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        Management software and security

Section(s): Security
Published on Sep 28, 2005.
Last Modified on Sep 28, 2005.
Last Modified by Mitch Tulloch.
Rated 3 out of 5 based on 1 votes.

Which kind of management software is more secure, agent-based or agentless?

Which kind of management software is more secure, agent-based or agentless? I vote for agentless software for one simple reason: less risk of a service account dependency creating an unexpected vulnerability in your network. Generally, if you're using an agent-based management platform you must have admin credentials on all the systems being managed, and this creates what's called a service account dependency, see my blog for more info on this problem. In other words, if the account used to run your management software is somehow compromised, then every system this software managed is effectively compromised also. So my preference is for agentless management software as it's inherently more secure, and usually a lot easier to deploy as well!

About Mitch Tulloch

Mitch Tulloch was lead author for the Windows Vista Resource Kit from Microsoft Press, which is the book for IT pros who want to deploy, maintain and support Windows Vista in mid- and large-sized network environments. Mitch was also the author of Introducing Windows Server 2008 and technical project lead for the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit, both books also from Microsoft Press. For more information on these and other books by Mitch, see www.mtit.com .