What is Vulnerability Scanning?

Vulnerability scanning is the process of analyzing systems, networks, and infrastructures for potential security flaws and weaknesses that hackers can use to their advantage.

In this guide, we explore why vulnerability scanning is so important, what risks to look out for, how scanning works, best practices, and some of the challenges you might encounter.

Importance of Vulnerability Scanning

Vulnerability scanning helps to unveil and reduce hidden security risks, allowing businesses to fix them before hackers spot them.

It’s also a good practice for helping businesses meet regulatory compliance, such as PCI DSS, which regulates the protection of payment cardholder information.

Vulnerability scanning can also reduce unnecessary financial expense. For example, data theft or loss could lead to private individuals taking legal action. There may also be a loss of business due to a lack of confidence in a company’s data handling, or extensive fines applied by regulators for failing to meet their standards.

Failure to adhere to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance, for example, can lead to fines of millions of euros:

“For especially severe violations, listed in Art. 83(5) GDPR, the fine framework can be up to 20 million euros, or in the case of an undertaking, up to 4 % of their total global turnover of the preceding fiscal year, whichever is higher.”

Intersoft Consulting

Vulnerabilities are not as rare as you might think. And vulnerability trends continue to accelerate, with security researchers identifying hundreds of new CVEs monthly. The NIST’s National Vulnerability Database, which has grown from just over 10,000 entries in 2005 to more than 150,000 today, illustrates how rapidly the threat landscape is expanding.

Types of Vulnerability Scans and the Risks They Uncover

The four main types of vulnerability scans cover networks, applications, hosts, and databases. Each of these scan types have different targets and measures, and uncover specific types of vulnerabilities. When setting up scans and tests for our clients, we take the time to explore the specific types of analysis they require before we begin.

Let’s break down these types.

Network Vulnerability Scans

Network vulnerability scans detect flaws in physical and virtual network devices and infrastructure, such as the communication streams between routers, computers, and data storage. These scans can also test the strength of firewalls and perimeter flaws hackers might use to break in.

Application Vulnerability Scans

Application vulnerability scans search for weaknesses in internal or public-facing software, such as login pages, forms, and web designs. Hackers could, for example, exploit vulnerabilities in forms by injecting malicious code (via SQL) or running cross-site scripts.

Host-based Vulnerability Scans

These scans assess hosts that are responsible for running and maintaining servers and storage systems. For instance, such scans may identify endpoint weaknesses, software obsolescence, or basic security flaws and human errors.

Database Scans

Database vulnerability scans search for internal weaknesses such as poor access control, weak permissions settings, misconfigurations, and human errors.

Vulnerability scans can also be active or passive (i.e., interacting with systems or running in the background), and authenticated or unauthenticated (i.e., with or without direct credentialed access to systems).

How Vulnerability Scanning Works: The Step-by-Step Process

Typically, vulnerability scans follow five steps—discussion and scoping, toolkit analysis, scanning, vulnerability analysis, and remediation. However, we tailor our vulnerability scans and remediations to each case.

Here’s a quick breakdown of these key steps in more detail:

1. Discussion and Scoping

At the start of vulnerability scanning, we carefully plan which targets will be scanned and analyzed.

For passive, ongoing scanning, this step is relatively automated, with most software allowing you to adjust your scope and scan depth before you begin. It’s at this stage that you decide whether to scan for internal or external threats, or both.

2. Toolkit Analysis

The next important step is to decide on which tools to use during your scan. We cover some typical software that professionals use below—but, the tools you choose and the way you configure them will depend on your scope.

Ideally, non-cybersecurity professionals should consider choosing tools with accessible user interfaces and a range of customization options.

3. Scanning

The scanning stage is the active process for discovering risks. It’s here that your chosen tools will scan and record any potential risks and flaws they deem important to the parameters you set.

Active scanning will require you to make different connections with specific systems and endpoints. Passive scanning, meanwhile, can run automatically in the background, much like a rudimentary malware scan, albeit in much more depth.

4. Vulnerability Analysis

At the end of the scanning process, you will either have raw data or detailed reports supplied by your chosen tool. When you work with a cybersecurity professional, you’ll receive a detailed report on where potential risks lie, and what steps you need to take to remedy them.

5. Remediation

Remediation is simply taking the advice you gain from step four and applying it. For example, if vulnerability scans suggest you should change database configurations, strengthen user access controls, and update Wi-Fi security protocols, now is the time to do so.

Further, regular scans are recommended across the year as threats evolve (and, ideally, whenever you make changes to your infrastructure).

Vulnerability Scanning vs. Penetration Testing

The main difference between vulnerability scanning and penetration testing is that the former is largely automated with high-level reporting, while the latter is a deeper, manual series of techniques used by a real person mimicking an attacker that accounts for different contexts. We recommend using both to ensure your cybersecurity is robust.

Vulnerability scanning typically finds simple flaws that you can remedy at surface level (such as misconfigurations) and is therefore both efficient and cost-effective.

Penetration testing, meanwhile, although more intensive and expensive, dives deep into the root causes of weaknesses and explores the thought processes and potential routes hackers take. Penetration tests are ethical cyberattacks—unlike vulnerability scans, they simulate hacking activity, rather than simply finding flaws.

Penetration testing tools, too, probe into systems and how they function deeper than typical vulnerability scanners.

Essential Tools for Effective Vulnerability Scanning

Every vulnerability scanning toolkit is different, however, there are several open-source programs—such as OpenVAS, NMap, and SQLMap, all of which have specialty focuses. At VikingCloud, we support our own scanning and reporting dashboard—in the Asgard Platform®—which users can log into, manage tests, and break down results in a few clicks.

OpenVAS is a popular choice for many business owners because it’s relatively user-friendly for basic checks. It’s also received strong praise for its compliance reporting. However, it can be complex to learn some of its most powerful features.

NMap, meanwhile, is an open-source tool that goes deeper than most on asset discovery, and benefits from a massive IoT and port scan list. However, there’s little support available compared to other tools.

If you specifically need to scan databases, SQLMap is a dedicated tool many claim is the best for the job. This software focuses strongly on finance and e-commerce, and is impressively comprehensive. That said, it is a niche choice, and requires some programming acumen to get started.

Best Practices for Vulnerability Scanning & Management

Best practices for vulnerability scanning also extend to vulnerability management, where a continuous cycle of identifying, assessing, prioritizing, remediating, and monitoring vulnerabilities across your digital environment ensures increased security. To maximize your security posture, consider the following best practices:

• Develop a structured, repeatable process that includes asset discovery, regular scanning, real-time monitoring, and clear documentation to support consistent and efficient operations.
• Ensure full coverage across your environment, including on-premises systems, cloud platforms, container images, and IoT devices—no asset should be excluded from scanning or monitoring.
• Leverage a variety of tools and techniques, such as agentless scanning, threat intelligence, and automated patch management, to reduce false positives and accelerate remediation.
• Prioritize and delegate remediation tasks based on risk ratings and team specialization, enabling faster, more targeted fixes while avoiding bottlenecks.
• Continuously monitor for misconfigurations and missing patches, and integrate vulnerability management into your broader cybersecurity and digital transformation strategy.

Challenges in Vulnerability Scanning and How to Overcome Them

We recommend vulnerability scanning for all our clients, however, there are some challenges—such as the potential for scan disruptions, outdated vulnerability definitions, false positives, and limited scope.

Scans can get disrupted by network outages, misconfigurations, and security control miscommunications. The best way to evade these challenges is to run scans at off-peak times and carefully adjust your security controls to allow scanners to run uninterrupted.

From there, always make sure to use a scanning tool or framework that is constantly updated—and be sure to push updates yourself before every scan.

False positives can befall even the best scanner tools. Therefore, as mentioned above, it is good practice to use multiple scanners for a well-rounded analysis.

Finally, vulnerability scanners may only find weaknesses that exist at the point of scanning—which is why it’s wise to set up penetration tests, use different tools, and to analyze your systems on a repeating schedule to account for all flaws.

Conclusion

With cyber threats becoming increasingly prevalent and sophisticated, business owners must do more than ever to ensure the data they store and process is adequately safeguarded. With regular vulnerability scans, alongside penetration tests and security audits, it’s more than possible to keep ahead of the nastiest trends.

VikingCloud will help make your cybersecurity more robust, reliable, and efficient—and it all starts with a call or message to our team. Get in touch now for a free consultation.