A security analyst is tasked with validating the security posture of the company's perimeter network, which includes newly deployed web and email servers in a DMZ. The goal is to identify vulnerabilities visible to an unauthenticated attacker on the internet. The analyst needs to produce a report of all open ports, services, and potential vulnerabilities on these specific hosts. Which of the following methods is MOST appropriate for this initial assessment?
External vulnerability scanning is the most appropriate method for this task. It is designed to scan internet-facing assets from an external perspective to identify open ports, services, and known vulnerabilities without requiring authentication. This directly matches the analyst's goal of conducting an initial assessment from an attacker's viewpoint. A penetration test is a more in-depth exercise that usually follows scanning and focuses on actively exploiting vulnerabilities, which is beyond the scope of the initial identification and reporting task. Internal credentialed scanning operates from within the network with privileged access, which does not reflect the perspective of an external, unauthenticated attacker. Passive discovery involves monitoring traffic without actively probing the servers, which would not provide a comprehensive and timely report on all potential vulnerabilities on the newly deployed systems.
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What is the difference between external and internal vulnerability scanning?
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How does external vulnerability scanning work?
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Why is passive network monitoring not suitable for identifying vulnerabilities?