Multi-platform Interrogation and Reporting with Rscan
Nathaniel Sammons
Colorado State University
Abstract
This paper describes Rscan - a tool that allows a System
Administrator to easily write and execute scripts on a single
machine or an entire network of machines. Rscan can be used to
automate security checks, configuration checks and many other
tasks. If a module (a collection of scripts) is written with
different sections for different operating systems and different
versions of each operating system (as they are intended to be
written), Rscan will automatically select the correct set of
scripts to execute on any particular operating system.
As Rscan runs it generates reports which can be written as
either plain ASCII or H( bytes) ( bytes) TML files. Rscan is specifically designed
to be run in a heterogeneous environment and is easily adapted to
new and different operating systems. Two running modes are
available: text mode and GUI mode. When running in text mode,
all output that is generated is sent to either standard out or
standard error. When running in GUI mode, Rscan starts a WWW
browser such as Netscape Navigator or NCSA Mosaic and the user
can configure the system, run scans and read reports using the
browser as a GUI.
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