Release Notes
The feature enhancements and bug fixes in each build update are
listed here.
For further information please contact PatchQuest
Support.
Build 4310
New Features
- Windows Vista support - patch detection and deployment supported
- All associated software which come with Windows Vista - Windows Mail, Windows DAC, .Net 3.0 for Vista etc. - now supported
- Support for other latest Microsoft products like - Windows Defender, MS SQL Server 2005, Office 2007
Bug Fixes (on build 4300)
- When a new system was scanned, a previously scanned system's entry was replaced with the new system, resulting in duplicate entry. This has been fixed.
- The PQ Agent Virtual Memory (VM) leak, found in the pqagentctrl.exe process, has been fixed.
- PatchQuest Agent silent installation was not working as the install.iss file created was improper and did not have all the configured parameters. This has now been fixed.
- Patch deployment failure when PQ Agent was "silent installed" in HTTPS mode. The silent installation created an unwanted Proxy entry in registry causing patch deployment failure. This is resolved.
- Scan Count Graph link from Home tab was pointing to incorrect result. This has been corrected.
- There was an error on screen when accessing Settings tab --> Agent Administration link from the left panel. This has been resolved.
- Clicking on Bulletin ID link in Patch Details view was throwing an error on screen. This is fixed now.
- There were some Timeout errors during bulk patch deployment. This has been addressed.
- The missing patches count link from Vulnerability Report was pointing to 'Security Updates' tab in Scan Result, resulting in displaying incorrect data. This is now fixed and points to 'All Update' tab in Scan Result view.
- System Health Status (Highly Vulnerable, Moderately Vulnerable & Healthy) was calculated based on both Security and Non-Security updates count. Now this will now be calculated only based on Security updates count, as vulnerability is determined by missing Security updates only.
Release 4.3 - Build 4300
New Features
- Support for scanning & deploying Non-Security Updates (Critical
Updates from Windows Update(WU)/Automatic Update(AU) that are not part of
the security bulletins from Microsoft)
- New & Improved PatchQuest Windows Agent
- PatchQuest Agent in Windows can now function in
HTTPS mode also - this will facilitate managing systems
in remote geographical locations over the internet
- Agent Administration
from web console - All agent configurations can now be done
from the web interface of PatchQuest.
Individual agent configurations as well as global configurations
can be effected (Settings tab --> Agent Administration
link)
- Agent
Upgrade mechanism has been modified - older version of
a Windows agent will no longer be 'automatically' upgraded
to the latest available version. The availability of an Agent
Update will be displayed in the Scan Result view of the system,
and users can initiate the upgrade. This will be similar to
a patch installation on the agent.
- A watchdog process has been built-in to the agent (agent
controller) to revive the agent in case of any improper shutdown
- Agent system tray icon can now be hidden
- PatchQuest's web server will now run in HTTPS mode by default
(configurable port: 8443). This is to allow secure communication between
HTTPS agent & PatchQuest Server
Enhancements
- Ability to deploy all missing patches in systems at one go (from Systems
& System Groups tabs)
- Display items per page view increased upto 1000 items. The selected number
to be displayed will be persisted with every view
- Patch & Bulletin-based report from Patch Information/Patch Groups tab
- Ability to view, export & e-mail a report on how many systems are
patched with a certain set of patches and how many are not
- Provision to add
inactive systems from Active Directory - even if some of the systems in
the AD list may
not be in the network currently, they can be added
- System Group names to which a system is associated, are displayed in the
'Groups' column in the Systems/System Groups tabs
- Ability to re-execute failed tasks on systems from Task Audit Report (like
add system, rescans, re-deploy failed patches etc.)
- Provision to cancel pending tasks
(tasks marked : Awaiting Check In) for a system from System Task History
view
- Ability to view System Task History reports and compare scan results
(Differential reports) from Vulnerability Reports section
- Provision to view Patch History report from Reports tab
Bug Fixes (on build 4201)
- Scheduled tasks (Daily schedule) were not completing and the schedules
were re-triggered repeatedly. This has been resolved.
- There was an issue with 'disabling' the scheduled tasks. This
has been addressed.
- Unwanted domain names were getting listed in the AD list when adding
systems. These have been removed.
Build 4201
New Features and Enhancements
- A new report type 'Differential
Scan Report' has been introduced - which will depict the difference
in security posture for a particular system, by comparing the
results of any two scans
- PatchQuest Service startup options can be controlled by a PatchQuest
Service Manager which installs as a System
Tray Icon in Windows OS
- Most recent version of the vulnerability database is packaged
by default in PatchQuest (previously users will need to update
the vulnerability database from the AdventNet site for the first
time too)
- CVE ID has been included as a column (from Edit Column Settings)
in the Scan Result and Patch Group screens in the web interface
Bug Fixes
- PatchQuest Agent in Windows OS had a buffer overflow vulnerability.
This has been fixed.
- When PatchQuest was installed as a service (daemon) in
Linux, it was throwing errors and not starting up properly. This
has been addressed.
- Bulk deployment of patches in the agent-based mode resulted
in occasional failures. This has been fixed.
- There were failures when performing patch management operations
on Windows NT SP6a machines. This has been resolved.
- When PatchQuest was installed in a directory containing spaces,
vulnerability database updates were failing. This has been fixed.
- The promotional advertisement on the login screen was showing
up even after applying a registered license. This has been resolved.
- While e-mailing reports, space separation between multiple e-mail
IDs was not allowed. This is handled now.
- While setting Global Credentials, passwords with special character
combinations were not accepted. This has been fixed.
Build 4200
New Features
- International
Language support : Support for scanning and patching non-English
Windows OS like Spanish, German, Italian, French, Japanese, Chinese
to name a few.
- Provision to use a proxy-server that supports NTLM-based
authentication to access the internet, like ISA Server etc.
- HTTPS support
for the web-client : Client-Server communication over HTTPS. The
PatchQuest web client can be accessed from a 'https' URL.
- Ability to retrieve
log files of the target system and send them to PatchQuest
Support mail alias from the web client
Enhancements
- Faster start-up and shut-down times for PatchQuest Server
- Ability to select multiple Systems
Groups and apply a set of Patch Groups to the systems in these
groups (from System Groups --> System Group Settings)
- Ability to generate Vulnerability
Report for System Groups (from System Groups --> System
Group Settings --> Generate Report)
- Ability to select to a set of patches and apply them to a specific
host (from Patch Information --> Pick Host)
- Ability to deploy missing patches from the Vulnerability Report
of a particular system
Build 4104
New Features and Enhancements
- Scanning and Deployment support for MS Outlook Express patches
and service packs
- Ability to add and scan Linux systems that have a system prompt
other than $
- Ability to persist the custom message that is configured from
the Patch Undeployment screen
Bug Fixes
- Systems with English OS that have the locale set to a language
different from English were not detected. This has been resolved.
Now the language detection is based on the UI language rather
than system locale.
- Selecting all the patches and clicking 'Download' from the Patch
Information tab with the option from the drop-down list as 'Windows
Server 2003 Web Edition' and 'All' Service packs, did not proceed
with the patch download. This has been fixed.
- Java Hotspot errors were occasionally encountered in the PatchQuest
server running in Windows systems (especially Windows 2000 professional)
when bulk scanning/system discovery operations were done. This
has been resolved.
- The task status of a previously running task was not getting
updated when the same task was re-executed and completed with
a failure result. This is fixed.
Build 4103
New Features and Enhancements
- Deployment support for MS
Office patches and service packs
- Provision to add a "Display
Name" (friendly name) to the hostnames/IP addresses of
systems being managed
- Provision to include user
comments for systems (similar to patch comments)
- Ability to persist the custom message that is configured from
the Patch Deployment screen
Bug Fixes
- Only a maximum of 10 global credentials were being displayed
in 'Credential Name' list in the 'Add System' screen. This has
been fixed.
- System names starting with digits were not allowed to be entered
in the 'Add System' screen. This issue has been resolved.
- Vulnerability Report navigation showed "all" the items
in the table (instead of the selected Entries per page) every
time a page was navigated. This is fixed.
Build 4102
New Features and Enhancements
- Support for MS Exchange Server 5.5, 2000 & 2003
Bug Fixes
- Selecting an SP (service pack) to be deployed in multiple systems
from Service Pack Information screen, resulted in deployment in
only 1 system. This issue is fixed.
- SP deployment in agent mode had some issues. This has been fixed.
- Agent state was showing offline when systems were "logged
off". This has been resolved.
Build 4100
Features Available in release 4.1.0
Service Pack Deployment
PatchQuest has the capability to download and deploy service packs
for the supported Microsoft Windows operating systems and applications.
Refer to Deploying
Service Pack for more information.
Graphical Reports
The reports in PatchQuest have been enriched with pie-charts and
bar graphs which present at-a-glance information about the patch
management process in your enterprise. Refer to Reporting
for more information.
Support for RedHat ES and AS 4
Support for the latest version of RedHat Linux distribution - Advanced
Server and Enterprise Server version 4 has been provided.
Support for Debian 3.1 (Sarge)
Support for the latest version of Debian Linux distribution - version
3.1 has been provided.
Active Directory Integration
Systems can be added from the web-interface of PatchQuest, by picking
up hosts from Microsoft Active Directory or from the entire Windows
domain. Refer to Adding
Systems for more information.
Automatic Agent Version Update
PatchQuest has the provision to automatically update the agent
software versions, every time a new version of the agent is available
in the PatchQuest server. Refer to Updating
Agents for more information.
Deploying patch groups to system groups
PatchQuest supports deployment of patches and patch groups to user-defined
system groups, so that patch deployment can be managed effectively.
Refer to Deploying
Patch Groups for more information.
Agent State Display
The operational status of the agent (running or offline) is maintained
in the server and displayed in the web interface.
Instant E-mail Reports
Reports can now be e-mailed to the desired recipients in the format
of your choice (.pdf, .html or .xls)
Configurable Telnet/SSH ports
The Telnet/SSH ports can be configured while adding Linux systems.
Add systems by importing from text file
Systems can be added by importing a list from a file in text format
Shutdown systems after patching
Option to bring systems to a shutdown state after deployment of
patches is available from the patch deployment configuration screen.
CVE & BugTraq ID Integration
Every patch in the PatchQuest vulnerability database is associated
with a CVE and a BugTraq ID. Patches can be searched based on the
CVE ID.
System Environment Diagnosis
You can troubleshoot the system environment before adding them
for patch management. Provision is available in the 'Add System'
configuration screen.
Vulnerability DB Status Intimation
The up-to-status of the PatchQuest Server's vulnerability database
is displayed in the Home tab of the UI. From here, you will come
know if the database is in sync with the Central Repository Server
or not
