Complement a Vulnerability Management Program with PowerShell

A vulnerability management program is a critical task that all organizations should be running. Part of this program involves the need to patch systems regularly and to keep installed software up to date. Once a vulnerability program is in place organizations need to remediate discovered vulnerabilities quickly. Occasionally some discovered vulnerabilities are false positives. The problem with false positives is that manually vetting them is time-consuming. There are tools available, which assist in showing what patches may be missing, like SCCM, but can be rather costly. For organizations concerned that these types of programs hurt their budgets, there are free options available. PowerShell is free software that, if utilized, can complement an organization's vulnerability management program by assisting in scanning for unpatched systems. This paper presents a PowerShell script that provides Administrators with further insight into what systems are unpatched and streamlines investigations of possible false positives, with no additional cost.