1 1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:02,480 Patch management, in this lesson, 2 2 00:00:02,480 --> 00:00:04,430 we're going to discuss a network hardening technique 3 3 00:00:04,430 --> 00:00:06,140 known as patch management. 4 4 00:00:06,140 --> 00:00:08,500 So what exactly is patch management? 5 5 00:00:08,500 --> 00:00:11,160 Well, patch management is the planning, testing, 6 6 00:00:11,160 --> 00:00:13,920 implementing, and auditing of software patches. 7 7 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:16,610 Patch management is critical to providing the security 8 8 00:00:16,610 --> 00:00:18,830 and increasing uptime inside your network, 9 9 00:00:18,830 --> 00:00:21,200 as well as ensuring compliance and improving features 10 10 00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:24,290 in your network devices, your servers and your clients. 11 11 00:00:24,290 --> 00:00:26,530 Now patch management is going to increase the security 12 12 00:00:26,530 --> 00:00:28,870 of your network by fixing known vulnerabilities 13 13 00:00:28,870 --> 00:00:30,500 inside of your network devices, 14 14 00:00:30,500 --> 00:00:32,160 things like your servers, your clients, 15 15 00:00:32,160 --> 00:00:33,940 and your routers and switches. 16 16 00:00:33,940 --> 00:00:35,930 Now, in terms of our servers and clients, 17 17 00:00:35,930 --> 00:00:37,710 patch management is going to be conducted by installing 18 18 00:00:37,710 --> 00:00:39,740 software and operating system patches 19 19 00:00:39,740 --> 00:00:42,560 in order to fix bugs in the system software. 20 20 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:44,520 Patch management can also increase the uptime 21 21 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:46,900 of your systems, by ensuring your devices and software 22 22 00:00:46,900 --> 00:00:49,050 are up to date, and they don't suffer 23 23 00:00:49,050 --> 00:00:51,190 from resource exhaustion or crashes 24 24 00:00:51,190 --> 00:00:53,390 due to vulnerabilities within their code. 25 25 00:00:53,390 --> 00:00:55,130 Patch management is also used to support 26 26 00:00:55,130 --> 00:00:56,520 your compliance efforts. 27 27 00:00:56,520 --> 00:00:58,020 One of the biggest things is looked at 28 28 00:00:58,020 --> 00:00:59,390 within a compliance assessment, 29 29 00:00:59,390 --> 00:01:01,120 is how well your patch management program 30 30 00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:03,340 is being run and being conducted? 31 31 00:01:03,340 --> 00:01:05,350 This way you can ensure it's effective 32 32 00:01:05,350 --> 00:01:07,140 and making sure your systems are up to date 33 33 00:01:07,140 --> 00:01:09,420 and patch against all known vulnerabilities, 34 34 00:01:09,420 --> 00:01:12,480 such as CVEs or common vulnerabilities and exposures 35 35 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:14,810 that have patches associated with those. 36 36 00:01:14,810 --> 00:01:17,130 Now patch management is also going to be used to provide 37 37 00:01:17,130 --> 00:01:18,540 improvements and upgrades to your 38 38 00:01:18,540 --> 00:01:20,270 existing feature set as well. 39 39 00:01:20,270 --> 00:01:23,230 Many of your patches don't just fix things or existing 40 40 00:01:23,230 --> 00:01:26,340 problems inside of them, but they can also add other things 41 41 00:01:26,340 --> 00:01:29,630 like features and functionality when you do those upgrades. 42 42 00:01:29,630 --> 00:01:31,240 By ensuring that you're running the latest version 43 43 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:33,350 of the software and that it's fully patched, 44 44 00:01:33,350 --> 00:01:35,170 you can ensure you have the best feature set 45 45 00:01:35,170 --> 00:01:37,050 with the highest security available. 46 46 00:01:37,050 --> 00:01:39,440 Now, as you can imagine, there are a lot of different 47 47 00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:41,720 patches out there, because each manufacturer 48 48 00:01:41,720 --> 00:01:43,350 is going to create their own patches 49 49 00:01:43,350 --> 00:01:46,140 for their specific applications and software. 50 50 00:01:46,140 --> 00:01:48,860 Part of your job inside of the patch management process 51 51 00:01:48,860 --> 00:01:51,380 is keeping track of all the various updates and ensuring 52 52 00:01:51,380 --> 00:01:52,440 they're getting installed properly 53 53 00:01:52,440 --> 00:01:54,300 throughout all of your network devices. 54 54 00:01:54,300 --> 00:01:56,920 This includes your switches, your routers, your firewalls, 55 55 00:01:56,920 --> 00:01:58,960 and your servers and clients. 56 56 00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:01,070 Patch management is not just concerned with ensuring 57 57 00:02:01,070 --> 00:02:02,580 that a patch patches installed though, 58 58 00:02:02,580 --> 00:02:05,310 it's also important to ensure it doesn't create new problems 59 59 00:02:05,310 --> 00:02:07,470 for you when you do that installation. 60 60 00:02:07,470 --> 00:02:10,330 After all patches themselves can have bugs in them too, 61 61 00:02:10,330 --> 00:02:12,290 just like any other software can. 62 62 00:02:12,290 --> 00:02:14,730 Therefore it's really important for you to effectively 63 63 00:02:14,730 --> 00:02:18,070 conduct patch management by following four critical steps. 64 64 00:02:18,070 --> 00:02:21,220 First, planning, second testing, 65 65 00:02:21,220 --> 00:02:24,230 third implementing, and forth auditing. 66 66 00:02:24,230 --> 00:02:25,900 Step one is planning. 67 67 00:02:25,900 --> 00:02:27,736 Planning consists of creating policies, procedures, 68 68 00:02:27,736 --> 00:02:31,110 and systems to track the availability of patches and updates 69 69 00:02:31,110 --> 00:02:33,700 and having a method to verify that they're compatible 70 70 00:02:33,700 --> 00:02:35,130 with your systems. 71 71 00:02:35,130 --> 00:02:37,400 Planning is also used to determine how you're going to test 72 72 00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:39,200 and deploy each of those patches. 73 73 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:41,490 A good patch management tool can tell you whether or not 74 74 00:02:41,490 --> 00:02:42,820 the patches have been deployed, 75 75 00:02:42,820 --> 00:02:44,800 installed and verified functionally, 76 76 00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:46,560 on a given system or client. 77 77 00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:48,950 For example, in large enterprise networks, 78 78 00:02:48,950 --> 00:02:49,783 you may use 79 79 00:02:49,783 --> 00:02:51,980 the Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 80 80 00:02:51,980 --> 00:02:55,370 known as SCCM, or you can buy a third party tool 81 81 00:02:55,370 --> 00:02:57,130 to conduct your patch management. 82 82 00:02:57,130 --> 00:03:00,250 Step two, testing, when conducting patch management, 83 83 00:03:00,250 --> 00:03:02,720 it's really important to test any patch you receive 84 84 00:03:02,720 --> 00:03:05,380 from your manufacturer before you automate its deployment 85 85 00:03:05,380 --> 00:03:06,930 throughout your entire network. 86 86 00:03:06,930 --> 00:03:10,390 As I said before, a patch is designed to solve one problem, 87 87 00:03:10,390 --> 00:03:12,750 but it can also create new ones for you 88 88 00:03:12,750 --> 00:03:14,080 if you're not careful. 89 89 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:16,290 Within your organization, you need to ensure 90 90 00:03:16,290 --> 00:03:18,340 that you have a small test network, a lab, 91 91 00:03:18,340 --> 00:03:20,508 or at the very least, a single machine that you're going to 92 92 00:03:20,508 --> 00:03:23,350 use for testing new patches before you deploy 93 93 00:03:23,350 --> 00:03:25,080 across your entire network. 94 94 00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:27,450 After all many of our organizations have unique 95 95 00:03:27,450 --> 00:03:28,930 configurations within our networks, 96 96 00:03:28,930 --> 00:03:31,130 and these patches can break things. 97 97 00:03:31,130 --> 00:03:34,100 So when a manufacturer tries to attempt to make sure that 98 98 00:03:34,100 --> 00:03:35,870 patch is not going to harm our systems, 99 99 00:03:35,870 --> 00:03:37,280 they cannot guarantee this 100 100 00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:39,760 because everyone has different configurations. 101 101 00:03:39,760 --> 00:03:41,824 Instead it is better to find out if a patch is causing 102 102 00:03:41,824 --> 00:03:44,900 issues in your lab environment before you push it across 103 103 00:03:44,900 --> 00:03:48,230 10,000 workstations across the entire enterprise network. 104 104 00:03:48,230 --> 00:03:50,440 Because if you do that, you're going to have a lot of end users 105 105 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:53,410 yelling and screaming at you when their systems crash. 106 106 00:03:53,410 --> 00:03:55,540 Step three, implementation. 107 107 00:03:55,540 --> 00:03:56,850 After you've tested the patch, 108 108 00:03:56,850 --> 00:03:58,470 it's now going to be time to deploy it 109 109 00:03:58,470 --> 00:03:59,970 to all of the workstations and servers 110 110 00:03:59,970 --> 00:04:01,190 that are going to need it. 111 111 00:04:01,190 --> 00:04:03,290 You can do this manually by going to each system 112 112 00:04:03,290 --> 00:04:04,710 and installing it yourself, 113 113 00:04:04,710 --> 00:04:07,100 or you can do it automatically by deploying 114 114 00:04:07,100 --> 00:04:09,370 that patch to your client, workstations and servers, 115 115 00:04:09,370 --> 00:04:11,330 using one of those tools like SCCM 116 116 00:04:11,330 --> 00:04:12,650 that we talked about earlier. 117 117 00:04:12,650 --> 00:04:14,370 This way, it will install the patch 118 118 00:04:14,370 --> 00:04:16,200 and move it into production for you. 119 119 00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:18,170 If you have a small network of just a few clients 120 120 00:04:18,170 --> 00:04:20,830 or servers, you may choose to install things manually 121 121 00:04:20,830 --> 00:04:23,390 and do it that way because it's really quick and easy, 122 122 00:04:23,390 --> 00:04:24,780 and it costs no additional money 123 123 00:04:24,780 --> 00:04:26,400 by buying a third party tool. 124 124 00:04:26,400 --> 00:04:27,960 But if you have a large network, 125 125 00:04:27,960 --> 00:04:30,150 you're going to want to use some kind of tool. 126 126 00:04:30,150 --> 00:04:32,800 Microsoft provides this one known as SCCM, 127 127 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:35,290 the Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager, 128 128 00:04:35,290 --> 00:04:37,740 but you can also use third-party management tools 129 129 00:04:37,740 --> 00:04:39,500 with a lot more features and additional 130 130 00:04:39,500 --> 00:04:41,280 abilities if you want to. 131 131 00:04:41,280 --> 00:04:43,640 Now, some organizations rely on automatic updates 132 132 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:45,300 from the Windows update system, 133 133 00:04:45,300 --> 00:04:47,810 but others decide they want to have complete control over 134 134 00:04:47,810 --> 00:04:49,300 the installation of patches. 135 135 00:04:49,300 --> 00:04:51,990 For large organizations, it is highly recommended 136 136 00:04:51,990 --> 00:04:54,000 that you essentially manage all your updates 137 137 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:55,300 through an update server 138 138 00:04:55,300 --> 00:04:57,740 instead of using the Windows update tool. 139 139 00:04:57,740 --> 00:05:00,140 This will allow you to test the patch prior to deploying it 140 140 00:05:00,140 --> 00:05:01,780 across your entire environment. 141 141 00:05:01,780 --> 00:05:03,770 To disable Windows update on your clients, 142 142 00:05:03,770 --> 00:05:06,040 you simply need to disable the Windows update service 143 143 00:05:06,040 --> 00:05:08,620 from running automatically on those workstations. 144 144 00:05:08,620 --> 00:05:11,080 If you have a lot of mobile devices throughout your network, 145 145 00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:12,240 you also to figure out how you're going 146 146 00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:14,470 to do patch management for those devices. 147 147 00:05:14,470 --> 00:05:16,150 The easiest way to do this is by using 148 148 00:05:16,150 --> 00:05:18,210 a mobile device manager or MDM, 149 149 00:05:18,210 --> 00:05:20,260 which works like one of these patch management servers, 150 150 00:05:20,260 --> 00:05:22,350 but has additional features as well. 151 151 00:05:22,350 --> 00:05:24,290 Alright, now, when you comes to testing, 152 152 00:05:24,290 --> 00:05:26,650 you may not have your own dedicated test network 153 153 00:05:26,650 --> 00:05:29,760 or lab environment to use, but you still need to do testing. 154 154 00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:31,440 So what are you going to do? 155 155 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:33,100 Well, one thing you can do is split up 156 156 00:05:33,100 --> 00:05:35,660 your production network into smaller groups. 157 157 00:05:35,660 --> 00:05:37,220 Organizations I've led in the past, 158 158 00:05:37,220 --> 00:05:38,503 we use the concept of patch ring 159 159 00:05:38,503 --> 00:05:40,550 when we deploy out new patches. 160 160 00:05:40,550 --> 00:05:43,520 In patch ring 1, we have 10 or 20 end user machines 161 161 00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:45,280 that will deploy our patches to first. 162 162 00:05:45,280 --> 00:05:47,270 If it doesn't break anything on those machines, 163 163 00:05:47,270 --> 00:05:49,240 then we'll move out into patch ring 2 164 164 00:05:49,240 --> 00:05:51,080 which has 100 or 200 people. 165 165 00:05:51,080 --> 00:05:53,100 And this'll include things like our system administrators, 166 166 00:05:53,100 --> 00:05:55,320 and our service desk workstations so we can instantly 167 167 00:05:55,320 --> 00:05:57,220 figure out if things are going wrong. 168 168 00:05:57,220 --> 00:05:58,580 If that works successfully, 169 169 00:05:58,580 --> 00:06:00,240 we'll then go in to patch ring 3, 170 170 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:02,740 which contains 1000 or 2000 machines. 171 171 00:06:02,740 --> 00:06:04,780 And finally, we'll move on to patch ring 4, 172 172 00:06:04,780 --> 00:06:06,090 which includes everybody else, 173 173 00:06:06,090 --> 00:06:08,600 and then maybe 10 or 20,000 machines. 174 174 00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:10,461 Now the benefit of doing the deployments this way as we move 175 175 00:06:10,461 --> 00:06:12,030 through the various patch rings, 176 176 00:06:12,030 --> 00:06:14,350 is that if there is an issue, I'm only affecting 177 177 00:06:14,350 --> 00:06:17,350 a smaller group of users before I break all the users 178 178 00:06:17,350 --> 00:06:18,183 on the network. 179 179 00:06:18,183 --> 00:06:21,370 If I did everybody at once, I'd have 20 or 30,000 people 180 180 00:06:21,370 --> 00:06:23,000 who are complaining when things break, 181 181 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:24,360 but by doing it in these smaller steps, 182 182 00:06:24,360 --> 00:06:27,020 I only have 10 or 15 people who are yelling at me, 183 183 00:06:27,020 --> 00:06:28,830 and I can fix things quicker. 184 184 00:06:28,830 --> 00:06:31,000 Alright, step four, auditing. 185 185 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:32,860 Now, auditing is important to understand 186 186 00:06:32,860 --> 00:06:34,920 because you have to understand the client status 187 187 00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:37,030 after you conduct your patch deployment. 188 188 00:06:37,030 --> 00:06:39,420 So I pushed out the patch, did it work? 189 189 00:06:39,420 --> 00:06:41,410 During auditing, you're going to be able to scan the network 190 190 00:06:41,410 --> 00:06:44,370 and determine if that patch that you pushed out to install 191 191 00:06:44,370 --> 00:06:46,860 actually installed properly, or are there any kind 192 192 00:06:46,860 --> 00:06:48,940 of unexpected failures that may have happened, 193 193 00:06:48,940 --> 00:06:51,000 and that meant that the patch wasn't really installed, 194 194 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:53,070 or isn't doing the protection it's supposed to do? 195 195 00:06:53,070 --> 00:06:54,610 Again, if you're using a tool like 196 196 00:06:54,610 --> 00:06:57,870 the Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager, SCCM, 197 197 00:06:57,870 --> 00:06:59,680 or a third-party management tool, 198 198 00:06:59,680 --> 00:07:01,910 you'll be able to conduct scanning and verification of your 199 199 00:07:01,910 --> 00:07:04,470 workstations and servers to ensure that the patches have 200 200 00:07:04,470 --> 00:07:06,880 been installed properly and with no issues. 201 201 00:07:06,880 --> 00:07:08,990 Now, if you're using Linux or OS X, 202 202 00:07:08,990 --> 00:07:11,470 they also have built in patch management systems. 203 203 00:07:11,470 --> 00:07:14,410 For example, Red Hat Linux uses a package manager 204 204 00:07:14,410 --> 00:07:17,620 to deploy RPMs, which are packages of patches 205 205 00:07:17,620 --> 00:07:19,160 to your servers and workstations. 206 206 00:07:19,160 --> 00:07:22,180 So the same concepts and principles are going to apply here. 207 207 00:07:22,180 --> 00:07:24,490 Now, in addition to conducting patch management across our 208 208 00:07:24,490 --> 00:07:26,930 workstations and servers, it's also important for us 209 209 00:07:26,930 --> 00:07:29,800 to conduct firmware management for our network devices. 210 210 00:07:29,800 --> 00:07:31,860 After all, all of our network devices 211 211 00:07:31,860 --> 00:07:33,490 are running some form of software, 212 212 00:07:33,490 --> 00:07:36,130 and this is known as firmware inside of our routers, 213 213 00:07:36,130 --> 00:07:37,600 our switches, our firewalls, 214 214 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:39,530 and our other network appliances. 215 215 00:07:39,530 --> 00:07:41,631 If your network devices don't contain the latest and most 216 216 00:07:41,631 --> 00:07:43,340 up-to-date firmware versions, 217 217 00:07:43,340 --> 00:07:45,460 then you could have security vulnerabilities and software 218 218 00:07:45,460 --> 00:07:47,920 bugs that could be exploited by an attacker. 219 219 00:07:47,920 --> 00:07:50,020 If you look at the common vulnerabilities and exposures 220 220 00:07:50,020 --> 00:07:52,530 or CVE website, you're going to see a long list 221 221 00:07:52,530 --> 00:07:53,720 of vulnerabilities that we have 222 222 00:07:53,720 --> 00:07:56,080 for all sorts of different networking devices. 223 223 00:07:56,080 --> 00:07:58,290 Just select the Cisco devices, and you'll see a long 224 224 00:07:58,290 --> 00:08:00,020 laundry list of those that have been patched 225 225 00:08:00,020 --> 00:08:01,330 and fixed over time. 226 226 00:08:01,330 --> 00:08:03,420 So just like you need to patch your operating system 227 227 00:08:03,420 --> 00:08:05,040 for a Windows or Linux computer, 228 228 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:06,830 you also need to update the operating system 229 229 00:08:06,830 --> 00:08:08,330 of your network devices. 230 230 00:08:08,330 --> 00:08:11,606 In a Cisco device, this is known as the Cisco IOS 231 231 00:08:11,606 --> 00:08:13,820 or Internetwork Operating System. 232 232 00:08:13,820 --> 00:08:15,600 Now to update the IOS version, 233 233 00:08:15,600 --> 00:08:18,740 you need to flash the firmware on that networking device. 234 234 00:08:18,740 --> 00:08:21,432 Some manufacturers like Cisco provide a centralized method 235 235 00:08:21,432 --> 00:08:24,140 of conducting firmware management inside your enterprise 236 236 00:08:24,140 --> 00:08:26,710 network, and this helps with our patch management. 237 237 00:08:26,710 --> 00:08:29,930 For example, Cisco use the Cisco UCS Manager 238 238 00:08:29,930 --> 00:08:31,830 to centralize the management of resources and devices 239 239 00:08:31,830 --> 00:08:33,930 and to conduct firmware management 240 240 00:08:33,930 --> 00:08:36,900 for your server network interfaces and server devices. 241 241 00:08:36,900 --> 00:08:39,430 There's also third-party tools like DeviceExpert 242 242 00:08:39,430 --> 00:08:41,500 by ManageEngine that allow you to upgrade, 243 243 00:08:41,500 --> 00:08:44,220 downgrade and manage the configuration of the firmware 244 244 00:08:44,220 --> 00:08:45,670 for all of your network devices, 245 245 00:08:45,670 --> 00:08:48,520 using automation, orchestration and scripting. 246 246 00:08:48,520 --> 00:08:50,660 The bottom line here is that you need to do firmware 247 247 00:08:50,660 --> 00:08:53,090 management, to ensure you have the right firmware versions 248 248 00:08:53,090 --> 00:08:55,520 loaded onto those network devices, to ensure that you have 249 249 00:08:55,520 --> 00:08:57,470 the right security for those devices, 250 250 00:08:57,470 --> 00:08:59,440 just like we do with our workstations and clients, 251 251 00:08:59,440 --> 00:09:00,890 when we use patch management.