Son of Snoop on Steroids

Background

Son of Snoop on Steroids (SOSOS) is a computer hardware and software inventory program. It gathers over 220 pieces of information about computers and optionally stores this information in a database. It can be run locally or can be used by an administrator to scan a network.

SOSOS was designed to make the life of the System Administrator easier… many tools are available to gather data similar to SOSOS, but few allow you to automatically record the results into a database.

New: SOSOS is now available as a complete pre-compiled install package at the sister site: http://www.sosos.emmet-gray.com

SOSOS is still available as Visual Basic “source code”. That means that you can use Microsoft Visual Studio 2005/2008 to alter the program and recompile the source code to suit your needs. Luckily, Microsoft provides the Visual Basic Express Edition as a free download at http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/products/visual-studio-express-products

SOSOS is completely free of charge. SOSOS and its source code is considered in the “public domain”. That means you can do anything you want with it, to include making money from it. There is no licensing requirement.

SOSOS Features

SOSOS gathers information about PCs including hardware information such as CPU, memory, hard drives, and serial numbers; software information such as operating system, installed software, and software components; configuration information such as IP address, running processes, desktop settings, and services; and security-related information such as shared resources, modems, account policies, security patches, and virus activity.

Note: SOSOS does not gather any personal information, look at emails, user documents, or track Internet activity.

SOSOS does not have a built-in database… instead it relies on a 3rd-party database application to store its information. A database is not absolutely required. However a lot of SOSOS functions are designed around a database and will be disabled when a database is not configured.

The SOSOS Suite

SOSOS is actually a suite of programs consisting of the following:

SOSOSSOSOS – the main application (includes all of the features below)
RunSOSOSRunSOSOS – a command-line version for unattended gathering of data
PollSOSOSPollSOSOS – a command-line version for network scanning
ViewSOSOSViewSOSOS – a read-only interface to SOSOS database
ConfigureSOSOSConfigureSOSOS – a setup utility for the SOSOS suite

SOSOS.exe is the “main” application that may be the only application that’s required in a home or small office environment.

In the most common scenario for a corporate environment, the average user may never see the SOSOS program. The data from their PCs may be gathered by the RunSOSOS program which is designed by default to be “stealthy” and to be run during the login process with no user intervention.

Users can double-click on the SOSOS.exe program to manually scan their PC, save the data, print, or save a report. Administrators can do more…they can use SOSOS to poll remote PCs for their data.

Running SOSOS

The most common task in SOSOS is to collect data from the local PC. You perform this function by clicking on the Collect Data button (or from the File/Collect Data menu). The SOSOS screen will look like the following

SOSOS_Main

Use of SOSOS Data

The true power of SOSOS is in the manipulation of the data that it collects. The collection of the data by itself isn't all that helpful... but the ability to write queries against the data is a very powerful tool. This ability to analyze the data is where SOSOS can save an organization time and money.

Many people in our organization are able to use the data from SOSOS:

Users think our IT staff is psychic, since we can often detect a problem before they are even aware that a problem exists. In other cases, when a user has a problem, we can remotely “snoop” their PC while they are on the phone.

When a new security concern is discovered, we quickly write a query against the SOSOS database or, if required, re-scan our PCs. SOSOS provides a way to answer questions such as:

SOSOS also provides an inventory tracking system that records the brand, model number, and serial number of their PC, and also video monitor and printer information. SOSOS provides a way to keep track of:

Related Applications

In addition to the SOSOS suite, there are several other related programs that perform the following functions:

Database Table Listing

The data is stored in the following 43 tables:

Table Name Description
Accounts A listing of all local accounts
Admins Members of the local Administrators group
AutoUpdate Automatic Update settings
BIOS BIOS information
Components Windows components (similar to installed software)
CPU Processor information
Desktop User’s desktop (screen saver, wallpaper, etc.)
Devices Listing of devices (similar to device manager)
Disks Physical disk information
Drives Logical drive information (drive letters)
Email User’s Microsoft Outlook settings
EventLogs Event Log Entries
EventLogSettings Settings for each Event Log
FileInfo Information about an ad-hoc list of files
Internet User’s Internet Explorer settings
Mapped User’s mapped network drives and printers
Memory Quantity and type of RAM
Modem Modem information
Monitor Video Monitor information
Motherboard Motherboard information
Mouse Mouse
NetAdapter Network Interface Card (NIC) information
NetConfig NIC Configuration
OS Operating System details
PC Miscellaneous PC information
Permissions Permissions on network shares
Ports Number and type of ports
Printers Local and network printer information
Processes List of running processes (similar to Task Manager)
Profiles Listing of User Profiles (i.e. C:\Document and Settings)
QFE Updates/Patches (QFE=Quick Fix Engineering)
Registry Information about an ad-hoc list of registry keys
Services List of Windows Services
Shares Information about network shares
Software Listing of installed software
SOS Summary information (root of many tables)
Startup User’s automatic startup applications
SystemDrivers List of system drivers (useful in recovery console)
SystemInfo System identification and serial numbers
Tasks Listing of scheduled tasks
UserLogin Record of every login
Video Video card information
Virus Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition logs

Downloads/Links

Download the install package: SetupSOSOS.exe
Download the complete VB.Net source for SOSOS: SOSOS_src.zip
Listing of Related Applications available for download

Visit the dedicated website for SOSOS: http://www.sosos.emmet-gray.com