What is Vulnerability Scanning, and How Does it Work?

Businesses of all sizes have some form of data that a threat actor could exploit. It is even possible for a cyber-criminal to invade a company's available network with the sole purpose of causing web security testing issues. Whether it involves patient medical histories, credit card data, available consumer transaction histories, or trade secrets, if a company uses technology to transmit or store sensitive information, it has a responsibility to protect itself against the vulnerability of cyber-attacks. Vulnerability scanning tools and testing are available, and necessary for protecting a system from attacks or threats.

Unfortunately, not all organizations do enough to scan and lock down their network security measures to prevent vulnerability. Vulnerability scanners are must-have tools to protect your valuable digital assets without depleting your IT resources. 

What Are Vulnerability Scanning Applications?

Vulnerability scanners are easy-to-use tools and applications that large and small sized businesses use to provide and evaluate the efficiency and security of their systems, networks, and web applications. With vulnerability scanning tools -- also known as vulnerability assessment applications -- security teams can detect holes, flaws, or a vulnerability anywhere in the system, network, or web applications like:

• firewalls
• printers
• fax machines
• routers
• a web server
• operating systems
• cloud-based vulnerability
• open-source tool components
• application security testing

A vulnerability scanner or assessment can find these web security weaknesses that can be seen as the available entry vulnerability points that unauthorized users use to infiltrate system applications, and exploit them by viewing traffic in and out of the network applications. Many can do so by releasing sensitive data (thus causing a breach), and taking control of the network applications -- effectively locking out the organization's security team, leaders, and employees.

Vulnerability scanning tools use a systematic, automated assessment process that streamlines the ability to scan for:

• application security testing loopholes
• vulnerability gaps
• old web applications
• other operating system vulnerabilities
• other web application vulnerability
• an open-source web-based vulnerability

They significantly reduce the risk of vulnerability to unauthorized access available in many systems and applications (web application, networks, cloud-based enterprise, software, open-source tool, web server, etc.) by regularly testing the applications to preserve the integrity and confidentiality of a business and its systems.

Many vulnerability tools, applications, and software are available to assist with vulnerability scanning. They all cover specific assets to help companies develop an available vulnerability management program. With a vulnerability management program, the organization will have a clear, overall understanding of how weak or robust its networks are and help available to improve them.

Using a vulnerability scanner software tool offers several benefits to organizations, including:

• Vulnerability scanners are automated tools, so the room for human error decreases dramatically. It would take a considerable amount of time for security professionals to manually check each component within the system, so a vulnerability assessment through automation is faster and more effective in time. People are still necessary to the overall network scanning process because it is important to make sure no vulnerability is a false-positive.
• Vulnerability scanning tools will reduce the time and cost of cleaning up the system after a cyber threat or attack while simultaneously strengthening the organization and preventing any securing risk during assessment.
• A vulnerability assessment has a quality performance and only takes a time span of a few hours to complete. 

Causes of Security Vulnerabilities

Though hackers can infiltrate systems in a wide range of ways, businesses should consider several security weaknesses in particular. Vulnerability scanning tools alone will not be enough to address each of these flaws, but you can use many available software tools to help you prioritize the threat risks each one poses.

Account Abuse: Inadequate available security training, a lack of policies, and ill intent are the most common ways vulnerabilities develop within an organization's network and their devices. The following factors can contribute to a weakness:

• server configuration issues
• data leaks
• a failure to follow security protocols
• default credentials
• failing to remove old users from systems

Web Configuration Mistakes: Misconfigured or outdated web applications can contribute to a web application vulnerability. Examples of web application misconfiguration use cases include:

• expired SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certification
• an incorrect HTTP configuration
• insecure coding

Other use cases include third-party apps: Adding too many third-party applications or plugins into the network devices leaves them open to security gaps. Not every available application is up-to-date with its software, and many can become outdated. Threat actors will use holes within these plugins as another backdoor into your organization's systems.

Poor Network Structure: Leaving networks open by not requiring personalized passwords or user credentials may be convenient for workers and clients, but this can be disastrous for the company. Open networks have minimal security and are easy targets for unauthorized users. You can address this vulnerability by segmenting the system and only giving enough privileges to end-users to do their assigned work. 

How Does Vulnerability Scanning Work?

The exact procedures the vulnerability scanner software tool uses will depend on the organization's IT department and security team since many tools and functions are at its disposal. This team will choose the best vulnerability scanning tool for its organization.

Regardless of the choice, the team members will use vulnerability scanners in conjunction with other tactics to generate a response from network devices. They will match the answers they receive against well-known vulnerabilities within a database to determine the security gap's severity.

The steps for how a vulnerability scanner software tool can identify and aid IT professionals are:

1. Identify any vulnerabilities
2. Identify any valuation of risk
3. Treatment of any identified vulnerabilities
4. Reporting on vulnerabilities 

Identification of Vulnerabilities

Uncovering vulnerabilities using vulnerability scanning tools relies on three factors:

• The vulnerability scanner's ability to locate and identify network devices, open ports, and software
• The vulnerability scanner's ability to identify and collect data from the system and known vulnerability database
• The scanner's ability to correlate the data that they identify to at least one known vulnerability database

IT admins can configure the vulnerability scanner software tool to be more or less aggressive in its scans, which is sometimes necessary because it can be intrusive enough to affect the network's stability during the scanning process. The scans can also reduce bandwidth, but neither of these issues is permanent in the scans.

To reduce or eliminate this issue, security teams can schedule vulnerability scanning tools to operate after hours. The team must make sure they scan every company laptop and any other devices that connect to the network.

To ensure that IT experts scan all devices simultaneously and achieve optimal results, a team can identify and use endpoint agents to run the tools on the company's equipment or use adaptive vulnerability scanning services. These types of vulnerability assessment services detect new device connections as it patches into systems for the first time. Because new vulnerabilities are possible within networks, web servers, or operating systems, the tool will automatically run a scan whenever a new device connects to them. Get a free demo, trial, or quote for Fortra VM today. 

Evaluation of Risk

Vulnerability scanning services will often use a generated extensive list of identified vulnerabilities. Attempting to mitigate the entire list, if it is too long, can take up too many IT resources, and it is not practical. Mitigating some network vulnerabilities will cost businesses more than to do nothing and allow a threat actor to exploit the flaws.

Evaluating the risks of all the vulnerabilities will alert security teams to those that pose the highest threats and the one that is least problematic. During this stage, IT professionals can determine:

• The severity of the security holes and how they could impact the organization if manipulated successfully
• The ease with which an attacker could exploit the vulnerability, including whether or not they could do it from the internet or if they must be physically present to access a network device directly connected to the system
• Whether they can reconfigure current security controls to reduce the available risk of exploitation
• If the vulnerabilities are false positives

Through risk evaluation, the team can determine which weaknesses need the most urgent attention and which is one they can ignore. 

Treatment of Any Identified Vulnerabilities

The ultimate goal of vulnerability assessment services is to patch or fix a known network vulnerability and eliminate its available risks to the business. Unfortunately, not all security vulnerabilities have immediate fixes, so IT admins generally mitigate the vulnerability by adding more protections to make it more difficult for a threat actor to exploit. Mitigation is not a permanent fix, but it is an effective way to reduce a potential threat until a viable patch can secure the gap in network security.

During this stage, the organization may accept the vulnerability and do nothing to prevent an attack. This option is usually the best vulnerability option, as it is important to make sure the risk of danger to the company is low, and the costs to remedy the problem are greater than the damage it could cause. 

Reporting on Vulnerabilities

After the IT team addresses all the identified vulnerabilities, it must comply with any regulations governing the organization by documenting what they find and treat.

A vulnerability scanner’s software tool can generate and provide customizable reports, which help the team understand which treatments work best for specific vulnerabilities without requiring too many resources. The reports also allow the IT department to monitor the ebb and flow of vulnerability trends over time. The more knowledge it has about specific vulnerabilities, the more successfully it will guard the systems. Search our website or call Digital Defense at (888) 273-1412 and inquire about our free trial for Fortra VM today. 

Vulnerability Management Techniques

Using a vulnerability scanner software tool on your systems and networks will provide IT departments and organization admins with valuable information about their infrastructure's strengths and vulnerabilities. Including additional vulnerability management techniques into the business's strategy will give further network insights:

• Penetration Testing: Penetration testing and vulnerability scanners work together to allow vulnerability management security personnel to view the network from a hacker's perspective. Penetration testing is a management procedure in which security experts simulate a hack on a network on behalf of a company. Penetration testing allows you to use well-known hacking methods to identify the wide range of ways an attack or threat actor could sneak into the system. Penetration testing can provide an overview of real-world consequences the vulnerabilities might have on the company if one should successfully exploit the flaw.
• Internet or web Application Scanning: Web applications need as much protection as internal networks, but businesses often overlook web application security testing. A web application vulnerability security scanner software tool is similar to vulnerability scanners, and can check for weaknesses inside web-based apps for web-based vulnerability. Internet or Web application vulnerability scanners are tools that help catch various online issues, like SQL injection, command injection, insecure server configuration issues, cross-site scripting, and more. As such, they ensure web application security by testing and catching these configurations, SQL injection, and cross-site scripting.
• Configuration Management: Management Misconfigurations and a lack of patch management are some of the most common reasons for vulnerabilities. Application security testing and scans can bring these management risks to light, even though they could have gone unnoticed for months or years until the scan revealed them. Addressing these configuration issues through scans will often create consistency throughout your network and increase its security.

These additional vulnerability management techniques will give network insight into the business's vulnerability mitigation strategy. 

Types of Vulnerability Scanning

IT professionals planning their vulnerability scanning approach have several options at their disposal. They can choose to combine several types of strategies to discover which version works best, or they could stick to the organization's preferred method. Internal and external vulnerability scans cover two distinct types of network locations, while authenticated and unauthenticated vulnerability scans break down the scope of the scan. 

External Vulnerability Scan

External vulnerability scanning occurs outside the business's network. This external vulnerability detection scan searches for any possible intruder or security issues along the network's perimeter, including within its various defenses that it will provide like network or web application security firewalls.

The way a hacker or intruder attempts to invade systems is similar to how a burglar will enter a house. They try to get inside through the known entryways like doors and windows, but even if the homeowner locks them, it becomes more difficult for the intruder to burgle the residence.

External vulnerability scans are akin to locking all the doors and windows on a house to check its perimeter. These external detection scans are valuable tools that will test outside IP addresses and the edges of the system so that IT can patch any weaknesses they find to keep an intruder out. 

Internal Vulnerability Scan

Most businesses understand that threat actors will try to find and gain access to their systems from outside their network perimeter, but the organization's internal network is also at risk for cyber-attacks. Use internal vulnerability scans to combat these threats.

Security threats already within a network include:

• disgruntled employees with access to a network device or user information
• malware downloaded onto a company laptop
• an intruder who has access to an unattended workstation on-premises

Any of these threats can result in systems with deleted, exported, or altered data that can be devastating to the organization when it leaves its once-secure parameters. Detection tools can be implemented to search for vulnerabilities in a network. 

Internal vulnerability scanning and vulnerability detection tools search for vulnerabilities within the internal network. Finding and patching security flaws within the system, or "insider threats," are just as necessary as closing holes in the network's perimeter. If hackers discover and exploit an internal vulnerability in their scans, they can quickly move laterally within the system to its servers. Contact Digital Defense to discover the latest and new additional information about our free trial for vulnerability scans today. 

Unauthenticated and Authenticated Vulnerability Scans

Authenticated vulnerability scanners use login credentials to find detailed information about the network's operating system, any web applications, and a software tool within the machine. Not all programs are accessible through the network devices, but they can still pose a security risk. For instance, one could find that the vulnerability is a carefully crafted malicious website that a user could click on, mistaking it for a legitimate page.

Vulnerability assessment solutions may include software agents who access network devices like computers and a network scanner software tool to understand the business's full security posture. It is important to understand the full security posture to gather further information for network agents. 

Unauthenticated scans have the same purpose as authenticated vulnerability scans, but they do not use login credentials. Instead, the open services on a computer connected to the network receive packets on their open ports. This type of scan gleans specific information from the computer, including its version of the services' operating system, software tool, ability to open file shares, and other data that does not need company credentials.

The vulnerability scanner software tool can find and use this information to determine which version or types of vulnerability the systems may have. 

Conclusion

Network vulnerability scanners are useful and necessary for developing a stable vulnerability management strategy for your organization. A security scanner will provide an alert to your security experts to exploitable vulnerabilities within your system or web application, so using it is the starting point to protect your enterprise against damaging cyber-attacks.

If your business needs to implement a superior vulnerability management program to guard against a debilitating cyber attack or other threats, be sure to turn to Digital Defense for vulnerability scanning services. Since 1999, our team of security experts has been the go-to source to provide scalable vulnerability scanning, threat assessment SaaS solutions, vulnerability management, and services that can get both physical and cloud-based enterprises.

About the Author

Mieng Lim, Vice President, Product Management has served as a security expert for Digital Defense, Inc. since 2001. Mieng takes a consultative approach to security having held prior roles in Operations, Quality Assurance and Sales Engineering. Mieng seamlessly blends technical expertise with real world scenarios to provide an entertaining and educational cyber security perspective. Mieng serves a mentor and STEM advocate encouraging young women to pursue careers in security and technology and volunteers with BSides San Antonio as a staff member. Mieng holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science with Minor in Sociology from Trinity University. 

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Our SaaS platform supports Fortra Vulnerability Management, Web Application Scanning, and Active Threat Sweep that together provide:

• Asset discovery and tracking
• OS and web application risk assessment
• Targeted malware threat assessment
• Machine learning features that leverage threat intelligence
• Agentless & agent-based scanning
• Penetration testing for networks, mobile applications, and web applications
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Our SaaS platform virtually eliminates false-positives associated with legacy vulnerability management solutions, while also automating the tracking of dynamic and transient assets and prioritizing results based on business criticality.