9 Web Vulnerability Scanner Online Solutions

This article includes information regarding Tenable products.  Forge Secure is now a Tenable partner and reseller which should be taken into account with any reviews or recommendations.

Assessed Web Vulnerability Scanners

There is a large range of vulnerability scanning solutions that advertise coverage for web application vulnerabilities.

Nine options were reviewed as they each offer a free version or a free trial which can be helpful for any company setting up a web vulnerability scanner online and looking to test the product before purchase.

The following security scanning tools were chosen for an initial review as they each met the following criteria.

• A solution that is accessible through an online portal and doesn’t require any software to be installed.
• An online scanner that can be accessed within a browser to quickly launch a vulnerability scan and address any immediate security concerns.
• A free version or trial license to allow companies to assess the scanners features before payment

The order of scanning tools is based on how effective they were found to identify and report vulnerability information.

The Importance of Vulnerability Scanning

While Vulnerability scanning is not the only aspect involved in securing your systems, scanning forms an important part of any business’s security operations.

Each of the devices, software, and systems you use can be affected by vulnerabilities. As new vulnerabilities are continually identified, what may be considered secure one day may be vulnerable the next day.

Regular vulnerability scanning helps to address the continual identification of new vulnerabilities and:

• Maintain your websites security.
• Ensure patch management efforts are not leaving unresolved issues
• Identify vulnerabilities in your software and systems over time
• Respond to potential vulnerabilities before they can be exploited
• Raise your organizations overall security posture
• Protect your business from the risk of security breaches

Why Web Applications Are Targeted By Attackers

Web Applications are often targeted for exploitation. As your website is always accessible online, and often forms the public face of a business, it creates an easy target for attackers.

• Your website may be targeted to gain further access into your organization
• Malicious code may be embedded into your web applications to gather information from your users
• User information that is collected and stored through your website may be targeted
• Links and content within your web applications may be changed to direct users to alternate sites

Web Application Vulnerability Scanners

Web applications can be impacted by a broad range of unique vulnerabilities that are not found in other systems. A dedicated web application vulnerability scanner can therefore be useful in identifying the issues that are specific to your web applications.

There is an entire range of web-specific vulnerabilities such as:

• SQL Injection Vulnerabilities allow attackers to target the information stored within your Databases
• Cross-site scripting issues can manipulate the content of your web pages, allowing attackers to exploit other users
• Command Injection flaws can provide an attacker with a route through your website to execute operating system commands

Vulnerabilities such as Cross-Site Scripting and other web-specific issues are described in further detail within the OWASP Top Ten.

Many web vulnerability scanners also provide additional features beyond identifying security issues within your web servers.

Where your organization requires a more complete suite of security testing tools looking for additional features, such as a network scanner or the ability to set up local virtual machines for internal network vulnerability scanning can also be useful.

Best Web Vulnerability Scanning Tools

The idea of the “best” vulnerability scanner can be variable for a number of reasons. This can include how many web applications you need to assess, what your available budget is, how detailed the vulnerability reports are, or the additional features that a scanning product provides.

Best Web Vulnerability Scanner By Price

Beagle Security offers a free version of its vulnerability scanner which covers some basic website security testing.

More types of scanning and vulnerabilities will be identified within paid-for versions of the tool, but the information provided in the free version can be useful for any company looking to setup a regular security scan of there applications while working within a tight budget.

Best Web Vulnerability Scanner To Detect Vulnerabilities

The Qualys Web Application Scanning tool was found to identify the most amount of information from the assessment, although results can often be variable, between different applications.

The total number of vulnerabilities that can be identified for every scanner is not directly available, and the results can often be varied, depending upon the web apps that are targeted and whether unauthenticated or authenticated scans are conducted.

Best Web Vulnerability Scanner For A Single Web Application

If your company only needs to assess a single web application Intruder provides a good balance between vulnerability reporting and cost.

Best Web Vulnerability Scanner For Multiple Web Applications

If your company needs to assess a few different applications Tenable provides great vulnerability coverage and also becomes increasingly cost-effective when more than one application needs to be tested.

Scanning And Vulnerability Management

Implementing a vulnerability scanning tool represents a single aspect of an overall vulnerability management program. Beyond just the vulnerability scan, there is also a need for asset prioritization, vulnerability prioritization, and the remediation of security issues.

Further information is provided on vulnerability management within the following post, and if your organization has any concerns over cybersecurity a range of consultancy services are available.

Scanning And Penetration Testing

Vulnerability scanning tools have several key benefits. They are effective at identifying known vulnerabilities, are cost-effective with the amount of security issues they can identify, and can be run on a regular basis with scheduled scans.

Penetration testers can unfortunately be slower and more expensive to provide an assessment of a web application.

However, vulnerability scanners have several key issues, which penetration testers or security researchers can account for, and this is why regular scanning should be complemented with less frequent penetration testing.

• Scanners have certain types of vulnerabilities they struggle to find or cannot find, such as Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOR). This can leave an application vulnerable to a range of different vulnerabilities even after addressing all reported issues from a scanning tool.
• Scanners can produce false positives, where vulnerabilities will be incorrectly reported. Penetration tests can account for this with manual checks that verify each security issue in your applications.
• Scanners can struggle to apply accurate context to vulnerability information. Some vulnerabilities can be reported as High or Low impact, but scanners fail to account for a range of factors that would more accurately categorize the security issue. Security testers can account for this with a more detailed understanding of your business, your applications, and the context of how the security issue is exploited, to provide a more accurate assessment of each finding.

When reviewing multiple vulnerability scanning tools, a number of claims are made about how a security scan replaces a penetration test or replicates the actions of a manual assessment.

While there is often a cross-over between what a scan and manual security testing will identify, neither should be considered a replacement for the other. To more fully cover the security of your websites both should be scheduled effectively to gain the benefits each can bring.

Unauthenticated And Authenticated Scanning

When conducting a security scan against your websites, it is important to gain insight into your high-priority risks from several perspectives.

An unauthenticated scan can provide useful information into how the majority of attackers may view your application and the vulnerabilities they may target with no prior information.

An authenticated scan can demonstrate the vulnerabilities that an attacker can exploit after a single account has been compromised and show how an attack surface can change through with user access.

Both types of scanning can be important and provide useful insights into the security issues to which your websites may be impacted.

Conclusion

While vulnerability scanning forms a fundamental part of every organization’s cyber security program, a single solution will often not work for every company.

The size of your company, cyber security expertise, budget considerations, and a number of other factors can influence the decision to choose the right product for your purposes.

A range of different options are available to cover the different requirements each organization may have, as it is important to implement web vulnerability scanning to improve your business’s security posture.

Where you have any further questions regarding different cybersecurity solutions, our consultants are available to address any concerns you may have.