Introduction
Scanning and identifying vulnerabilities on our targets is often considered one of the more tedious tasks by most penetration testers and ethical hackers. However, it's one of the most important. This should be considered your homework phase. Just like in school, the homework and quizzes are designed so that you can show mastery for your exam.
Vulnerability identification allows you to do your homework. You will learn about what vulnerabilities your target is susceptible to so you can make a more polished set of attacks. In essence, if the attack itself is the exam, then vulnerability identification allows you a chance to prepare.
Both Nessus and OpenVAS have similar sets of vulnerabilities that they can scan for on a target host. These vulnerabilities include:
Linux vulnerabilities
Windows vulnerabilities
Local security checks
Network service vulnerabilities
