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Security Intermediate

What is Vulnerability Scanning?

Automated testing that identifies known security weaknesses in systems, applications, and network infrastructure.

Vulnerability scanners check systems against databases of known vulnerabilities (CVEs). They test for missing patches, misconfigurations, default credentials, outdated software, and known exploits. Scans can be authenticated (with credentials) or unauthenticated.

Tools include Nessus, OpenVAS, Qualys, and Trivy (containers). Regular scanning is required by PCI DSS, HIPAA, and other compliance standards. Scanners report findings with severity ratings (CVSS scores) and remediation guidance. Integrate scanning into CI/CD pipelines for continuous security.

Related Terms

PKI (Public Key Infrastructure)
A framework of policies, hardware, and software for creating, managing, distributing, and revoking digital certificates.
CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery)
An attack that tricks authenticated users into submitting unwanted requests to a web application they are logged into.
Input Validation
The process of verifying that user-supplied data meets expected formats, types, and ranges before processing it.
JWT (JSON Web Token)
A compact, self-contained token format used for securely transmitting information between parties as a JSON object.
Hashing
A one-way function that converts input data into a fixed-size string of characters, used for data integrity and password storage.
OAuth 2.0
An authorization framework that allows third-party applications to access user resources without sharing passwords.
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