Patchman Launches Advanced Multi-File Application Detection

SiteLock’s Patchman – a program that is known for patching application vulnerabilities – also helps website hosts to stop abuse before it becomes a problem, saving hosting providers an immense amount of time drain that usually comes with scanning for and removing threats. Now, with Patchman’s latest update, we’ve expanded our efforts to include advanced multi-file application control and detection. What does this mean, and how will it impact our current and future clients and partners?

What The Implementation of Multi-File Application Control and Detection Means

When Patchman was created in 2014, it was designed to scan for and proactively patch vulnerabilities within a CMS looking for a specific, unique file. With this update, we can scan for a set of files to detect more applications and application versions with better accuracy. The reason for this update is simple – many applications don’t have one unique file in every single version. As a result, scanning various applications would sometimes miss files that weren’t unique to that specific version. This led to problems in identifying vulnerabilities accurately. In other words, we could receive false-positives of threats where one might not exist. Multi-file application detection gives Patchman the ability to provide more robust application control and coverage with a significantly smaller chance of false-positives.

The new application detection method is also less sensitive to file variations as a result of different installation methods or download sources. The biggest example being that uploading a website through FTP could modify files in a way that caused Patchman not to detect it. With the update to our software, we’re able to catch even more vulnerabilities, keeping websites one more step ahead of cyberthreats.

Why This Update Matters

According to a diagram released by W3Techs, of the 766 content management systems W3Techs focuses on, nearly 60% of website users are utilizing one of the systems being monitored. The largest being WordPress at 40.4% with a CMS market share of 64.4%. Unfortunately, more than half of all CMS applications have been found to be out of date making these websites more vulnerable to an attack. Add to this fact that Zion Market Research reports that the global content management software market is expected to generate around $123.5 billion by 2026, and the fact is there’s big money to be had and lost.

The reality is that plugins, themes, and application cores require ongoing updates and management to remain secure. Since website owners often fail to make the necessary updates, they need something monitoring for them to detect and patch CMS vulnerabilities before they have a chance to put your website at risk. The multi-file application detection update helps give website owners peace of mind when they don’t have time or simply forget to maintain their website. It also helps the security conscious who do regular updates to be that much more secure. There’s comfort in knowing something is working to automatically detect and remove scripts that are malicious from your CMS the moment they are detected rather than finding them after it’s too late. It’s always better, and less expensive, to have a proactive preventative solution instead of a reactive pricey one after the fact.

How the Multi-File Application Detection Update Helps Our Partners

With Patchman and the newly added multi-file application detection, hosting service providers can feel even more confident in the accuracy of the service they are receiving, and the value they are then passing onto their customers. When you partner with Patchman, we help you make it easier to protect the websites of your customers without spending additional time on support. Interested in partnering with us to give your website customers another layer of security for their CMS applications? For package details, visit Patchman.co or email [email protected] for more information.