In this article, you will learn everything you need to know about the 3rd Party Patch Management module. This product allows you to define policies for software management and automated patching and installation, schedule updates with our HEIMDAL Unified Threat Dashboard (UTD), blocklist applications and allow your users to click and install only the software approved by you.
1. Description
2. How does 3rd Party Patch Management work?
3. HEIMDAL Agent - 3rd Party Patch Management
4. 3rd Party Patch Management view
5. 3rd Party Patch Management settings
DESCRIPTION
Our 3rd Party Patch Management Management solution will automatically install updates on the 3rd-party applications HEIMDAL manages based on your configured policies, without the need for manual input. As soon as 3rd-party vendors release new patches, our technology silently deploys them to your endpoints, without the need for reboots or user interruption. HEIMDAL provides you with fully tested, repackaged, and ad-free updates using encrypted packages inside encrypted HTTPS transfers locally to your endpoints. Our distribution is further optimized through a local P2P network only between your machines. This gives you the powerful option to tailor your entire IT environment. You can create policies that meet your exact needs across the Active Directory groups within your organization. Once configured, the deployment is easy and simple.
HOW DOES 3RD PARTY PATCH MANAGEMENT WORK?
When 3rd Party Patch Management is enabled, the HEIMDAL Agent checks the installed applications and reports their status in the HEIMDAL Dashboard (an application is detected by its application bundles in standard locations). When a new version of a 3rd-party application is available, the HEIMDAL Agent will securely download it from the HEIMDAL Security cloud, and run the installer.
3rd Party Applications can be installed or updated by the HEIMDAL Agent using one of the 3 methods below:
A. Automatic (force) install - the application is automatically installed on the first Group Policy check in case the application is not already present on the endpoint. If the application is already installed on the endpoint, the HEIMDAL Agent will bypass the automatic install;
B. Automatic update - the application is automatically patched (updated) by the HEIMDAL Agent when a newer version is available on the HEIMDAL Patching server;
C. Manual install - the application can be manually installed by the end-user from the HEIMDAL Agent in case the application is not already present on the endpoint.
The Application Blocklist feature allows you to uninstall specific applications that are installed on the endpoints inside your organization.
HEIMDAL Agent - 3rd Party Patch Management
The HEIMDAL Agent displays information about the Monitored Applications, the Vulnerable Applications, the Version number, and the Status of each application. From the HEIMDAL Agent. The statistics displayed in the Patch & Asset Management cover a 7-day interval.
The HEIMDAL Agent allows the end-user to manually install any of the 3rd Party Applications that are configured to be allowed for installation from the HEIMDAL Dashboard. 3RD PARTY PATCH MANAGEMENT view
The Patch & Asset Management - 3rd Party Patch Management view displays all the information collected by the HEIMDAL Agent that is running on the endpoints in your organization. The collected information refers to the 3rd Party Applications that are installed or monitored by the HEIMDAL Agent and is divided between the 3rd Party Applications monitored on Windows endpoints and the 3rd Party Applications monitored on Linux endpoints.
On the top, you see a statistic regarding the Number of current vulnerabilities, the Total number of applied patches, the Number of updated software, and the Number of monitored software. The collected information is placed in the following views: Standard, Patches per Endpoint, and Assets.
- Standard
This view displays a table with the following details: Hostname, Username, Software, Version, Date, and Status.
The Standard view allows you to view the information regarding the Current Status, Latest Patch, Currently Outdated, Historically Outdated, Up-to-date, and Assets. - Patches per Endpoint
This view displays a table with the following details: Hostname, Username, and Patches per Endpoint. -
Assets
This view displays a table with the following details: Software, Version, Supported, and Installed Endpoints.
This view displays a table with the following details: Software, Version, Supported, and Installed Endpoints. This view will show all the applications that are installed on the Heimdal customers’ macOS estates. The dashboard user will be able to switch between the Stacked and Non-stacked versions of the data (similarly to the Windows OS, 3rd Party Patch Management version of the Assets view) by using a dropdown placed above the grid. The Stacked grid displays the applications that are installed on all the macOS machines, grouped by application name (Software) and Version. The grid displays the name of the application (Software), the Version that is installed if the app is part of the Heimdal 3rd Party Patch Management “standard list” (monitored and patched by Heimdal Patch & Assets) – Supported, and the number of Installed Endpoints where the application is installed. When clicking the Installed Endpoints number, you will be redirected to a 3rd Party app details view. The corresponding grid/table will show additional details corresponding to each application. The name and the version of the application are displayed above the grid, while the table showcases the Hostname where the application was detected, the Username that was logged in at the time, and the Date when the application was detected.
The Non-stacked grid displays a raw data view containing the Software name, Version, Hostname, Username, if the application is Supported by the Heimdal 3rd Patch Management solution (standard list of apps monitored and managed through Heimdal), and the Date when the application was detected. Clicking the Hostname will redirect users to the dedicated Client Specifics Assets view tab (Patch & Asset Management -> 3rd Party Patching Management), providing a holistic view of all macOS 3rd party applications that are currently installed on that particular machine. The machine view's 3rd Party Patch Management Assets view grid/table will show the Software name, the installed Version, and the Date when the applications were detected.
The Download CSV functionality allows you to generate and download a CSV report that includes all the information in Standard or Verbose mode corresponding to each view.
3RD PARTY PATCH MANAGEMENT settings
The Patch & Asset Management - 3rd Party Patch Management module allows the user(s) to install or update a specific 3rd-party application from the list of applications managed by HEIMDAL Security.
3rd Party Patch Management - turn ON/OFF the 3rd Party Patch Management module;
General Settings
Keep all applications up-to-date - all current and future 3rd Party Applications that are included in our 3rd Party Patch Management list will be added to automatic update;
Assets view - allows you to track down and manage all the 3rd Party Applications installed on the devices in your organization, even the ones that are not deployed or monitored by Heimdal;
Manage Applications
Install - enable the selected 3rd Party Application(s) to be installed on the endpoint(s) if it is not already installed. If the 3rd Party Application is already installed, it will not do anything;
Update - enable the automatic update of the selected 3rd Party Application(s);
Allow Install - make the selected 3rd Party Application(s) available for manual installation by displaying it in the HEIMDAL Agent - 3rd Party Patch Management list:
Version - allows you to target the selected 3rd Party Application(s) to the Latest Version or to an older version (available in the Patching System). Targeting a version that is older than the Latest Version will downgrade the higher version to the targeted version. This means that Heimdal™ Patch & Assets will not update it anymore (this works ONLY for the 3rd Party Applications that can be uninstalled through the HEIMDAL Agent, where Uninstall is supported);
Check interval - allows you to set the time interval when the HEIMDAL Agent checks for newly available patches;
Delay patching on startup - allows you to set the delay time interval applied on computer startup until the HEIMDAL Agent starts the patching operation;
Patching Schedule - allows you to set a scheduler for the 3rd Party Application patching module:
- You can select one or more days in a week when Heimdal™ Patch & Assets can install the 3rd Party Application(s)/Patches;
- You can select one or more days in a month when Heimdal™ Patch & Assets can install the 3rd Party Application(s)/Patches;
- You can also select a specific interval of any day to exclude the 3rd Party Application patching.
Applications Blocklist
This feature allows you to uninstall a specific 3rd Party Application(s) to restrict the usage of unwanted applications or to get applications removed from all endpoints that are applying the current Group Policy. This feature removes most of the applications that Patch & Asset Management is monitoring and also uninstalls other 3rd Party Applications that are present on the endpoints but not managed by Patch & Asset Management module.
To uninstall a 3rd Party Application you need to specify the name of the application. You can also specify at least the first word of the name (in case the 3rd Party Application has a name composed of more than 1 word) to target multiple 3rd Party Applications that have their name starting with the same word and tick the Starts with a tickbox to be able to add the entry.
Example:
- The example above targets the Poly Lens application that is installed on the endpoint(s);
- If you want to uninstall a 3rd-party application that is in the 3rd Party Patch Management list, you need to make sure that the tickboxes for Install and Update are unticked in order to be able to add the 3rd-party application to the Application Blocklist.