Network Scanning Cookbook

Uses

As mentioned in the earlier sections of the chapter, the major advantage of performing a Network Vulnerability Scan is to understand the security posture of the network. The result of a Network Vulnerability Scan provides a bundle of information useful to both administrators and penetration testers, such as the following:

• Unwanted ports are open and services running
• Default user account and password information
• Missing patches, updates, and upgrades
• Vulnerable version of software installed
• Vulnerable protocols in use
• Vulnerable algorithms in use
• Exploit information for all the preceding vulnerabilities

The Network Vulnerability Scan allows the identification of unnecessary ports that are open and the services running on these ports. ...