When it comes to security testing two methods have become prevalent today – pentesting and vulnerability scanning. They help to discover hidden security weaknesses in a system, application, or network. Organizations can use this information to strengthen their security posture and minimize security risks.
Each of these methods has its own pros and cons. But which one is more suitable for your security testing needs? Let’s find out in this article, with a comprehensive understanding of pentesting and vulnerability scanning as well as the differences between them.
An Overview of Vulnerability Scanning
Vulnerability scanning is an automatic security testing process that helps to discover potential security weaknesses in applications, systems, and networks. It is also known as vulnerability assessment and involves performing automated simulated attacks on the target asset to detect hidden security loopholes. Vulnerability scanners can identify common vulnerabilities like OWASP Top 10 and many of them can also detect out-of-band and zero-day vulnerabilities.
Let’s see the pros and cons of this security testing method.
Pros
Automated Testing: It saves time and effort for security experts by automating the security testing process. They don’t need to go through the painful process of setting up complex testing environments manually to identify weak spots. It automatically performs simulated attacks on the target asset and discovers loopholes.
Quick Results: Since it uses software-based security testing, it can scan digital assets within hours or even in minutes. Consequently, security experts will have a vulnerability report quickly. After the report, they can take quick action to secure their digital assets.
Affordable Testing: Compared to penetration testing, vulnerability scanning is quite cost-friendly and saves organizations lots of money. Indeed, it costs only a few hundred bucks a year, while pen testing costs thousands of dollars.
Less Resources: No additional resources are needed to perform automated vulnerability scanning. In fact, many vulnerability assessment tools are so easy that anyone can use them, including the IT admin. Such tools don’t require any complex configuration.
Cons
Zero False Positives: A notable limitation of vulnerability detection tools is that they generate false positives. It is a situation that occurs when a tool detects a vulnerability when it doesn’t actually exist. It means the tool flags a non-existent vulnerability. However, many tools such as ZeroThreat offer vulnerability scanning with zero false positives.
Lack of Asset Inventory: In many cases, companies fail to keep a systematic track of their digital assets. Hence, it poses a challenge to perform the right tests to protect their digital landscape. Security experts will need to track the inventory of assets that could be targeted by attackers before performing vulnerability scans.
Lack of Depth: Another crucial challenge with vulnerability scans is they fail to perform more nuanced security testing. Typically, vulnerability scanning tools work on predefined rules. So, mostly they can identify known vulnerabilities. You can use an advanced DAST tool to overcome this challenge.
An Overview of Pentesting
Pentesting or penetration testing involves a human attacker, often an ethical hacker, attempting planned attacks on the target system or application. The hacker tries to find vulnerabilities and exploits them to discover potential weaknesses. It is a manual process, but the hacker also uses a few automation tools to achieve the objectives.
Pros
More Accurate Results: Since pentesting involves manual efforts to test and discover vulnerabilities, it is relatively more accurate. A pen tester will practically explore vulnerabilities and try to exploit them to provide greater insights into threat vectors.
Comprehensive Reports: Pentesting provides more insights beyond giving details on vulnerabilities and severity levels. The human element involved in this method provides additional context to test results like the likelihood and impact of a security breach.
Cons
Takes More Time: Pentesting is a time-consuming process because it is done manually. While vulnerability scans can take a few hours to a few minutes, pentesting is performed over many days. In fact, the average time taken in pen testing is 15-20 days.
Costly Process: It’s clear that pentesting is way more costly than automated scanning for vulnerabilities. It involves in-depth security assessments done with manual efforts resulting in increased costs. The average cost for pentesting ranges significantly from $10,000 - $80,000.
Need More Resources: Since pentesting is a manual process, you need resources to carry out this task. Hence, it is considered a resource-intensive security testing approach.
Pentesting vs Vulnerability Scanning: Describing the Key Differences
The following table shows the differences between pentesting and vulnerability scanning based on several factors. These differences indicate different approaches they use for security testing.
Speed
Pentesting focuses more on the depth of scanning instead of speed. So, it takes more time. Vulnerability scans are swift because they are completely automated.
Intensity
Pentesting goes a step further by discovering vulnerabilities with potential impact. Vulnerability scanning offers a high-level assessment and discovers known security issues or CVEs like misconfigurations and outdated software.
Reporting
While providing the same analysis as vulnerability assessment, pentesting can offer more information like the likelihood and impact of a security risk. Vulnerability scanning categorizes identified vulnerabilities on CVSS scores, severity level, prevalence, etc, that aid in remediation.
Dependence on Tools
Vulnerability scanning is primarily dependent on automated scanner tools that analyze assets and discover vulnerabilities. Pentesting is primarily dependent on human skills. Tools are used for specific purposes or initial discovery.
To Wrap Up
When it comes to vulnerability scanning vs pentesting, the decision primarily depends on your needs. If you want a cost-effective method, vulnerability scanning is suitable, or go for pentesting if you want in-depth analysis. However, the best would be to use both.
You can scan your assets for vulnerabilities and hire a hacker to perform pentesting to ensure optimal security for your assets. With vulnerability scans, you can get quick reports and scan frequently. Plus, periodic pentesting will provide a broader picture of the threat landscape.
