Difference Between Penetration Testing vs Vulnerability Scanning

Anwita

Anwita

Oct 25, 2024

penetration testing vs vulnerability scanning

If you’ve been exploring the difference between the two, a prospect that you are working with has likely requested a pen testing report. You are stuck wondering how it differs from the vulnerability report you provided. If you’re still confused, let’s clear it up for you!

What is Penetration testing and vulnerability scanning?

Penetration testing is an ethical hacking process that stimulates an actual attack against an IT infrastructure to find security flaws, risks, and malicious files. Vulnerability assessment is the process of identifying security weaknesses and evaluating the effectiveness of your posture. 

Vulnerability scanning is an automated program designed to scan for potential security loopholes. In contrast, penetration testing is human-led, and ethical hackers conduct penetration tests to test system resilience against potential break-ins.  To simplify this further, vulnerability scans focus primarily on identifying exploitable weaknesses of an IT infrastructure, while pen tests exploit these weaknesses to give you an assessment of how your security systems hold up against a real attack. In that sense, a pen test is deeper and more actionable than a vulnerability scan. 

Let’s understand with an example of an everyday analogy. Consider a door with a lock. For a vulnerability assessment, you just walk to the door to check if it’s locked or not. Compare this to penetration testing, where you try to break inside so that your actual vulnerability points that you may not have considered, such as the strength of joinery or a side window that makes the inner lock accessible. 

1. Penetration Testing: 

Penetration testing is conducted to find vulnerabilities, malicious content, flaws, and risks. It is done to build up the organization’s security system to defend the IT infrastructure. Penetration testing is also known as pen testing. It is an official procedure that can be deemed helpful and not a harmful attempt. It is part of an ethical hacking process where it specifically focuses only on penetrating the information system. 

2. Vulnerability Assessments: 

Vulnerability assessment is the technique of finding and measuring security vulnerabilities (scanning) in a given environment. It is an all-embracing assessment of the information security position (result analysis). It is used to identify potential weaknesses and provides the proper mitigation measures to either remove those weaknesses or reduce them below the risk level. 

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Penetration testing vs vulnerability scanning (Deep dive of business use cases)

Now that you know the basic difference between the two, let’s dive in a little deeper to understand why, despite being used interchangeably, they are not the same thing. 

Here’s the difference between penetration testing and vulnerability scanning:

Penetration Testing Differences:Vulnerability Scanning Differences:
Use casesProvides a deeper understanding of how your systems hold up against a real-world attack. Critical where there is financial information (like cardholder data in PCI DSS) or very sensitive data that is prone to threats. It is human-led. Identifies the potential flaws and weaknesses of an IT environment and offers remediation measures to mitigate them or reduce the threats to an acceptable level. This is more of a compliance requirement. It is automation-driven.
Depth Offers a comprehensive, in-depth assessment of existing vulnerabilities and evaluates the effectiveness of the security controls in real-world settings.Offers a high-level evaluation of the organization’s overall security posture while highlighting areas of concern that require attention across known vulnerabilities.
Method Common tools used by white hat hackers to gain access into your system are password cracking, butter overflow, and SQL injection.  Vulnerability scans are conducted using automated software tools for internal scanning, external scanning, port scanning, and more. 
Test report The report includes a comprehensive analysis of the vulnerabilities exploited and how malicious actors can exploit them. A cybersecurity professional will compile these data points based on an actual attempt at breaching your security systems. The report does not dive deep into details but shows a surface-level list of the identified vulnerabilities based on the severity level. 
Target systemTypically meant for critical systems, physical environments, and network infrastructures. It gathers data from specific system components. Typically meant for noncritical systems such as lab environments. The scan covers all systems and resources. 
Cost It is conducted in a controlled environment and usually costs anywhere between $1,000 to $5,000 for basic, $5,000 to $15,000 for mid-level, and $15,000 to $50,000 for advanced examination. Mostly an automated process, vulnerability assessments are comparatively cheaper. It can cost you anything between $500 to $2,000 for basic, $2,000 to $10,000 for mid-level, and $10,000 to $50,000 for advanced examination.

When thinking about vulnerability scanning and pen testing, it is usually never an either/or scenario, in most cases, you would need vulnerability scanning as a baseline for compliance and pen testing reports periodically for a real-time picture of the effectiveness of the compliance posture. No matter what you seek, a compliance automation platform like Sprinto can help.

Sprinto has detailed continuous control monitoring that gives you a picture of your vulnerabilities in real time and can also connect you with pen-testing experts to help you. Learn more.

Get A Real-Time View Of Risk – Speak to our experts

Benefits of Penetration Testing and Vulnerability Scanning 

Penetration tests and Vulnerability scanning are crucial to strengthening your overall security posture. While each has several benefits, let’s explore the pros and cons of each in detail.

Pentesting TestingVulnerability Scanning
Quantifies risks for each system and data – this helps security administrators to objectively understand which assets are most vulnerable to infections and prioritize accordingly As pen tests are highly automated, the scanning result is quite comprehensive compared to a human led test. This covers every small security security gap that can potentially escalate into an incident
The vulnerability scanning report enables security teams to boost security for sensitive customer data such as credit or debit card information to comply with standards like PCI DSSSystematic pen tests help you comply with popular security frameworks like NIST SP 800-53, GDPR, SOC 2, ISO/IEC 27001, and more.
The report entails methods for vulnerability management to identity loopholes in your infrastructure’s security that can escalate into an incident in the future.The final pen test report offers useful recommendations to take corrective actions and remediate the identified vulnerabilities.

Challenges Penetration Testing and Vulnerability Scanning

Here are the types of challenges you may face while performing penetration tests and vulnerability scanning:

Pentesting TestingVulnerability Scanning
Many organizations don’t organize and update their data inventory on a regular basis – or at all, creating a road bump to correctly assort the scan to the right asset.The trust issue is a major factor that might create more problems than it solves for. As your pen tester has access to critical sensitive systems, they can exploit the knowledge to their advantage. 
While the goal of a vulnerability scan is to patch security gaps, the process of fixing the identified gaps may interrupt business workflow and disrupt its continuity Another concern with pen tests are unwanted outcomes. Most organizations hire third party testers who have little or limited knowledge of the internal systems which may result in abuse or mishandling of critical systems. 
With new threat signatures being released everyday, the report of the scan will become outdated, and there is no fixed period for its relevance. The only solution to this is to conduct tests more frequently – a fix that is time consuming and expensive. Finally, there’s the expertise factor. If your pen test is not executed correctly, it may backfire. Server crashes, sensitive data leakage, major business continuity disruptions, and corruption of files are some common adverse effects of pen test failures. 

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Real-time vulnerability policing with Sprinto

Tracking system vulnerabilities before it becomes an incident is not easy. Even if you run tests to discover gaps, remediating them on time is critical to ensure a healthy system and adherence to compliance requirements. 

Sprinto’s vulnerability management module helps you manage controls without breaking a stride across frameworks. Integrate with a wide range of scanning tools to set up automated workflows that track issues as they happen in real-time. Sprinto can also connect you with Pen Testing experts to provide detailed pen testing reports on request. 

With Sprinto, you get a real-time view of vulnerabilities by running automated checks on controls to ensure consistency with SLAs and policies. 

  • Connect to any number of vulnerability scanning and pen test tools to get a comprehensive view of potential weaknesses
  • Prioritize security vulnerabilities based on production and nonproduction 
  • Get time-bound, context-rich alerts to patch gaps quickly and remediate on time 

FAQs

Is a penetration test considered to be better than a vulnerability scan?

Suppose you need a comprehensive threat based analysis of your security position. In that case, it is better to opt for penetration tests, as it offers a detailed analysis of security weaknesses and potential vulnerabilities in real-world scenarios. Since a human expert validates your security posture in a pen test it can uncover hidden vulnerabilities. 

What are some advantages of penetration testers over vulnerability scanners?

Some of the major advantages of pen testing is that it offers deeper insights into complex systems, analyzes the impact of the identified threats, and surfaces previously unknown vulnerabilities. 

What are the best pen testing tools?

Some of the top recommended pen testing tools are Nmap, Cobalt Strike, Wireshark, Kali Linux, Metasploit, and Nessus.

Anwita

Anwita

Anwita is a cybersecurity enthusiast and veteran blogger all rolled into one. Her love for everything cybersecurity started her journey into the world compliance. With multiple certifications on cybersecurity under her belt, she aims to simplify complex security related topics for all audiences. She loves to read nonfiction, listen to progressive rock, and watches sitcoms on the weekends.

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