What is Vulnerability Assessment? Testing Process, VAPT Scan Tool

Vulnerability Testing

Vulnerability Testing also called Vulnerability Assessment is a process of evaluating security risks in software systems to reduce the probability of threats. The purpose of vulnerability testing is reducing the possibility for intruders/hackers to get unauthorized access of systems. It depends on the mechanism named Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing(VAPT) or VAPT testing.

A vulnerability is any mistake or weakness in the system’s security procedures, design, implementation or any internal control that may result in the violation of the system’s security policy.

In this tutorial, you will learn-

Why do Vulnerability Assessment

Vulnerability Assessment

It is important for the security of the organization.
The process of locating and reporting the vulnerabilities, which provide a way to detect and resolve security problems by ranking the vulnerabilities before someone or something can exploit them.
In this process Operating systems, Application Software and Network are scanned in order to identify the occurrence of vulnerabilities, which include inappropriate software design, insecure authentication, etc.

Vulnerability Assessment Process

Here is the step by step Vulnerability Assessment Process to identify the system vulnerabilities.

Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) Process

Step 1) Goals & Objectives : – Define goals and objectives of Vulnerability Analysis.

Step 2) Scope : – While performing the Assessment and Test, Scope of the Assignment needs to be clearly defined.

The following are the three possible scopes that exist:

Black Box Testing : – Testing from an external network with no prior knowledge of the internal network and systems.
Grey Box Testing : – Testing from either external or internal networks with the knowledge of the internal network and system. It’s the combination of both Black Box Testing and White Box Testing.
White Box Testing : – Testing within the internal network with the knowledge of the internal network and system. Also known as Internal Testing.

Step 3) Information Gathering : – Obtaining as much information about IT environment such as Networks, IP Address, Operating System Version, etc. It’s applicable to all the three types of Scopes such as Black Box Testing, Grey Box Testing and White Box Testing.

Step 4) Vulnerability Detection : – In this process, vulnerability scanners are used to scan the IT environment and identify the vulnerabilities.

Step 5) Information Analysis and Planning : – It will analyze the identified vulnerabilities to devise a plan for penetrating into the network and systems.

How to do Vulnerability Assessment

Following is the step by step process on How to do Vulnerability Assessment :

step by step Vulnerability Assessment Methodology/ Technique

Step 1) Setup:

Begin Documentation
Secure Permissions
Update Tools
Configure Tools

Step 2) Test Execution:

Run the Tools
Run the captured data packet (A packet is the unit of data that is routed between an origin and the destination. When any file, for example, e-mail message, HTML file, Uniform Resource Locator(URL) request, etc. is sent from one place to another on the internet, the TCP layer of TCP/IP divides the file into a number of “chunks” for efficient routing, and each of these chunks will be uniquely numbered and will include the Internet address of the destination. These chunks are called packets. When all the packets are arrived, they will be reassembled into the original file by the TCP layer at the receiving end while running the assessment tools

Step 3) Vulnerability Analysis:

Defining and classifying network or System resources.
Assigning priority to the resources( Ex: – High, Medium, Low)
Identifying potential threats to each resource.
Developing a strategy to deal with the most prioritized problems first.
Defining and implementing ways to minimize the consequences if an attack occurs.

Step 4) Reporting

Step 5) Remediation:

The process of fixing the vulnerabilities.
Performed for every vulnerability

Types of a vulnerability scanner

Host Based

Identifies the issues in the host or the system.
The process is carried out by using host-based scanners and diagnose the vulnerabilities.
The host-based tools will load a mediator software onto the target system; it will trace the event and report it to the security analyst.

Network-Based

It will detect the open port, and identify the unknown services running on these ports. Then it will disclose possible vulnerabilities associated with these services.
This process is done by using Network-based Scanners.

Database-Based

It will identify the security exposure in the database systems using tools and techniques to prevent from SQL Injections. (SQL Injections: – Injecting SQL statements into the database by the malicious users, which can read the sensitive data’s from a database and can update the data in the Database.)

Tools for Vulnerability Scanning

1) Acunetix

Intuitive and easy to use, Acunetix by Invicti helps small to medium-sized organizations ensure their web applications are secure from costly data breaches. It does so by detecting a wide range of web security issues and helping security and development professionals act fast to resolve them.

Features:

Advanced scanning for 7,000+ web vulnerabilities, including OWASP Top 10 such as SQLi and XSS
Automated web asset discovery for identifying abandoned or forgotten websites
Advanced crawler for the most complex web applications, incl. multi-form and password-protected areas
Combined interactive and dynamic application security testing to discover vulnerabilities other tools miss
Proof of exploit provided for many types of vulnerabilities
DevOps automation through integrations with popular issue tracking and CI/CD tools
Compliance reporting for regulatory standards, such as PCI DSS, NIST, HIPAA, ISO 27001, and more.

2) Intruder

Intruder is a powerful online vulnerability scanner that discovers security weaknesses across your IT environment. Offering industry-leading security checks, continuous monitoring and an easy-to-use platform, Intruder keeps businesses of all sizes safe from hackers.

Features:

Best-in-class threat coverage with over 10,000 security checks
Checks for configuration weaknesses, missing patches, application weaknesses (such as SQL injection & cross-site scripting) and more
Automatic analysis and prioritisation of scan results
Intuitive interface, quick to set-up and run your first scans
Proactive security monitoring for the latest vulnerabilities
AWS, Azure and Google Cloud connectors
API integration with your CI/CD pipeline

Category	Tool	Description
Host Based	STAT	Scan multiple systems in the network.
	TARA	Tiger Analytical Research Assistant.
	Cain & Abel	Recover password by sniffing network, cracking HTTP password.
	Metasploit	Open source platform for developing, testing and exploit code.
Network-Based	Cisco Secure Scanner	Diagnose and Repair Security Problems.
	Wireshark	Open Source Network Protocol Analyzer for Linux and Windows.
	Nmap	Free Open Source utility for security auditing.
	Nessus	Agentless auditing, Reporting and patch management integration.
Database-Based	SQL diet	Dictionary Attack tool door for SQL server.
	Secure Auditor	Enable user to perform enumeration, scanning, auditing, and penetration testing and forensic on OS.
	DB-scan	Detection of Trojan of a database, detecting hidden Trojan by baseline scanning.

Advantages of Vulnerability Assessment

Open Source tools are available.
Identifies almost all vulnerabilities
Automated for Scanning.
Easy to run on a regular basis.

Disadvantages of Vulnerability Assessment

High false positive rate
Can easily detect by Intrusion Detection System Firewall.
Often fail to notice the latest vulnerabilities.

Comparison of Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing

	Vulnerability Assessment	Penetration Testing
Working	Discover Vulnerabilities	Identify and Exploit Vulnerabilities
Mechanism	Discovery & Scanning	Simulation
Focus	Breadth over Depth	Depth over Breadth
Coverage of Completeness	High	Low
Cost	Low- Moderate	High
Performed By	In-house Staff	An attacker or Pen Tester
Tester Knowledge	High	Low
How often to Run	After each equipment is loaded	Once in a year
Result	Provide Partial Details about Vulnerabilities	Provide Complete Details of Vulnerabilities

Vulnerability Testing Methods

Active Testing

Inactive Testing, a tester introduces new test data and analyzes the results.

During the testing process, the testers create a mental model of the process, and it will grow further during the interaction with the software under test.
While doing the test, the tester will actively involve in the process of finding out the new test cases and new ideas. That’s why it is called Active Testing.

Passive Testing

Passive testing, monitoring the result of running software under test without introducing new test cases or data

Network Testing

Network Testing is the process of measuring and recording the current state of network operation over a period of time.
Testing is mainly done for predicting the network operating under load or to find out the problems created by new services.
We need to Test the following Network Characteristics:-

Utilization levels
Number of Users
Application Utilization

Distributed Testing

Distributed Tests are applied for testing distributed applications, which means, the applications that are working with multiple clients simultaneously. Basically, testing a distributed application means testing its client and server parts separately, but by using a distributed testing method, we can test them all together.
The test parts will interact with each other during the Test Run. This makes them synchronized in an appropriate manner. Synchronization is one of the most crucial points in distributed testing.

Conclusion

In Software Engineering, Vulnerability Testing depends upon two mechanisms namely Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing. Both these tests differ from each other in strength and tasks that they perform. However, to achieve a comprehensive report on Vulnerability Testing, the combination of both procedures is recommended.