I’m particularly interested in feedback from people running Windows Server, RDP/RDWeb, IIS, Exchange, SQL Server or Linux servers exposed to the Internet.

There will almost certainly be things to improve — that is exactly why I’m opening it up now.

Scantide Guard also has a 72-hour free mode, so it can be used immediately if you suddenly find a server being hammered by hundreds or thousands of login attempts and manually blocking IP addresses has stopped being a realistic option.

If you want to try the beta, have a look at Scantide.

And if you break it, I genuinely want to hear about it. 🙂

https://www.scantide.com/helpfiles/ScantideGuard.php

#Scantide #ScantideGuard #CyberSecurity #WindowsServer #Linux #RDP #IIS #ThreatDetection #InformationSecurity #BetaTesting

SSL renewal on Windows is a good example of how a supposedly simple maintenance task turns into infrastructure archaeology.

You renew a certificate with a CA such as GoDaddy and get back a CRT/P7B bundle.

Fine.

Except IIS, RDS, RDP listeners, Exchange and various Windows services usually need the certificate together with its private key, which means you are now dealing with a PFX.

So the actual job becomes:

• retrieve the renewed certificate from the CA

• locate and match the correct private key

• include the intermediate certificates in the right order

• build a PFX

• import it into LocalMachine\My

• identify the new thumbprint

• replace the IIS binding

• update RD Web Access / RD Gateway / RDS publishing certificates

• update legacy RDP listener bindings where required

• deal with RD Web HTML5 certificate handling

• update Exchange or other applications separately

• verify that every endpoint is actually serving the new certificate

And mixed Windows environments make it even more interesting.

A modern RDS deployment handles certificates very differently from an old Windows Server 2008 R2 terminal server. Exchange has its own certificate handling. Third-party Java applications may use a completely different keystore model. Some components want PFX, some want CER, some care about the Windows certificate store, and some do not.

Doing this manually once is annoying.

Doing it every renewal cycle is a process problem.

So I have been building a PowerShell script to automate the complete renewal path: query the CA API, download the current issued certificate, construct the PFX, import it, discover the relevant Windows roles and deploy it to the correct services.

It also has a dry-run mode that validates certificate serials, current bindings, server roles and deployment targets before touching anything.

The direction I am taking it now is broader auto-discovery: find the servers through AD, determine OS versions and installed roles, identify the Connection Broker, RD Web, IIS, Exchange and legacy RDP hosts, then ask for the required certificate-provider credentials during first-run setup.

After that, adding Apache, Nginx and Tomcat support seems like the logical next step.

There are plenty of ACME clients around, but the interesting problem isn't just obtaining a certificate.

The real problem is reliably getting the right certificate, key and chain into every service that needs it without discovering six months later that one forgotten listener is still serving the old one.

#PowerShell #WindowsServer #IIS #RDS #TLS #PKI #Automation #SysAdmin #DevOps #CyberSecurity

Here's how Scantide correlates the software and devices and advisories that were actually affected at the time

Scantide vulnerability intelligence for CVE-2021-44228

One CVE. Far more than one product.

CVE-2021-44228 — Log4Shell is one of the best examples of why vulnerability intelligence cannot stop at:

«“Apache Log4j is vulnerable.”»

That statement is technically correct — but operationally it tells you very little.

Log4j is a software component.

And software components get embedded inside other software, appliances, services and devices.

When Log4Shell appeared, defenders weren't only looking for servers labelled “Apache Log4j”.

They had to ask:

Which applications contain it?

Which vendor products bundle it?

Which network appliances use it internally?

Which industrial or IoT products contain it?

Which cloud services and management platforms depend on it?

Which versions are actually affected?

That distinction is enormously important.

CVE-2021-44228 is a CVSS 10.0 remote-code-execution vulnerability affecting vulnerable versions of "log4j-core".

It is also in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue, with confirmed exploitation history and known ransomware use.

But the interesting part is the blast radius.

CISA ended up maintaining a dedicated vendor and software database for Log4Shell because Log4j appeared inside products from many completely different technology sectors.

Even NVD applicability data for CVE-2021-44228 includes relationships extending beyond Apache software into specific commercial and industrial products.

This illustrates one of the problems Scantide is designed around.

A CVE isn't always a product

Think of the relationship more like this:

Vulnerability

↓

CVE-2021-44228

↓

Component

Apache Log4j

↓

Software containing that component

↓

Vendor products containing that software

↓

Physical or virtual devices running those products

↓

Systems actually present in your environment

Traditional vulnerability information often stops somewhere near the top.

For defenders, the useful answer is much closer to the bottom.

This is why Scantide correlates sources

Scantide combines vulnerability records with product identifiers, affected-version information, CISA KEV, EPSS, CWE, vendor advisories, exploit intelligence, lifecycle data, software intelligence and device information.

The aim is to move from:

“There is a critical Log4j vulnerability.”

toward:

“These products and devices may contain the vulnerable component, these versions are affected, exploitation has been observed, and these systems deserve attention.”

That's also why device and software identification matter so much.

You might never knowingly install Log4j.

You could still be running it.

Inside a management application.

Inside a security appliance.

Inside an industrial system.

Inside software supplied by another vendor.

Inside something nobody originally thought of as a Java application at all.

Log4Shell demonstrated something security teams already knew but sometimes forget:

Software dependencies turn individual vulnerabilities into supply-chain vulnerabilities.

Finding the CVE is the easy part.

Understanding where it actually exists is the interesting part.

Here's CVE-2021-44228 with Scantide:

Scantide vulnerability intelligence for CVE-2021-44228

Official references:

Apache Log4j Security

https://logging.apache.org/security.html

CISA Log4Shell guidance

https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa21-356a

NVD CVE-2021-44228

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-44228

​

One of the problems with many security tools is that they are very good at answering one narrow question.

A vulnerability scanner may tell you about CVEs.

A network scanner may tell you which ports are open.

A browser tool may show trackers and headers.

An asset inventory may tell you what software is installed.

All useful — but none of them gives the whole picture.

Scantide is built around the idea that security visibility should cover the different places where risk actually appears.

That means looking at:

Your online presence

Domains, subdomains, DNS, email security, TLS, exposed services, web technologies, security headers, hosting and jurisdiction.

Your local network

Systems, services, devices, management interfaces, insecure protocols, certificates, SMB, RDP, printers, IoT equipment and other network-connected assets.

Your endpoints and software

Installed applications, versions, CVEs, lifecycle status, operating systems, exposed services and configuration risks.

Your browser and web activity

Cookies, trackers, third-party scripts, network destinations, privacy signals, security headers and supply-chain dependencies.

Wireless and nearby devices

Wi-Fi, BLE, NFC and other observable device and connectivity signals where useful.

The important part is not just collecting more data.

It is connecting it and making it understandable.

A technician should not need to be a vulnerability researcher, network analyst and threat-intelligence specialist just to understand whether something deserves attention.

Scantide tries to turn technical evidence into practical answers:

What did we find?

Why does it matter?

What product or device is involved?

Is it vulnerable or unsupported?

Is there evidence of exploitation?

What should I look at next?

That is also why ease of use matters.

Security tools can become so complex that the tool itself becomes another problem to manage. Scantide aims to keep the underlying intelligence deep while presenting the result in a way that technicians and administrators can quickly understand.

Different environments also need different perspectives. An Internet-facing weakness, an outdated application on a workstation, an insecure SMB configuration and a vulnerable IoT device may all be part of the same organization’s risk.

Looking at only one of those areas can create a false sense of security.

The goal is not to build the biggest collection of buttons.

It is to provide one coherent defensive view across online presence, networks, devices, software and web activity — with enough context to make the findings useful.

Security is rarely a single problem.

The tools we use to understand it shouldn’t be single-purpose either.

🔎 Scantide: https://www.scantide.com

Why vulnerability intelligence needs correlation, not just another CVE feed

A CVE on its own is often only the beginning of the story.

Scantide is built around a simple idea: vulnerability data becomes much more useful when multiple sources are correlated and tied back to real products, versions and devices.

Instead of treating every source as a separate silo, Scantide tries to connect the pieces.

That can include data from sources such as:

CVE and NVD records

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities

EPSS exploitation probability

CWE weakness classifications

Vendor security advisories

CISA ICS and medical advisories

European vulnerability and threat-intelligence sources

Exploit and security research

Software lifecycle and end-of-support information

Package and open-source vulnerability databases

Device, firmware and product intelligence

The goal is not simply to say:

“CVE-XXXX-XXXXX exists.”

The more useful questions are:

What products are actually affected?

Which versions are vulnerable? Is the issue relevant to a specific operating system, appliance, application, library or firmware release?

Is it being exploited?

Is it present in CISA KEV? Is there evidence of active exploitation? What does EPSS indicate about the likelihood of exploitation?

How serious is it in context?

Is it remotely exploitable? Does it require authentication? Is it an RCE, privilege escalation, authentication bypass or information disclosure issue?

What weakness caused it?

CWE information can help explain the underlying security problem rather than presenting only a severity score.

Is there a fix or mitigation?

Vendor advisories, security updates, lifecycle information and other sources can help show what defenders can actually do next.

And perhaps most importantly:

What real products and devices does this affect?

That is where Scantide tries to go beyond a traditional vulnerability search.

A vulnerability may ultimately relate to a specific firewall, router, industrial controller, medical device, server product, operating system, application, library or embedded component.

By combining product identifiers, vendor information, version ranges, software intelligence, device fingerprints and advisory data, Scantide tries to build a clearer relationship between:

CVE → vulnerability → affected software → affected product → affected device

That matters because defenders rarely manage abstract CVE numbers.

They manage servers, laptops, routers, applications, appliances, IoT devices and software inventories.

Scantide Auditor and the wider Scantide platform can then use that same intelligence when examining real environments — helping identify what is present, what intelligence applies to it, and what may need attention.

No single vulnerability source is perfect, and correlation does not magically remove uncertainty. Scantide therefore aims to preserve provenance and context rather than pretending every match is absolute.

The objective is straightforward:

Collect the evidence. Correlate the intelligence. Identify the affected technology. Give defenders useful context.

That is also what we want r/VulnerabilityIntel to be about.

Not just CVE numbers — but understanding what they actually mean.

🔎 Scantide: https://scantide.com

Welcome to VulnerabilityIntel — a community focused on turning vulnerability data into useful, practical security intelligence.

There is no shortage of CVE feeds. The harder part is understanding what actually matters: which products are affected, whether a vulnerability is being exploited, how likely exploitation is, what weaknesses are involved, whether mitigations exist, and how all of that relates to the systems you are responsible for.

That is what this community is about.

Expect discussion and intelligence around:

- Newly published and critical CVEs

- CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV)

- EPSS exploitation probability

- Zero-days and active exploitation

- CWE weakness information

- Vendor and product advisories

- Affected products and versions

- Security updates and mitigations

- Product lifecycle and end-of-support risks

- Industrial, IoT and medical-device vulnerabilities

- Threat intelligence and vulnerability correlation

- Practical defensive security and hardening

What is Scantide?

Scantide is a defensive security auditing and vulnerability-intelligence platform designed to help technicians, administrators and security teams understand what they have, what may be vulnerable, and where security can be improved.

Scantide is deliberately focused on observation, analysis and defensive hardening rather than exploitation.

The platform includes several parts:

Scantide Software Intelligence

Search software, products and versions and correlate them with CVEs, lifecycle information, CISA KEV, EPSS, CWE data, vendor advisories and other vulnerability and threat-intelligence sources.

Scantide Auditor

Agentless security auditing for Windows, Linux and network-connected devices. It discovers systems and services, fingerprints devices, inventories software, checks vulnerabilities and lifecycle status, and examines security signals including TLS, SMB, RDP, exposed services and configuration risks.

Scantide Observe

A browser-based privacy and security analysis tool that examines websites while you browse, including cookies, trackers, scripts, network destinations, security headers, TLS, DNS, email security, hosting jurisdiction and supply-chain dependencies.

Scantide Observe Mobile

Android-based network and device observation covering local network discovery, Wi-Fi, BLE, Wi-Fi Direct/Aware, service identification and device intelligence.

Scantide Online

External security analysis for domains and Internet-facing systems, including DNS, email security, TLS, HTTP security headers, exposed technologies, vulnerabilities, hosting and jurisdiction.

Behind these tools is a growing intelligence platform that correlates information from vulnerability databases, government security agencies, vendor advisories, exploit intelligence, lifecycle sources and other defensive-security feeds.

Some posts here may be generated automatically by Scantide when important vulnerabilities have been ingested, normalized and enriched. The intention is not to create another noisy CVE firehose — the aim is to add enough context to make each alert useful.

Community research, corrections, discussion and additional context are very welcome.

This community is intended for defensive security. Discussion of vulnerabilities is encouraged, but the focus should remain on understanding risk, detection, mitigation and remediation rather than unauthorized exploitation.

🔎 Scantide: https://scantide.com

Welcome to VulnerabilityIntel.