Vulnerability assessments can identify vulnerabilities ranging from simple misconfigurations to critical design flaws. The vulnerabilities are documented so that developers can find and reproduce the findings. Proper guidance is provided to assist developers in remediating the vulnerabilities that have been identified. In this article, you will get to know the specific steps required to perform vulnerability assessments with security testing.
What is a Vulnerability assessment?
It is a testing process where severity levels are identified and assigned to as many security defects as possible in a given timeframe. This process may involve an emphasis on comprehensive coverage and also involve manual and automated techniques with varying degrees of rigor. A different layer of technology may be targeted by vulnerability assessments, using a risk-based approach and the most common being application layer assessments and host networks.
Vulnerabilities can be identified by organizations in their supporting and software infrastructure through the implementation of vulnerability testing.
Vulnerability can be defined in two aspects as follows:
A weakness in internal controls or gap in security procedures that when exploited can result in a breach of security
A flaw in software design or bug in a code that can be exploited to cause harm. Exploitation may occur via an unauthenticated or authentic attacker.
The following are the four steps required to perform a vulnerability assessment:
- The scope of security testing needs to be defined and planned: Before a vulnerability assessment is conducted, a proper methodology needs to be established:
• Identify the most sensitive data that needs to be stored
• The hidden sources of data need to be uncovered
• The specific servers that run mission-critical applications need to be identified
• The networks and systems to access need to be identified
• All the processes and ports need to be reviewed so that misconfigurations can be checked
• The devices used, digital assets and the entire IT infrastructure need to be mapped out.
2. Identifying Vulnerabilities: A vulnerability scan should be conducted of the IT infrastructure and then a detailed list of the underlying security threats need to be made. Manual penetration test and automated vulnerability scan need to be done to reduce false positives and validate findings.
3. Analyzing the vulnerability activity progress: A detailed report can be provided by a scanning tool that will help in determining scores for vulnerabilities and different risk ratings.
CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) is used by many tools for the purpose of assigning a numerical score. These scores need to be carefully analyzed to know which vulnerabilities need to be dealt with first. You can prioritize them based on factors such as risk, potential damage urgency and severity.
4. Remediate the vulnerability process: Once the vulnerabilities are properly identified and analyzed, the next step is to know how to fix them. Remediation and Mitigation are two ways to fix the vulnerabilities.
When a vulnerability needs to be fully fixed to prevent any exploitation, then remediation is involved. A product update or security tools can be used to achieve it. The vulnerability remediation process takes place based on the priorities that are set during the analysis phase and also requires stakeholders’ participation.
When there’s no proper patch or fix for a vulnerability that has been identified, the prospect of the attack can be reduced through the medium of mitigation.
Conclusion: If you are looking forward to implementing security testing for your specific project, then do get connected with a competent and credible software testing services company that will provide you with strategic testing solutions that are in line with your project specific requirements.
About the author: I am a technical content writer focused on writing technology specific articles. I strive to provide well-researched information on the leading market savvy technologies.
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