SNC Validator - Scott Crevier

Scott Crevier • SNC Validator

Synopsis:

To explain what this program does, I'll start by explaining the situation. Students register their computers on our campus network via a web site hosted on our NetReg server. Simple Perl CGI scripts on the server capture the computer's IP address and MAC address and update the 'dhcpd.conf' and 'dhcpd.leases' files accordingly.

We wanted a way to verify that the computer meets certain minimum requirements before allowing the registration to proceed. SNC Validator does this. SNC Validator is a compiled AutoIt script.

How It Works:

The student's unregistered computer only has access to one web site hosted on the NetReg server. From this site, the student downloads the SNC Validator executable (sncvalidator.exe).

The student double clicks the executable to run it.

SNC Validator gathers some data about the computer, builds a long URL with that data, and launches the URL in the default browser. The target of the URL is the register.cgi script on the NetReg server.

The CGI script checks all the values and decides if it wants to allow the computer to be registered. Sample scenarios:

If the computer is running Windows XP with Service Pack 1, it can deny the registration and require that the student first install Service Pack 2. Of course this means that they need to have access to the Microsoft web site in order to download it.

If the computer is running Windows 98, it can deny the registration if McAfee VirusScan v4.5.1 is not installed.

Simply put, SNC Validator reports registry values to the CGI script on the NetReg server. Therefore, the registration can be denied or allowed based on any registry settings. You could also customize it to consider the existence (or non-existance) of any file on the computer if you want.
Here at SNC, we also check the version of SNC Validator, and deny registration unless the latest version was run.

Questions/comments:

Of course it's my hope that you'll find the info you need on these web pages. But if not, or if you have any suggestions, feel free to contact me by e-mail or telephone.