Vulnerability Assessment
Six checks that look at your infrastructure from inside and outside, with a configurable frequency; the contractual service level is the minimum commitment.
An assessment that is not an isolated snapshot
A vulnerability assessment is of little use if it remains a document frozen on a particular day. Dottor Box keeps the history of every scan and each round tells you what has changed: new vulnerabilities reach you by email, resolved ones remain to show the work done.
When a finding has been reviewed and knowingly accepted you declare it, with the reason: it stays visible, but no longer counts towards the total. Scans run when you decide and you can always start one straight away.
In the contract documents the vulnerability assessment is the first level of the Proactive Security services: the foundation on which everything else is built.
What you get
Two points of view
From inside and from outside, because the vulnerabilities an attacker sees from the internet are not the ones that malware already inside sees.
Clear priorities
CVSS severity (critical, high, medium, low) and CVE identifiers, with descriptions in Italian and English.
Comparison with the previous round
What is new and what has been resolved, scan after scan, with the complete archive.
Alerts only on what is new
An email when something new appears, without having to log in to the portal to notice it.
Each check can be activated on its own
Choose the ones you need: each has its own page, its own reports and its own alerts.
Internal network
Your LAN scanned by the on-site probe, the way malware that is already inside would see it.
Learn more SeeExternal network
Your perimeter as seen from the internet: ports, exposed services and blacklists, with nothing to install.
Learn more SeeWeb application
Website, CRM and online applications tested with more than 6,500 specific checks.
Learn more SeeOpen shares
Network folders that the wrong people can read or write: ransomware's favourite route.
Learn more SeeAccess logs
System administrator logins collected and retained as the Italian Data Protection Authority requires.
Learn more SeeAuthorised software
Installed software compared with the approved list, to find what should not be there.
Learn moreThree data sources, depending on what you want to check
What you need to set up changes: in some cases nothing, in others a probe or an agent.
Cyber Drill on site
The probe installed in your network analyses from the inside: internal network, open shares and network map. What the Cyber Drill is.
External scanner
From the internet we check your external network and web applications. You do not need to install anything.
Agent on endpoints
The Cyber Agent detects vulnerabilities on each machine, installed software and access logs. What the Cyber Agent is.
The scale of the check
These are the numbers written in the contract, not marketing estimates.
- More than 130,000 NVTs (Network Vulnerability Tests) for LAN and WAN networks
- More than 6,500 checks for web applications
- A test database updated every day with the latest published vulnerabilities
- Classification according to CVSS, the industry standard
- Non-invasive scans, automated and semi-automated
Scans are complemented by manual checks carried out by qualified staff, to remove the false positives and false negatives of automated tools.
Dottor Marc develops new test routines and contributes to the CVE programme, the public, independent catalogue of cyber security vulnerabilities.
The categories of vulnerability checked
- Open ports and exposed services
- Operating system detection, to target the tests
- Known vulnerabilities in widely used applications and services
- Web server vulnerabilities
- Database vulnerabilities
- DNS service vulnerabilities
- Protocol weaknesses, such as SSL/TLS
- Certificate problems
- Weak authentication and credentials
- Security of exposed network services
External and internal scans, what they simulate. The external scan starts from a remote host that reaches your systems only from the internet, as an outside attacker would. The internal scan starts from the private network and simulates a disloyal employee or malware that has already got past the perimeter.
Which standards it supports
The vulnerability assessment documents the technical measures required by almost every framework: scans become evidence, not declarations.
Frequently asked questions about vulnerability assessment
How often should a vulnerability assessment be carried out?
No standard sets a single frequency, but an annual assessment captures a situation that changes every week, because new vulnerabilities are published all the time. At the Security Monitor level the contract provides for a weekly scan of the internal network, the external network and one web application. You can set a tighter schedule or start a scan straight away, for example after a major change to the infrastructure.
Does the scan slow down the network or block systems?
Scans are designed to be non-invasive, and you choose the schedule: you can run them at off-peak times. Sensitive devices, such as old networked machinery, can be excluded by IP address, port or MAC address. Since these are simulated, authorised attacks, the configuration is agreed at activation precisely to take account of the most fragile systems.
Do I need to open ports on the firewall?
No. The external scan starts from our systems on the internet and sees your public addresses as anyone would. The internal scan is run by the Cyber Drill probe, which itself opens the connection to the portal: there are no inbound rules to configure.
Is a vulnerability assessment mandatory under NIS2 and the GDPR?
The rules do not always use this term, but in substance they require it. NIS2 includes vulnerability handling and disclosure, and assessing the effectiveness of security measures, among the minimum measures. Article 32 of the GDPR requires a process for regularly testing and evaluating the effectiveness of technical measures. A periodic assessment, with the scan history, is the most direct way to demonstrate this: see the path to NIS2 compliance.
What is the difference between a vulnerability assessment and a penetration test?
A vulnerability assessment searches broadly and repeatably for known vulnerabilities on all the systems listed. A penetration test is a targeted exercise in which a specialist tries to exploit them to find out how far an attacker could get. They complement each other: the first gives continuous coverage, the second an in-depth look at the most critical systems. We discuss this in the guide vulnerability assessment or penetration test.
What does the CVSS severity of a vulnerability indicate?
CVSS is the standard that gives each vulnerability a score from 0 to 10. Dottor Box turns it into bands: critical from 9 upwards, high from 7, medium from 4, low below that. Together with the criticality you gave the asset in the attack surface, it tells you where to start fixing. What CVSS is.
Often activated together
Attack Surface
A reasoned register of the networks, addresses, applications and domains to protect, with how critical each one is.
Learn more ProveReporting
Executive, technical and presentation reports with editable charts, generated automatically too.
Learn more GovernRisk Assessment
Risk analysis based on ISO/IEC 27005, with a treatment plan and residual risk.
Learn moreDo you know what someone looking for a target can see of your company?
In a demo on your real systems we show you what is exposed, how much it matters and where to start. Then, if you need it, a tailored proposal.