Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks (SATAN) was a free software vulnerability scanner for analyzing networked computers. SATAN captured the attention of a broad technical audience, appearing in ''

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'' and drawing threats from the

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. It featured a web interface, complete with forms to enter targets, tables to display results, and context-sensitive tutorials that appeared when a vulnerability had been found.

Naming

For those offended by the name SATAN, the software contained a special command called ''repent'', which rearranged the letters in the program's acronym from "SATAN" to "SANTA".

Description

The tool was developed by Dan Farmer and Wietse Venema.

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drew th
artwork
for the SATAN documentation. SATAN was designed to help systems administrators automate the process of testing their systems for known vulnerabilities that can be exploited via the network. This was particularly useful for networked systems with multiple hosts. Like most security tools, it was useful for good or malicious purposes – it was also useful to would-be intruders looking for systems with security holes. SATAN was written mostly in

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and utilized a

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such as Netscape, Mosaic or Lynx to provide the user interface. This easy to use interface drove the scanning process and presents the results in summary format. As well as reporting the presence of vulnerabilities, SATAN also gathered large amounts of general network information, such as which hosts are connected to subnets, what types of machines they are and which services they offered.

Status

SATAN's popularity diminished after the 1990s. It was released on April 5, 1995 and development has ceased. In 2006, SecTools.Org conducted a security popularity poll and developed a list of 100 network security analysis tools in order of popularity based on the responses of 3,243 people. Results suggest that SATAN has been replaced by nmap, Nessus and to a lesser degree SARA (Security Auditor's Research Assistant), and

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References

{{reflist

External links

Official home page

History of SATAN
Unix network-related software Network analyzers Internet Protocol based network software Computer security software 1995 software