A Vulnerability Assessment is a systematic process used to identify, quantify, and prioritize security vulnerabilities in an organization’s systems, networks, or applications.

Unlike penetration testing, which involves actively exploiting vulnerabilities to assess their real-world impact, a vulnerability assessment focuses on discovering and cataloging potential weaknesses before they can be exploited by attackers.

The process begins with the discovery phase, where automated tools and scanners are employed to scan networks, systems, and applications for known vulnerabilities, such as unpatched software, configuration errors, and insecure default settings. After vulnerabilities are identified, they undergo analysis to determine their potential impact (using CVSS), including how easily they could be exploited and the possible damage from successful exploitation so that they can be prioritized based on severity, with categories like critical, high, medium, or low, depending on factors such as exploitability, the sensitivity of affected systems, and potential business impact.

The assessment concludes with a report that outlines the findings, including a list of identified vulnerabilities, their severity, and recommended mitigation strategies.