A vulnerability scanner is a passive scanner that identifies vulnerabilities or weaknesses in a system. For example, there could be missing updates for the operating system, anti-virus solutions, or there could be only one administrator account on the system. Microsoft has a vulnerability scanning tool called Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA). A Zero-Day exploit cannot be traced by a vulnerability scanner; it has not yet been identified and has no updates or patches available.
Let's look at the type of output a vulnerability scanner could produce:
- False Positive: A False Positive is where the scan believes that there is a vulnerability but when you physically check it is not there.
- False Negative: A False Negative on the other hand is more dangerous, there is a vulnerability but the scanner does not detect it. An example of a False...
