GLSA is a system of alerts about security-related bugs. With this tool, we can check the bugs that may affect our system depending on the software we have installed.

By being aware of the software bugs, we can take measures to avoid problems. The most common solution is to update to a higher version where the bug has been resolved. However, if this is not possible, we can opt for other solutions. For example, if it is a bug that can be remotely exploited, we can apply filtering rules in the firewall to minimize the problem.

The tool itself is part of gentoolkit:

List of vulnerable software:

We can check some of the bugs in more detail. If bug N 201308-06 has appeared:

201308-06 [N] MySQL: Multiple vulnerabilities ( dev-db/mysql )

A quick way to know which software needs to be updated:

If we also want to update it directly from glsa:

As you can see, it is a basic tool for a sysadmin. If you use Debian systems, there is an equivalent called debsecan, if I remember correctly. The check of vulnerable software can be scheduled in a CRON and send a report every day, for example.