Vulnerability scanning plays a critical role in maintaining the security of any organization’s IT infrastructure. Vulnerability scanners detect, evaluate, and report potential security threats present in software, hardware, and network devices. They enable organizations to proactively identify and remediate vulnerabilities before they can be exploited, improving their security posture, and minimizing the potential for data breaches and cyberattacks.
There are multiple vendors that have developed vulnerability scanning tools, catering to a diverse range of organizations and use-cases. Whether it’s small businesses or large enterprises, there is a vulnerability scanning solution designed for your organization. These tools offer advanced features such as automated scanning, third-party integrations, graphical interfaces, and comprehensive reporting to help IT security teams identify, prioritize, and address potential risks in a timely manner.
This guide will explore the top 10 vulnerability scanning tools currently available, examining their key features, ease of use, scalability, and overall effectiveness. We have taken customer feedback and expert opinions into account, giving you a comprehensive and holistic view of each platform.
Acunetix Vulnerability Scanner is a comprehensive web application security testing solution that provides built-in vulnerability assessment and management tools. It can be used as a standalone application or integrated with market-leading software development tools. By incorporating Acunetix into your security infrastructure, you can significantly enhance your cybersecurity posture and reduce security risks, while conserving resources.
Enterprises can use Acunetix to automate and integrate their vulnerability management, incorporating web vulnerability tests into their SecDevOps processes. Acunetix integrates easily with CI/CD pipeline tools like Jenkins as well as third-party issue trackers like Jira, GitLab, GitHub, TFS, Bugzilla, and Mantis. Acunetix also offers an API for connecting with other security controls and third-party or in-house developed software.
Acunetix is an efficient and quick vulnerability scanning tool that has undergone continuous improvement since 2005. The scanning engine, written in C++, enables comprehensive scanning of complex web applications, especially those using significant amounts of JavaScript code. Acunetix is known for its low false-positive rate, which saves resources during further penetration testing. To increase scanning efficiency, you can deploy multiple scanning engines locally.
Acunetix can be installed locally on Linux, macOS, and Windows operating systems or used as a cloud product. It detects web application vulnerabilities, web server configuration issues, malware, and other security threats. Acunetix also integrates with OpenVAS, an open-source network security scanner that allows you to manage your web and network vulnerabilities together using a single dashboard.
Greenbone OpenVAS is a comprehensive vulnerability scanner developed by Greenbone Networks in 2006. The scanner incorporates unauthenticated and authenticated testing, multiple internet and industrial protocols, performance tuning for large-scale scans, and an internal programming language for implementing different vulnerability tests. Greenbone OpenVAS receives daily updates regarding the latest security threats, ensuring that its test and detection capabilities remain current.
As a part of Greenbone Networks’ commercial vulnerability management product family (Greenbone Enterprise Appliance), OpenVAS is integrated with the Greenbone Community Edition, alongside other open-source modules. This combination offers organizations a proactive solution for identifying and addressing potential weaknesses in their IT infrastructures. Greenbone’s vulnerability management products can help organizations reduce the attack surface of their IT infrastructure by identifying weaknesses, assessing their risk potential, and recommending remedial measures.
HCL AppScan is a comprehensive security suite that offers application security solutions tailored for developers, DevOps, security teams, and CISOs. It helps businesses protect their applications by detecting vulnerabilities and offering remediation solutions throughout the software development lifecycle. With a variety of deployment options (including on-premises, on-cloud, and hybrid), HCL AppScan accommodates various business needs.
The software supports over 30 code languages and integrates seamlessly into IDEs and CI/CD pipelines, encouraging developers to write secure code from the start. By employing machine learning techniques, HCL AppScan reduces false positives and auto-fix capabilities, making it easier to prioritize remediation tasks. The customizable sliders in the software provide a balance between speed and accuracy, allowing for continuous security in the SDLC.
HCL AppScan delivers real-time security monitoring through aggregated scan results, centralized dashboards, and customizable lenses for risk posture and compliance. The software also includes cloud security features, scanning dockers containers, and container images to ensure no vulnerabilities are introduced by third-party components. API testing is available to secure vulnerable third-party components and detect issues in the IDE. With these advanced features, HCL AppScan bolsters application security and helps organizations around the world protect their data.
Invicti is a web vulnerability management solution that emphasizes automation, scalability, and integration. The platform is powered by a cutting-edge web vulnerability scanner that utilizes Proof-Based Scanning technology to accurately identify and verify vulnerabilities, whilst reducing false positives. The platform is effective when integrated within the SDLC or employed as a standalone solution.
Invicti can seamlessly integrate with prominent CI/CD solutions and issue trackers to be used in DevSecOps environments. Such integration allows users to eliminate security vulnerabilities early in the development process, saving time and resources. The platform’s Proof-Based Scanning technology enables fully scalable vulnerability scanning processes by automatically exploiting detected security vulnerabilities safely, and providing proof of exploitability.
The platform uses black-box scanning technology, with on-premises and hosted deployments allowing it to detect a wide range of security vulnerabilities. The scanner is capable of handling complex JavaScript/Ajax-based applications and can identify thousands of OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities in web pages, web applications, web services, and APIs. Additionally, Invicti checks web server configurations on commercial and open-source web servers such as Apache, Nginx, and IIS to ensure there are no misconfigurations that might lead to security issues. With Invicti, users can incorporate security automation at every step of the SDLC, achieving improved security with less manual effort.
Burp Scanner is a web vulnerability scanner (developed by PortSwigger), which is integrated into both Burp Suite Enterprise Edition and Burp Suite Professional. It is a reliable solution trusted by over 70,000 users spread across more than 16,000 organizations, and offers automatic vulnerability detection in web applications, including JavaScript-heavy applications that other scanners may struggle with.
The advanced crawling algorithm employed by Burp Scanner enables it to successfully navigate obstacles such as CSRF tokens, deliver stateful functionality, and manage volatile URLs. It is specifically designed to handle dynamic content, unstable internet connections, and diverse API definitions. This results in fewer failed scans and more discovered attack surfaces. Burp Scanner’s location fingerprinting techniques significantly reduce the number of requests made during testing, resulting in time and effort savings.
PortSwigger’s security research team are continually improving the capabilities of Burp Scanner to detect a wide range of existing vulnerabilities. Users can customize scan configurations and focus on specific issues (including those listed in the OWASP Top 10). Burp Scanner also includes an automated OAST (out-of-band application security testing) feature which reveals issues like asynchronous SQL injection and blind SSRF that are often missed by traditional scanners.
Burp Scanner is known for its excellent signal-to-noise ratio, providing maximum coverage with minimal false positives. This reliable and versatile web vulnerability scanner is a valuable tool for web application security, trusted by numerous organizations across the globe.
Qualys Vulnerability Management (VMDR) is a comprehensive solution for managing cyber risk in businesses. It provides businesses with increased visibility and insight into their cyber risk exposure. This results in efficient and effective prioritization of vulnerabilities, assets, and risk. With Qualys, organizations are able to proactively mitigate risk and track their risk reduction progress over time. VMDR addresses the needs of modern IT, OT, and IoT environments, providing asset discovery, vulnerability assessment, and prioritization.
VMDR offers a single solution for risk-based vulnerability management that seamlessly integrates with configuration management databases and patch management solutions. This allows for quick discovery, prioritization, and automatic remediation of vulnerabilities at scale, reducing overall risk. The platform also integrates with ITSM solutions (like ServiceNow) to automate and operationalize end-to-end vulnerability management.
Qualys Cloud Platform, combined with its lightweight Cloud Agent, Virtual Scanners, and Network Analysis capabilities, brings together the essential elements of effective vulnerability management into a single, unified application that is backed by powerful orchestration workflows. This enables organizations to automatically discover all assets in their environment, continuously assess them for vulnerabilities, and apply the latest threat intelligence analysis to prioritize and remediate risks. By offering all these capabilities in a single, streamlined workflow, Qualys VMDR significantly accelerates an organization’s ability to respond to threats and prevent potential exploitation.
InsightVM is a comprehensive vulnerability management solution designed to help businesses identify, prioritize, and remediate risks in their network infrastructure and endpoints. The platform provides complete network scanning capabilities to discover risks across all endpoints and on-premises infrastructure, enabling IT and DevOps teams to efficiently address vulnerabilities with detailed remediation guidance.
InsightVM includes a lightweight endpoint agent, live dashboards for real-time risk tracking and visualization, and an active risk scoring system. The platform also offers integrated remediation projects, attack surface monitoring (with Project Sonar), integrated threat feeds, as well as goals and SLAs for proactive security management. It has easy-to-use RESTful API and policy assessment tools for greater flexibility and compliance.
InsightVM promotes unified endpoint assessment with its universal Insight Agent. This collects data for InsightVM, InsightIDR, and InsightOps, providing live intelligence on network and user risks across multiple solutions. By integrating with other security tools, InsightVM maximizes the value of existing technology investments, ensuring holistic security management for organizations. InsightVM empowers businesses to better understand and address risks within on-premises environments and remote endpoints. This fosters alignment across traditionally siloed teams for more impactful and proactive vulnerability management.
Tenable Nessus is a widely trusted vulnerability assessment solution for businesses looking to secure their modern attack surfaces. By extending beyond traditional IT assets, Nessus allows organizations to fortify web applications, gain visibility into their internet-connected attack surfaces, and secure their cloud infrastructure.
Nessus delivers unlimited IT vulnerability assessments, configuration, compliance, and security audits, with the flexibility to be used anywhere. Users benefit from configurable reports, community support, web application scans, external attack surface scans, cloud infrastructure scans, and over 500 prebuilt scanning policies. The platform also offers advanced support and on-demand training.
Designed with security practitioners in mind, Nessus offers features such as multi- platform deployment, dynamic plugin compilation (for increased efficiency and accuracy), web application scanning, internet-facing attack surface visibility, and secure cloud infrastructure insights before deployment. The solution’s customizable reporting, troubleshooting, and grouping capabilities enhance the user experience and make assessing, prioritizing, and remediation of issues more manageable and efficient.
w3af is a web application security scanner designed to detect vulnerabilities within web applications. It is divided into three main sections: the core, which coordinates the process and provides libraries for plugins; the user interfaces for configuring and starting scans; and the plugins themselves, which find links and vulnerabilities.
The scanner operates in various phases, starting with a target URL provided by the user. It identifies all URLs, forms, and query string parameters using crawl plugins such as web_spider. Next, audit plugins send specially crafted strings to each parameter, identifying vulnerabilities and reporting them back to the user. Output plugins report these findings in different formats, like text or XML files, to suit user needs.
Global settings, divided into HTTP and miscellaneous settings, alter the scanner’s performance, and can be tailored to suit your organization’s use case. Users can save their custom settings using profiles, allowing for easy replication and variation of scans.
Wiz vulnerability management solution is designed to uncover vulnerabilities across various clouds and workloads, including virtual machines, serverless functions, containers, and appliances, without the need for agents or external scans. Through its one-time cloud-native API deployment, the platform continuously assesses workloads and manages potential risks. The solution eliminates the need for endless agent enforcement, reduces blind spots, and prioritizes vulnerabilities based on environmental risk.
The platform delivers a deep assessment feature that detects hidden nested log4j dependencies and CISA KEV exploitable vulnerabilities across a wide range of technologies. Additionally, the platform aids in prioritizing remediation efforts by focusing on exposed resources or those with the largest blast radius.
Wiz’s agentless scanning technology offers a single cloud-native API connector for vulnerability assessment across multiple cloud platforms and technologies. It supports more than 70,000 vulnerabilities spanning over 30 operating systems and thousands of applications. The Threat Center enables users to identify workload exposure to the latest vulnerabilities and take remediation action swiftly. The solution can also be integrated into the CI/CD pipeline, scanning VM and container images to prevent vulnerable resources from entering production.
Overall, this vulnerability management solution provides comprehensive, agentless, and cloud-native management for a wide range of workloads and platforms. It focuses on reducing alert fatigue by prioritizing vulnerabilities based on contextual risk and offers continuous operating system and application configuration monitoring according to CIS benchmarks.
Everything You Need To Know About Vulnerability Scanning Software (FAQs)
What Is Vulnerability Scanning Software?
Vulnerability Scanning software allows organizations to detect, identify, and diagnose security and configuration errors within software, hardware, and networks. They will carry out thorough monitoring and analysis to identify anomalies or areas where your technologies are not working as they should.
Not only will vulnerability scanners enable you to identify what and where an issue is, but they will also provide valuable insights into how the threat can be best addressed and resolved. This type of actionable intelligence ensures that security teams are given all the contextual knowledge that they need. This, in turn, ensures that they can resolve the issue effectively.
Vulnerability scanners can detect issues across a number of organizational areas, allowing them to detect a range of issues and vulnerabilities. To achieve this, vulnerability scanners use different types of scans to detect different issues in different areas. These include:
- Network-based scans – these can identify network vulnerabilities and misconfigurations
- Host-based scans – focus on workstations and servers to identify flaws, they also give insights into configuration settings and patch history
- Wireless scans – is used to identify rough access points and ensure that a wireless network is properly secured
- Application scans – can detect software vulnerabilities or misconfigurations
- Database scans – assesses where there are weak points and vulnerabilities within a database
How Does Vulnerability Scanning Software Work?
Vulnerability scanning software works by gathering data and intelligence from sources across your network. This data is then compared with expected results, or previous baselines and standards. Over time, your vulnerability scanner is able to build up a clear picture of usual levels and results. This ensures that anomalous results can be identified easily.
Once an issue has been identified, a vulnerability scanning tool will attempt to quantify the significance of the issue. It will assess and understand the areas that would be affected by this vulnerability and specify what the issue may look like in real terms.
Some vulnerability scanners will incorporate a range of cybersecurity tools that can carry out proactive remediation, ensuring that any vulnerabilities are addressed as soon as they are identified.
More complex vulnerabilities will need to be addressed by IT managers or SOC teams. They should receive comprehensive and contextual actionable intelligence, making this resolution process as straightforward as possible. Even for issues that have been resolved automatically, relevant users should be notified of the details. These notifications are not as urgent as the instances where remediation action is needed.
What Features Should You Look For In Vulnerability Scanning Software?
Vulnerability scanning tools are important parts of your organization’s security infrastructure. To ensure that your solution works effectively for your organization, it is worth taking the time to consider how your organization operates, and what areas need to be addressed.
Comprehensive Coverage – Your platform needs to integrate across your entire organization, gathering data from all sources. If its coverage is limited in anyway, you will not be able to have complete insight into your security status. This could lead to breaches where attacks come from places that you do not expect.
Compliance Compatibility – Having a solution that acts in accordance with compliance policies and frameworks can make the auditing process smoother and require fewer resources. This also give added piece of mind; you know that your network is being assessed to industry standards.
Detailed Reports – As these tools have access to such a large amount of data across your network, it is important that this information is fed back to relevant users and can inform future decisions. A solution may be able to identify areas that could be optimized, even if it is not deemed a vulnerability.
Automated Remediation – You can streamline processes drastically though automation. Rather than relaying critical information to IT teams who can then enact changes, automation cuts out the middleman, allowing issues to be resolved faster and more efficiently. This is not only a more effective way of addressing issues, but it also preserves valuable human time to focus on other tasks that cannot be automated.
