PowerShell Script to Check Symantec Endpoint Protection Definition Updates

Posted on January 6, 2017 Updated on November 8, 2020

Symantec Endpoint Protection has quite a hold on the Anti-Virus market share. Many have environments where it’s used, and may not be the administrators or even able to view data from the Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager. In light of that, I’ve written a PowerShell script to check the last update time for SEP definitions that can either be run manually or set as a scheduled task.

# Check if Symantec Endpoint Protection is installed. If not, exit.

#Check last write date of AV definitions and compare to a variable set for time – 7 days. 

# Write to the event log whether definitions are current or not

#Send email if definitions are out of date

*Things to Note*

• As it stands, in each of the “if ($writetime” blocks there is a “write-host”. If you plan on running this as a scheduled task you’ll want to remove or comment out those lines.
• I will also be writing this as a SCOM management pack, and an SCCM Compliance Item.

###################################################################
## Check Symantec Endpoint Protection Antivirus Definition Dates ##
## v1.1 ##
## Matt Hansen // 01-06-2017 ##
###################################################################

#Set Variables
$hostname = hostname
$7daysago = (get-date).AddDays(-7)
$key = 'HKLM:SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection\CurrentVersion\SharedDefs'

#Test for registry key path and execute if neccessary
if (test-path -path $key)
{

$path = (Get-ItemProperty -Path $key -Name DEFWATCH_10).DEFWATCH_10
$writetime = [datetime](Get-ItemProperty -Path $path -Name LastWriteTime).lastwritetime
#Write-Host A min ago was $7daysago. DEFs was last written at $writetime

if ($writetime -lt $7daysago)
{Write-host "You have old defs"
Write-EventLog -LogName "Application" -Source "Symantec Antivirus" -EventId "7076" -EntryType "Warning" -Message "Symantec Definitions are older than 7 days. Last update time is was $writetime"
$notify = "yes"
}

if ($writetime -gt $7daysago)
{Write-host "You have current defs"
Write-EventLog -LogName "Application" -Source "Symantec Antivirus" -EventId "7077" -EntryType "Information" -Message "Symantec Definitions are current within 7 days. Last update time is was $writetime"
$notify = "no"

}

#Email Notify
if ($notify -eq "yes")
{
$param = @{
SmtpServer = "smtpserver@company.local"
Port = 25
UseSsl = $false
#Credential = "you@gmail.com"
From = "SymantecDefChecks@mcompany.local"
To = "administrator@company.local"
Subject = "Symantec Defintions Out-of-Date on $hostname"
Body = "Symantec Definitions are older than 7 days. Last update time is was $writetime on $hostname"
}
Send-MailMessage @param
#write-host "Email Sent"
}

}
Else {Write-host "Not installed"}

I hope this makes your day at least a little bit easier.

Thanks,