Vulnerability Scanner Overview

Imagine you are living in a small, lovely house. One day, you notice that your roof has many small holes. If not treated, these small holes can cause significant problems. During rain, water can come through these leaks and damage your furniture. Dust particles and insects can enter the house through these tiny holes. These small holes are a weakness in your home that can lead to significant problems in the future if not addressed timely. These weaknesses are known as Vulnerabilities. You start repairing the roof to fix this problem and keep your home safe. This process of fixing the vulnerabilities is known as Patching.

Digital devices also have vulnerabilities inside their software or hardware. These are the weaknesses in the software programs or hardware that an attacker can leverage to compromise the digital device. These vulnerabilities may sound normal to you, like the small holes in the roof of a house that can be repaired anytime. However, the vulnerabilities in digital devices can lead to massive damage if not noticed on time. Hackers are always searching for these weaknesses as they make their way to your systems or networks by exploiting them. The interesting thing about digital device vulnerabilities is that you cannot notice them as easily as the holes in the roof until you dedicate yourself to hunting them down. After hunting these vulnerabilities down, the process of patching starts, where fixes are applied to protect the vulnerabilities.

This room is about learning how to hunt these vulnerabilities in digital devices. We will study some of the available tools to automate this hunting and leverage one of the tools to demonstrate how it’s done practically. 

Learning Objectives

• Vulnerability scanning and its types.
• Tools used for vulnerability scanning.
• OpenVAS vulnerability scanner demonstration.
• Practical exercise.