ABSTRACT
Vulnerability scanning (VS) is a technology that scans a network and computer system to identify known vulnerabilities and generates risk exposure reports. VS can be run on network devices such as firewalls, routers, switches, servers, and applications in order to find potential vulnerabilities. VS is run by system administrators and IT professionals with product knowledge of specific assets. Vulnerability scanners are automated tools that check to see if networks, systems, and applications have security weaknesses that could expose them to attacks.
VS is a common practice across enterprises. Contrary to penetration testing (see Chapter 17) that is conducted by experts, VS consists of automated tools. Penetration testers and attackers alike might use VS to identify the vulnerabilities of a system to plan an attack. VS is often mandated by industry standards and government regulations to improve an organization's security posture by using several tools to identify, classify, and mitigate vulnerabilities.
After a brief history of VS, this chapter will review the main tools and technologies used in VS and review how they work.
