Best Vulnerability Scanner Software
Vulnerability scanners are tools that constantly monitor applications and networks to identify security vulnerabilities. They work by maintaining an up-to-date database of known vulnerabilities, and conduct scans to identify potential exploits. Vulnerability scanners are used by companies to test applications and networks against known vulnerabilities and to identify new vulnerabilities. The scanners typically produce analytical reports detailing the state of an application or network security and provide recommendations to remedy known issues. Some vulnerability scanners work in a similar manner to dynamic application security testing (DAST) tools, but scan tools instead of mimicking attacks or performing penetration tests.
To qualify for inclusion in the Vulnerability Scanner category, a product must:
Best Vulnerability Scanner Software At A Glance
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- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Wiz transforms cloud security for customers – including 40% of the Fortune 100 – by enabling a new operating model. With Wiz, organizations can democratize security across the cloud lifecycle, empower
- CISO
- Security Engineer
- Financial Services
- Computer Software
- 55% Enterprise
- 38% Mid-Market
14,715 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
The Orca Cloud Security Platform identifies, prioritizes, and remediates risks and compliance issues in workloads, configurations, and identities across your cloud estate spanning AWS, Azure, Google C
- Security Engineer
- Computer Software
- Information Technology and Services
- 52% Mid-Market
- 36% Enterprise
4,839 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Sysdig Secure is our CNAPP platform that more than 700 enterprise customers use to address CNAPP, VM, CSPM, CIEM, container security and more - at enterprise scale. Our platform spans prevention, dete
- Security Engineer
- Financial Services
- Computer Software
- 46% Enterprise
- 40% Mid-Market
10,185 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Built for security practitioners, by security professionals, Nessus products by Tenable are the de-facto industry standard for vulnerability assessment. Nessus performs point-in-time assessments to
- Security Engineer
- Network Engineer
- Information Technology and Services
- Computer & Network Security
- 39% Mid-Market
- 32% Enterprise
87,021 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Singularity Cloud Security is SentinelOne’s comprehensive, cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP). It combines the best of agentless insights with AI-powered threat protection, to secure
- Information Technology and Services
- Financial Services
- 60% Mid-Market
- 31% Enterprise
54,569 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Tenable Vulnerability Management is the industry's most comprehensive risk-based vulnerability management (RBVM) platform, enabling you to: • See all assets and vulnerabilities across your entire
- Information Technology and Services
- Financial Services
- 53% Enterprise
- 35% Mid-Market
87,021 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Defender Vulnerability Management delivers asset visibility, intelligent assessments, and built-in remediation tools for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and network devices. Leveraging Microsoft
- Computer & Network Security
- 44% Small-Business
- 34% Enterprise
14,039,026 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
SentinelOne (NYSE:S) is pioneering autonomous cybersecurity to prevent, detect, and respond to cyber attacks faster and with higher accuracy than ever before. The Singularity Platform protects and emp
- Information Technology and Services
- Computer & Network Security
- 44% Mid-Market
- 38% Enterprise
54,569 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
AlienVault USM Anywhere is a cloud-based security management solution that accelerates and centralizes threat detection, incident response, and compliance management for your cloud, hybrid cloud, and
- Information Technology and Services
- Financial Services
- 62% Mid-Market
- 20% Small-Business
899,288 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Astra is a leading penetration testing company that provides PTaaS and continuous threat exposure management capabilities. Our comprehensive cybersecurity solutions blend automation and manual experti
- Computer Software
- Information Technology and Services
- 70% Small-Business
- 28% Mid-Market
662 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Red Hat® Ansible® Automation Platform is Red Hat's primary enterprise automation product offering., it includes all of the tooling needed for building, deploying, and managing end-to-end automation at
- DevOps Engineer
- Software Engineer
- Information Technology and Services
- Financial Services
- 44% Enterprise
- 38% Mid-Market
294,135 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Intruder is an attack surface management platform that empowers organizations to discover, detect, and fix weaknesses on any vulnerable assets across their network. It provides actionable remediation
- CTO
- Director
- Computer Software
- Information Technology and Services
- 59% Small-Business
- 36% Mid-Market
948 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Tenable Security Center (formerly Tenable.sc) is the industry's most comprehensive risk-based vulnerability management (RBVM) solution, enabling you to: • See all your vulnerabilities and continuo
- Computer & Network Security
- Financial Services
- 60% Enterprise
- 23% Mid-Market
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Qualys WAS is Qualys's platform for end-to-end web application scanning.
- Information Technology and Services
- Computer Software
- 45% Mid-Market
- 35% Enterprise
34,311 Twitter followers
- Overview
- Pros and Cons
- User Satisfaction
- Seller Details
Invicti is an automated application and API security testing solution that allows enterprise organizations to secure thousands of websites, web apps, and APIs and dramatically reduce the risk of attac
- Financial Services
- Information Technology and Services
- 49% Enterprise
- 25% Mid-Market
2,568 Twitter followers
Learn More About Vulnerability Scanner Software
What is Vulnerability Scanner Software?
Vulnerability scanners are used to examine applications, networks, and environments for security flaws and misconfigurations. These tools run a variety of dynamic security tests to identify security threats along an application or network’s attack surface. Scans can be used for anything from an application penetration test to a compliance scan. Depending on the specific objectives a user has, they can customize the vulnerability scanner to test for specific issues or requirements.
Companies can configure these tests to their unique environment. Companies that handle lots of personal or financial data may scan to ensure every transaction or datastore is encrypted from the public. They could also test their web applications against specific threats like SQL injection or cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. The highly-customizable nature of vulnerability scanners provides users with tailor-made solutions for application and network security examination.
Many of these tools offer continuous scanning and testing for nonstop protection and monitoring. Whatever administrators set as a priority will be tested periodically and inform employees of issues or incidents. Continuous monitoring makes it much easier to discover vulnerabilities before they become an issue and drastically reduce the amount of time a vulnerability takes to remediate.
Key Benefits of Vulnerability Scanner Software
- Scan networks and applications for security flaws
- Diagnose, track, and remediate vulnerabilities
- Identify and resolve misconfigurations
- Perform ad hoc security tests
Why Use Vulnerability Scanner Software?
Applications and networks are only beneficial to a business if they operate smoothly and securely. Vulnerability scanners are a useful tool to view internal systems and applications from the perspective of the attacker. These tools allow for dynamic testing while applications operate. This helps security teams take a step beyond patches and code analysis to evaluate security posture while the application, network, or instance actually runs.
Application security— Cloud, web, and desktop applications all require security, but operate differently. While many vulnerability scanners support testing for all kinds of applications, vulnerability scanners often support a few application types, but not others. Still, they will all examine the application itself, as well as the paths a user needs to access it. For example, if a vulnerability scanner is used on a web application, the tool will take into account the various attack vectors a hacker might take. This includes a site’s navigation, regional access, privileges, and other factors decided by the user. From there, the scanner will output reports on specific vulnerabilities, compliance issues, and other operational flaws.
Networks — While software applications are often the most obvious use cases for vulnerability scanners, network vulnerability scanners are also quite common. These tools take into account the network itself, as well as computers, servers, mobile devices and any other asset accessing a network. This helps businesses identify vulnerable devices and abnormal behaviors within a network to identify and remediate issues as well as improve their network's security posture. Many even provide visual tools for mapping networks and their associated assets to simplify the management and prioritization of vulnerabilities requiring remediation.
Cloud environments — Not to be confused with cloud-based solutions delivered in a SaaS model, cloud vulnerability scanners examine cloud services, cloud computing environments, and integrated connections. Like network vulnerability scanners, cloud environments require an examination on a few levels. Cloud assets come in many forms including devices, domains, and instances; but all must be accounted for and scanned. In a properly secured cloud computing environment, integrations and API connections, assets, and environments must all be mapped, configurations must be monitored, and requirements must be enforced.
What are the Common Features of Vulnerability Scanner Software?
Vulnerability scanners can provide a wide range of features, but here are a few of the most common found in the market.
Network mapping — Network mapping features provide a visual representation of network assets including endpoints, servers, and mobile devices to intuitively demonstrate an entire network’s components.
Web inspection — Web inspection features are used to assess the security of a web application in the context of its availability. This includes site navigation, taxonomies, scripts, and other web-based operations that may impact a hacker’s abilities.
Defect tracking — Defect and issue tracking functionality helps users discover and document vulnerabilities and track them to their source through the resolution process.
Interactive scanning — Interactive scanning or interactive application security testing features allow a user to be directly involved in the scanning process, watch tests in real time, and perform ad hoc tests.
Perimeter scanning — Perimeter scanning will analyze assets connected to a network or cloud environment for vulnerabilities.
Black box testing — Black box scanning refers to tests conducted from the hacker’s perspective. Black box scanning examines functional applications externally for vulnerabilities like SQL injection or XSS.
Continuous monitoring — Continuous monitoring allows users to set it and forget it. They enable scanners to run all the time as they alert users of new vulnerabilities.
Compliance monitoring — Compliance-related monitoring features are used to monitor data quality and send alerts based on violations or misuse.
Asset discovery — Asset discovery features unveil applications in use and trends associated with asset traffic, access, and usage.
Logging and reporting — Log documentation and reporting provides required reports to manage operations. It provides adequate logging to troubleshoot and support auditing.
Threat intelligence — Threat intelligence features integrate with or store information related to common threats and how to resolve them once incidents occur.
Risk analysis — Risk scoring and risk analysis features identify, score, and prioritize security risks, vulnerabilities, and compliance impacts of attacks and breaches.
Extensibility — Extensibility and integration features provide the ability to extend the platform or product to include additional features and functionalities.
Many vulnerability scanner tools will also offer the following features:
Potential Issues with Vulnerability Scanner Software
False positives — False positives are one of the most common issues with security tools. They indicate a tool is not running efficiently and introduce lots of unnecessary labor. Users should examine figures related to specific products and their accuracy before purchasing a solution.
Integrations — Integrations can make an application or product do virtually anything, but only if the integration is supported. If a specific solution must be integrated or a specific data source is highly relevant, be sure it’s compatible with the vulnerability scanner before making that decision.
Scalability — Scalability is always important, especially for growing teams. Cloud and SaaS-based solutions are traditionally the most scalable, but desktop and open source tools may be as well. Scalability will be important for teams considering collaborative use, concurrent use, and multi-application and environment scanning.
