Difference Between Vulnerability Assessment & Penetration Testing

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Difference Between Vulnerability Assessment & Penetration Testing

Vulnerability assessment and penetration testing are two terms that are often used together and are also confused with each other. Both are ways to discover vulnerabilities in your website, application, network or system, but what are the differences?

What is a Vulnerability Assessment?

With a Vulnerability Assessment, we test in such a way that as many vulnerabilities as possible are found without spending time trying to exploit them to see how far you can get. Finding more vulnerabilities is often more valuable because it allows to reduce risks more effectively: exploring wide, instead of (only) deep.

What is a Pentest?

Penetration Testing (or pentesting) means that tests are performed from the perspective of an attacker, and when a vulnerability is found, our ethical hackers exploit the weak spot to see how deep or far an attacker can get. During a penetration test, it is therefore only of secondary importance whether there are multiple vulnerabilities. The aim of a pentest is to illustrate as clearly as possible what the consequences of one issue with your IT security could be, and what that would mean to your organization.

The Strength of the Combination, VA/PT

With our combined service Vulnerability Assessment and Pentest (VA/PT) you will receive a complete overview of the found vulnerabilities and will discover what the impact would be of leaving such vulnerabilities unpatched. Based on these test results, Secura can guide you and give advice on how to improve your cyber resilience.
Learn more about VA/PT >

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Explains the scope, targets and technologies of Vulnerability Assessments and Penetration testing

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OVERVIEW OF DIFFERENCES

Aspect

Vulnerability Assessment

Penetration Testing

Scope

Wide, exploratory by nature

Deep focus on specific vulnerability

Goal

Find as many vulnerabilities as possible.

Exploit discovered vulnerability to reach admin/root level

Duration

Quick to complete, automated

Time consuming, manual work

False Positives

Are produced, especially when automated

Are manually filtered out

Impact

Will not impact business processes

Might disrupt business processes

Test methods

Test methods Authenticated and unauthenticated

Black/White/Grey/Crystal-box

Frequency

Organizational Attack Surface

Critical assets (crown jewels)

Interaction

Full interaction with client team

None, or limited during testing

Report

Partial details on problem, no mitigation advice.

Full details of vulnerability exploitation and how to mitigate.

Costs

Cost-effective since it can be automated

Relatively costly because of duration and requires highly skilled knowledge

Results

Overview of all current vulnerabilities

Illustrate what consequences a vulnerability could have for your organization

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USP

Why choose Secura | Bureau Veritas

At Secura/Bureau Veritas, we are dedicated to being your trusted partner in cybersecurity. We go beyond quick fixes and isolated services. Our integrated approach makes sure that every aspect of your company or organization is cyber resilient, from your technology to your processes and your people.

Secura is the cybersecurity division of Bureau Veritas, specialized in testing, inspection and certification. Bureau Veritas was founded in 1828, has over 80.000 employees and is active in 140 countries.