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86 lines
5.1 KiB
Markdown
86 lines
5.1 KiB
Markdown
# Systems Vulnerability Scanning
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## What is systems vulnerability scanning?
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Vulnerability scanning is the process of scanning a network or system to identify any existing security vulnerabilities.
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It is a proactive measure used to detect any weaknesses that an attacker may exploit to gain unauthorised access to a system or network.
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Vulnerability scanning can be either manual or automated.
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It can involve scanning for known vulnerabilities, analysing the configuration of a system or network, or using an automated tool to detect any possible vulnerabilities.
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## How do you perform a vulnerability scan?
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A vulnerability scan is typically performed with specialised software that searches for known weaknesses and security issues in the system.
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The scan typically looks for missing patches, known malware, open ports, weak passwords, and other security risks.
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Once the scan is complete, the results are analysed to determine which areas of the system need to be addressed to improve its overall security.
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## What are the types of vulnerability scans?
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There are two main types of vulnerability scan: unauthenticated and authenticated.
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Unauthenticated scans are conducted without any credentials and, as such, can only provide limited information about potential vulnerabilities.
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This type of scan helps identify low-hanging fruit, such as unpatched systems or open ports.
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Authenticated scans, on the other hand, are conducted with administrative credentials.
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This allows the scanning tool to provide much more comprehensive information about potential vulnerabilities, including those that may not be easily exploitable.
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In the next two days we are going to take a look at containers and network vulnerability scan, which are more specific subsets of system vulnerability scanning.
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## Why are vulnerability scans important?
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Vulnerabilities are widespread across organisations of all sizes.
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New ones are discovered constantly or can be introduced due to system changes.
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Criminal hackers use automated tools to identify and exploit known vulnerabilities and access unsecured systems, networks or data.
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Exploiting vulnerabilities with automated tools is simple: attacks are cheap, easy to run and indiscriminate, so every Internet-facing organisation is at risk.
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All it takes is one vulnerability for an attacker to access your network.
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This is why applying patches to fix these security vulnerabilities is essential.
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Updating your software, firmware and operating systems to the newest versions will help protect your organisation from potential vulnerabilities.
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Worse, most intrusions are not discovered until it is too late. According to the global median, dwell time between the start of a cyber intrusion and its identification is 24 days.
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## What does a vulnerability scan test?
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Automated vulnerability scanning tools scan for open ports and detect common services running on those ports.
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They identify any configuration issues or other vulnerabilities on those services and look at whether best practice is being followed, such as using TLSv1.2 or higher and strong cipher suites.
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A vulnerability scanning report is then generated to highlight the items that have been identified.
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By acting on these findings, an organisation can improve its security posture.
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## Who conducts vulnerability scans?
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IT departments usually undertake vulnerability scanning if they have the expertise and software to do so, or they can call on a third-party security service provider.
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Vulnerability scans are also performed by attackers who scour the Internet to find entry points into systems and networks.
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Many companies have bug bounty programs, that allow ethical hackers to report vulnerabilities and gain money for that.
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Usually the bug bounty programs have boundaries, e.g. they define what is allowed and what is not.
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Participating in big bounty programs must be done responsibly.
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Hacking is a crime, and if you are caught you cannot just claim that you did it for good, or that you were not going to exploit your findings.
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## How often should you conduct a vulnerability scan?
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Vulnerability scans should be performed regularly so you can detect new vulnerabilities quickly and take appropriate action.
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This will help identify your security weaknesses and the extent to which you are open to attack.
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## Penetration testing
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Penetration testing is the next step after vulnerability scanning.
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In penetration testing professional ethical hackers combine the results of automated scans with their expertise to reveal vulnerabilities that may not be identified by scans alone.
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Penetration testers will also consider your environment (a significant factor in determining vulnerabilities’ true severity) and upgrade or downgrade the score as appropriate.
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A scan can detect something that is a vulnerability, but cannot be actively exploited, because of the way it is incorporated into our system.
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This makes the vulnerability a low priority one, because why fix something that presents no danger to you.
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If an issue comes up in penetration testing then that means that this issue is exploitable, and probably a high priority - if the penetration testers managed to exploit it, so will the hackers.
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See you on [Day 26](day26.md).
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