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February 5, 2024
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8 Best Vulnerability Scanning Tools for Businesses in 2022
In this world of technology, where cybersecurity has become an integral aspect of our lives, we can’t overlook the importance of real-time threat detection. New common IT vulnerabilities are discovered each year, with 2020 being the year to report the highest annual figure of vulnerabilities to date. A vulnerability is a security gap or loophole through which threat actors perform unauthorized actions by exploiting them.
Cybercriminals use different methods to exploit vulnerabilities, including buffer overflows, cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injections, etc. While there are several ways to identify and patch loopholes in systems, vulnerability scanning tools play a significant role in detecting vulnerabilities
In this article, we will discuss what vulnerability scanning tools are, how they can help, and some of the best vulnerability scanning tools for businesses.
Disclaimer: The list presented here is not based on any rank criteria. Listed as First could not be the best or listed as Last in the list is not the worst by any means. This is not a complete product review. Please don’t go with the order of the tools. We clarify that the order doesn’t carry any rank. We are not here to judge the rank of the tools. We created this post to share the best options available in the market. Let’s get started.
What Are Vulnerability Scanning Tools?
Vulnerability Scanners use automated processes to conduct a scan on a computer or network to identify security gaps and points of exploitation. They examine Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs), potential weaknesses, and security flaws in organizations’ systems, networks, and applications. Also, vulnerability scanners can produce detailed reports of security gaps to help businesses mitigate or remediate vulnerabilities.
Why Should You Use Vulnerability Scanners?
Attackers look for vulnerabilities in systems and applications to exploit them and attack businesses using different methods, including installation of malware, accessing the system’s memory, running code or modifying sensitive data.
Vulnerabilities can cause severe consequences for enterprises, leading to a data breach or ransomware attack. A vulnerability scanner can help resolve these issues by helping organizations identify security gaps in their environment. Benefits of vulnerability scanning tools include.
Identification of vulnerable versions of applications
Scanning and auditing internet-facing servers to identify network weaknesses
Visibility into the degree of threat from each vulnerability
Remediation and recommendation based on the nature of vulnerability to mitigate it
What are the Best Vulnerability Scanning Tools for Businesses in 2022?
Vulnerability scanners can significantly help IT professionals identify patches and misconfigurations in the environment. The best vulnerability Scanning tools are given below.
1. Nessus
Source: Nessus
Nessus vulnerability scanner is one of the best vulnerability scanning tools for businesses, with almost two million downloads worldwide. It assesses the modern attack surface and provides visibility into your cloud infrastructure and internet-connected attack surface.
In addition, Nessus can scan for over 59,000 CVEs, providing comprehensive coverage to its users. It consists of more than 450 pre-configured templates so that you can detect and understand your vulnerabilities. Moreover, Nessus enables customizable reporting according to your needs.
Features
Highly scalable, easy to integrate, and deploy on various platforms, including Raspberry Pi
Fast vulnerability scanning with higher accuracy rates
Lower false positive rates
Built-in policies and templates with intuitive navigation and user interface
2. Burp Suite
Source: Burp Suite
Burp Suite is a vulnerability scanning tool to secure your entire web portfolio. It provides visibility into your enterprise security posture with security reporting dashboards, scan reports by email, and role-based access controls (RBAC). Burp Suite is a web penetration testing toolkit that enables efficient web security testing for cybersecurity professionals.
Additionally, Burp Suite enables security integration with ready-made CI plugins, native Jira support, and rich API. You can also set your scans according to your needs on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
Features
Easy to use and easy to set up
Enables security testing for various vulnerabilities, including XSS, SQLi, and OWASP top 10
Modern web scanning with API security testing and JavaScript testing
Automated OAST to identify vulnerabilities accurately
3. Nmap
Source: TheSecMaster
Nmap is an open-source and free vulnerability scanner for businesses to perform useful tasks, including network inventory, monitoring host or service, and managing service upgrade schedules.
Ethical hackers use this vulnerability scanning tool to determine network weaknesses.
Additionally, Nmap is a fast and flexible vulnerability scanner, and it supports advanced techniques to map out networks, firewalls, routers, etc.
Features
Port scanning to identify unknown devices
Security testing for vulnerabilities & helps identify network issues
Extensive with several advanced networking features
GUI and command-line versions are available
4. Intruder
Source: Intruder
Intruder is another best vulnerability scanning tool for businesses that helps them find and prioritize cybersecurity weaknesses. It is a cloud-based tool that enables you to scan servers, cloud systems, endpoint devices, and websites.
Additionally, you can find various vulnerabilities using Intruder, including misconfigurations, encryption weaknesses, missing patches, and app bugs, such as Cross-site Scripting, OWASP top ten, SQL injection, etc. Most importantly, it continuously monitors changes to identify your attack surface and runs comprehensive security checks to enable you to respond to new threats immediately.
Features
Online vulnerability scanner
Automatic system scanning for new threats
Advanced protection for perimeter systems
Provides alerts to remediate weaknesses
5. Tenable
Source: Tenable.io
Tenable.io is a vulnerability management tool to help businesses understand their risk and fix vulnerabilities. It is cloud-based software powered by Nessus technology that enables active scanning, passive monitoring, external attack surface management, and CMDB integrations to provide visibility into your assets’ vulnerabilities.
Features
Easy setup and deployment
Flexible vulnerability scan
Enables effective compliance reporting and provides executive summaries
Automated internal and external scans
6. Qualys Web Application Scanner
Source: Qualys
Qualys Web Application Scanner is a vulnerability scanning tool for businesses to identify and fix security gaps in web apps. This cloud-based tool finds official and unofficial apps throughout the enterprise environment and detects OWASP top ten vulnerabilities along with other web app risks.
In addition, Qualys WAS enables deep scanning and helps discover all known and unknown threats. It provides visibility into web app vulnerabilities, including XSS, SQLi, etc. Also, it scans websites to identify and report malware infections.
Features
Easy deployment through a public or private cloud
Scalable and extensible
Progressive scanning to secure large web apps
Interactive reporting capabilities to provide insights into web app security posture
7. Acunetix
Source: Acunetix
Acunetix is a web vulnerability scanning tool for businesses that use advanced crawling technology to identify vulnerabilities in web applications. It helps you detect 7000+ vulnerabilities, including OWASP top 10, SQL injections, XSS, exposed databases, and much more.
Furthermore, Acunetix helps prioritize your high-risk vulnerabilities automatically and enables scheduled one-time or recurring scans as well as scanning multiple environments simultaneously. Also, it allows you to execute automated scans even in hard-to-reach places, such as single-page applications (SPAs), password-protected areas, complex paths, etc.
Features
Help eliminate false positive
Identify vulnerabilities locations
Provides remediation guidance to resolve security flaws
Delivers compliance reports
8. Frontline
Source: Frontline
Frontline Vulnerability Manager (VM) is a vulnerability scanner that executes network scanning as well as web application scanning and other vulnerability management. It provides vulnerability assessment to identify internal and external vulnerabilities. Compliance auditing enables you to meet compliance criteria and do much more.
Features
Enables Role-Based Access controls and data segmentation
Provides network endpoint correlation to reconcile tracks and correlate assets to identify gaps accurately
Helps create vulnerability and patch management report
Smart and automatic labeling of assets to filter them easily
Conclusion
While vulnerability scanners can help you assess networks and applications for known and unknown weaknesses, choosing the right scanner depends on your needs and requirements. Different vulnerability scanners fulfill different purposes. Invest in the tool or solution that you find best for your enterprise. Also, don’t rely merely on tools for security. It is advised to use a combination of tools and best practices to enhance your cybersecurity posture.
We hope this post will help you learn about the best vulnerability scanning tools for businesses. Thanks for reading this post. Please share this post and help to secure the digital world. Visit our social media page on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Telegram, Tumblr, Medium & Instagram, and subscribe to receive updates like this.
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Arun KL
Arun KL is a cybersecurity professional with 15+ years of experience in IT infrastructure, cloud security, vulnerability management, Penetration Testing, security operations, and incident response. He is adept at designing and implementing robust security solutions to safeguard systems and data. Arun holds multiple industry certifications including CCNA, CCNA Security, RHCE, CEH, and AWS Security.
