What is Vulnerability Assessment?

Vulnerability assessment is a continual and systematic process of reviewing the network infrastructure, systems, and applications to identify vulnerabilities in them. Once the vulnerabilities are identified, they are classified and prioritized based on the severity levels to mitigate or remediate them.

Vulnerability assessment, being a systematized process, provides admins with much-needed visibility and awareness of the overall cyber health of the network. Both in the short and the long term, vulnerability assessment fortifies the network by blocking any loopholes for cyber attacks.

Most organizations today use a vulnerability assessment tool to monitor the network and the endpoints automatically.

Importance of Vulnerability Assessment

The threat landscape is rapidly evolving with the advent of newer vulnerabilities, malware, phishing methods, and attack vectors. To put things into perspective, a total of 40,294 vulnerabilities were reported in 2024, a ~39% increase since 2023.

Imagine having to scan the network manually to detect hundreds of vulnerabilities every week. Sounds impractical, right? Not only is this impractical and laborious but is also a sure-shot way of paving gaps in the network for vulnerabilities to creep in.

The exponential rise in vulnerabilities in the past few years points to the glaring need for vulnerability assessment and automated vulnerability scanning across organizations. By implementing the automated vulnerability assessment process, organizations can benefit from the real-time monitoring of the vulnerabilities and security misconfigurations active in the network.

Furthermore, admins can also receive actionable insights on the mitigation of vulnerabilities as well as prioritize remediation of those that can potentially cause significant risks to the business.

Types of Vulnerability Assessment

Based on the destination or objects to be scanned and assessed, vulnerability assessments can be broadly classified into the following types:

• Application Scans to identify security flaws within web applications. The source codes of the applications are scanned to detect issues such as cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection, or other insecurities in the authentication mechanisms.
• Host-based Scans identify malware, misconfigurations, or other vulnerabilities in the servers, workstations, and network hosts. The operating systems and applications installed in the systems are scanned to detect missing patches, vulnerabilities, and malware.
• Network-based Scans detect vulnerabilities in the network infrastructure of the organizations. These scans encompass ports, firewalls, network devices, routers, and any other network components to detect security misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, or outdated firmware.
• Database Scans identify vulnerabilities, weak authentication, and unpatched software in database systems that could lead to data breaches or unauthorized access.
• Port Scans identify open ports in the network by analyzing responses from the requests sent during the scan since excessive or unauthorized open ports can be entry points for threat actors.

Vulnerability Assessment Process

The vulnerability assessment process can be classified into the following steps:

• Assessment planning and preparation which includes collating a list of the assets (i.e. computers, servers, network devices, operating systems, etc.) to be scanned and assessed for vulnerabilities.
  The IT teams also monitor the existing policies associated with each asset to determine potential false positives. Lastly, the teams also plan for impact and mitigation, in case vulnerabilities and security breaches are detected in the network.
• Vulnerability Scanning and Testing across the network by leveraging vulnerability scanning tools. Once scanned, the vulnerabilities, if detected, are further classified and prioritized for remediation.
• Prioritization and Remediation of the detected vulnerabilities are determined based on various factors such as risk-based assessment, CVSS scores, impacts on the business, probability of exploitation, and the availability of patches.
• Reporting of the detected vulnerabilities within the environment. Reports further pave the way for faster remediation by classifying the vulnerabilities. These reports are also crucial for cyber audits and to adhere to compliance standards such as GDPR, PCI DSS, etc.

Automated Vulnerability Assessment with ManageEngine

Continual scanning, detection, and mitigation of the vulnerabilities in the network can be one of the decisive factors when it comes to the long-term prosperity of a business. ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus is an agent-based vulnerability management tool that automatically scans the network and its endpoints to detect vulnerabilities and misconfigurations. Furthermore, this tool also offers mitigation via patching, configurations, and scripts.

Don't take our word for it. Try out the exclusive features of the solution, free for 30 days.