A security specialist has been asked to evaluate a corporate network by performing a vulnerability assessment. Which of the following will MOST likely be
performed?

A.
Identify vulnerabilities, check applicability of vulnerabilities by passively testing security controls.

B.
Verify vulnerabilities exist, bypass security controls and exploit the vulnerabilities.

C.
Exploit security controls to determine vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.

D.
Bypass security controls and identify applicability of vulnerabilities by passively testing security controls.

Explanation:
We need to determine if vulnerabilities exist by passively testing security controls. A vulnerability scan is the automated process of proactively identifying security
vulnerabilities of computing systems in a network in order to determine if and where a system can be exploited and/or threatened. While public servers are
important for communication and data transfer over the Internet, they open the door to potential security breaches by threat agents, such as malicious hackers.
Vulnerability scanning employs software that seeks out security flaws based on a database of known flaws, testing systems for the occurrence of these flaws and
generating a report of the findings that an individual or an enterprise can use to tighten the network’s security. Vulnerability scanning typically refers to the scanning
of systems that are connected to the Internet but can also refer to system audits on internal networks that are not connected to the Internet in order to assess the
threat of rogue software or malicious employees in an enterprise.
Incorrect Answers:
B: Verifying vulnerabilities exist, bypassing security controls and exploiting the vulnerabilities describes an attack on the system or a penetration test. Penetration
testing evaluates an organization’s ability to protect its networks, applications, computers and users from attempts to circumvent its security controls to gain
unauthorized or privileged access to protected assets. A penetration test can test one method at a time of accessing one system at a time. A vulnerability scan can
scan for all vulnerabilities on multiple systems and is therefore a better answer.
Therefore, this answer is incorrect.
C: Exploiting security controls to determine vulnerabilities and misconfigurations would be a slow and manual way of performing a vulnerability assessment. A
vulnerability scan is an automated process of scanning for all vulnerabilities on multiple systems and is therefore a better answer. Therefore, this answer is
incorrect.

D: We need to first identify any vulnerabilities before we can check the applicability of the vulnerabilities. Therefore, this answer is incorrect.

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