For an enterprise, penetration testing and vulnerability scanning are both essential methods for protecting systems and networks from cyber attacks. While vulnerability scans identify and assess weaknesses in your IT systems that could be exploited by attackers, penetration tests simulate real-world attempts to exploit these vulnerabilities.
While both vulnerability scanning and penetration testing are complementary aspects of a robust attack surface management strategy, business owners need to understand the key benefits of each – and how they work together.
Below, we provide an in-depth comparison between penetration testing and vulnerability scanning that will equip you with more knowledge to protect your business effectively.
What Is Vulnerability Scanning?
Vulnerability scans are automated tests that assess your computers, networks, and applications for weaknesses that threat actors could exploit.
These scans are passive, meaning that they simply identify vulnerabilities. They don’t attempt to find out how these weaknesses might be exploitable – they simply report them. For this reason, they form the initial stage in a more comprehensive vulnerability assessment process, which assesses the likelihood of the vulnerability being successfully exploited.
Since vulnerability scans are automated, you can schedule them to run annually, quarterly, or even monthly. However, if you’re making any changes to your system, it is advisable to run a vulnerability scan at the time to ensure the change is not introducing any new risks.
Vulnerability Scan Reporting
At the end of each scan, you’ll get a detailed report of the vulnerabilities found. This will usually outline the affected systems, the severity of the vulnerability and the steps necessary to remediate it.
However, as vulnerability scanning is automated, you may get several false positives. That is, the scanner may incorrectly flag non-existent vulnerabilities. Additionally, the scan might miss larger security flaws.
Nevertheless, since the scan is only reporting vulnerabilities, you’ll receive a risk rating for each one, which allows you to assess the identified weaknesses and prioritize actioning fixes. And by working with a dedicated vulnerability scanning provider, you can benefit from more in-depth analysis and detailed reporting.
Benefits of a Vulnerability Scan
While vulnerability scans are not a fully sufficient cybersecurity solution in their own right, they do offer some very substantial benefits, such as:
- Quick overview. Vulnerability scanning gives you a general look at any weaknesses in your system that could be used by threat actors.
- Inexpensive. Automated scans are relatively inexpensive to run and can save you the significant time and cost required to mitigate the damage from cyber attacks.
- Automated. The scans can be scheduled at regular intervals, allowing you to stay ahead of new vulnerabilities without imposing significant demands on your security team.
- Fast results. These scans don’t take very long to complete and can quickly point out any exploitable flaws you might need to fix.
- Regulatory compliance. Vulnerability scanning is now a requirement for compliance with certain cybersecurity regulations, including the EU’s newly introduced Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA).
- Quick overview. Vulnerability scanning gives you a general look at any weaknesses in your system that could be used by threat actors.
Limitations of a Vulnerability Scan
Since a vulnerability scan is automated, it has certain limitations. These include:
- False positives. A vulnerability assessment will always come up with some false positives, i.e., something that’s identified as a weakness but actually isn’t.
- Requires manual verification. Since the scan generates false positives, you need a human to go through the results and determine your vulnerability remediation priorities.
- Incomplete information. The assessment identifies vulnerabilities but doesn’t tell you whether the vulnerability is actually exploitable and what the consequences of an attack might be.
- Can disrupt operations. While vulnerability scans are non-invasive, they do require some bandwidth. They may impact performance if they are scheduled during peak hours or target in-demand systems.
What Is Penetration Testing?
Penetration testing is a service where analysts – often referred to as ethical hackers – simulate an attacker who is trying to get into your system.
The ethical hacker will employ the tools and methods – like password cracking, buffer overflow, and SQL injections – used by actual threat actors to assess the likelihood of someone penetrating your security to access your network and information.
Since a penetration test is carried out manually, the tester can use their skills and creativity to find exploitable weaknesses in your systems and network.
Benefits of Penetration Testing
- Rule out false positives. Penetration testing verifies whether vulnerabilities can actually be exploited by attackers. This prevents you from spending time remediating issues that don’t pose a real-world risk.
- Accurate and detailed security data. Pen tests offer in-depth insights into the security of your systems, allowing you to make targeted improvements to your policies.
- Effective prioritization. Pen testing demonstrates the likely impact of a given vulnerability being targeted. This allows you to focus on remediating those that would pose the biggest threat to critical systems.
- Improved incident response. By simulating a real-world attack on your systems, pen testing helps you identify limitations in your incident response strategy and implement more effective planning to minimise the impact of a breach.
Limitations of Penetration Testing
- Resource intensive. Pen testing is a manual process performed by a tester with in-depth knowledge of IT security. As a result, it requires a substantial commitment of valuable resources.
- Costly. Given the technical demands and time involved, pen testing is relatively costly and may take up a substantial proportion of small organizations’ IT security budgets.
- Limited scope. Pen testing focuses on targeting and exploiting specific systems or vulnerabilities, rather than providing a comprehensive overview of your systems and security measures.
- Legal and ethical boundaries. Pen testers cannot fully replicate the behaviour of real-world threat actors as they are held to specific legal and ethical rules that attackers may well ignore.
As you can see, there are a range of key differences between pen testing and vulnerability scanning, even if they have a shared goal of strengthening your security posture and reducing the risk of your systems being successfully targeted.
In the table below, we’ve summarised the main points of comparison. Read on below to learn more about how the approaches are similar and why you should make use of both to maximise your cybersecurity efforts.
| Vulnerability Scanning | Penetration Testing |
|---|---|
| Automated process | Manual process |
| Provides a broad overview of vulnerabilities | Assesses specific security issues in-depth |
| Conducted quarterly or monthly | Conducted once or twice per year |
| Relatively cheap and uses few resources | Can be costly and resource-intensive |
| Requires limited technical knowledge | Requires extensive experience and skill |
Similarities Between Pen Testing and Vulnerability Scans
Both Pre-Emptively Identify Exploitable Weaknesses
Cybercriminals scan businesses to find any exploitable vulnerabilities. When they use those weaknesses to attack your system, you can lose money, data, and even control of your apps and services – not to mention your company’s credibility.
Both pen tests and vulnerability scans help you to identify exploitable weaknesses before threat actors do. As a result, you can take steps to ensure the holes are patched and minimise the risk of a costly cyber attack.
Both Help You Strategize Fixes
Both vulnerability scans and pen tests reveal critical vulnerabilities that need to be fixed while helping you assess their severity. They enable you to determine which weaknesses should be dealt with immediately and which ones can be taken care of later. That way, you can allocate resources more efficiently, prioritizing critical vulnerabilities that pose an immediate risk to your business.
Both Assess Your Network’s Security
Once you’ve tested the weaknesses across your devices, applications, and network, you can find out how secure your organization truly is. This, in turn, allows you to take the measures needed to make your business safe from a full range of attacks in the future.
Both Save You Money Long-Term
Since both vulnerability scans and pen tests help you find holes in your security before fraudsters do, you can prevent attacks from taking place. That means your business no longer has to spend money on mitigating the effects of an attack. You’ll also avoid fines that could result in legal action after a data breach, as well as the reputational damage that larger-scale breaches can cause.
Both Protect Your Clients’ (and Your Own) Data
Businesses have a legal requirement to protect their customers’ personal data, which means you need the appropriate technical security in place to securely store sensitive information. Both these assessments are a way of ensuring that your customers’ data is adequately protected and that you meet the requirements of the GDPR, DORA, CCPA and other key data privacy legislation.
Both Help You Stay Up to Date With Your Security
Cybersecurity continues to evolve to keep up with emerging threats – for instance, the recent rise in the use of generative AI for phishing attacks. As a result, certain measures that were secure in the past might not be as effective now. Vulnerability assessments and pen testing enable you to keep up with the latest security trends and proactively adapt to emerging threats.
Build a Reputation for Cybersecurity
Constant vigilance means your business develops better cybersecurity for your clients and customers. That, in turn, helps your reputation. And with 71% of consumers now concerned about their data security, being known for the quality and extent of your cybersecurity measures can have a major impact on your bottom line.
Vulnerability Scanning and Penetration Testing With Rootshell Security
If you seek complete protection for your business’s online resources, get in touch with us. Rootshell Security offers comprehensive and certified penetration testing services as well as access to the Rootshell Platform, a solution that helps you consolidate the results of your vulnerability-finding efforts. Get in touch with us to identify how your business might be at risk and manage your systems’ vulnerabilities better.
