Performing an automated vulnerability assessment using Nexpose

In the previous Setting up Nexpose Vulnerability Scanner on our Kali Machine section, we learned how we can set up the Nexpose scanner on our Kali attacker machine. In this section, we will take a look at how we can use Nexpose to perform automated vulnerability scans on a target machine.

But first, how does Nexpose identify vulnerabilities in a target?

The idea is very similar to what Nmap does during service discovery. However, Nexpose works on a much bigger scale than just identifying the service running on a specific port. The entire process can be summarized in the following way:

1. Host discovery: Nexpose sends out ICMP packets to identify if a host is alive or not. Based on the response, targets are marked alive.
2. Port scanning: Once a host is confirmed as alive, Nexpose sends out a flood of TCP packets to identify...