What is external vulnerability scanning?
External vulnerability scanning is a process that helps detect flaws in the internet-facing parts of your network. It acts like a search engine for internet-connected devices that gathers data from publicly available sources, such as service banners, ports, and freely broadcasted network traffic. The scanner helps to uncover various vulnerabilities, missing security patches, and out-of-date software across all your outer-facing assets.
NordStellar executes an external scan from the perspective of an attacker who would try to find network flaws without having access to it.
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How the NordStellar vulnerability scanner works
We designed our vulnerability scanner to automatically check your network for vulnerabilities and alert you if it finds any. To better understand how it works, let's break the process into five main stages:
Discovering assets
Using DNS enumeration, CRT.sh scraping, and other automated processes, our vulnerability scanner will map your company's attack surface and identify assets linked to your domains.
Scanning ports
We check all the assets related to your domain for open ports – they often hide vulnerabilities. If the scan finds an open port, it also examines what services run through it.
Identifying vulnerabilities
The next step is to check for vulnerabilities. Our platform uses Shodan's extensive vulnerability database and enriched CVE data to find any vulnerabilities associated with open ports.
Prioritizing risks
Once the vulnerabilities are found, our platform evaluates the severity and impact of each security weakness using CVSS v3, CVSS v2, and EPSS scoring systems.
Presenting result
Finally, NordStellar delivers detailed vulnerability scan results. To make them as relevant as possible, the platform provides a list of prioritized threats based on risk level. You can also customize alerts according to your specific needs.
What can you detect using an external vulnerability scan?
Nordstellar’s external vulnerability scanner analyzes your company’s digital footprint and can detect a broad spectrum of vulnerabilities, including:
Open ports
Discover open ports and protect services running through them from being exposed.
Outdated software
Learn which parts of your software failed to update and patch known vulnerabilities.
Misconfigurations
Identify and handle authentication issues, overly permissive firewalls, and improperly set security parameters.
Unprotected APIs
Find faulty APIs and secure the ones hackers can access from the internet without authentication.
How to scan vulnerabilities with NordStellar
The only thing you need to do is to provide our vulnerability scanner with your company’s domain names. Then, the scanner will initiate an automatic asset discovery to find all related subdomains and IP addresses. Once the attack surface is mapped, the scanner will routinely analyze your infrastructure and alert you of any found vulnerabilities. NordStellar allows you to customize security alerts by vulnerability type and risk level or choose specific cases you want to be notified about.
Manage vulnerabilities with ease in NordStellar’s threat exposure management platform – check it out.
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How NordStellar’s external vulnerability scanner can benefit your company
NordStellar's scanner helps reduce your company's attack surface and improve its security posture. Don't leave your business security to chance – learn how an external vulnerability scan can benefit you.
Stay ahead of the next cyberattack – keep an accurate inventory of your internet-exposed assets using NordStellar's vulnerability scanner. It will help you detect security flaws in their early stages and uncover assets from shadow infrastructure. Get more time to respond to growing risks and mitigate potential damage.
NordStellar's external threat scanner covers a wide range of vulnerabilities, including open ports, running services and technologies, and misconfigured firewalls. The scan also provides detailed information about the found vulnerabilities, including their description, CVE ID, CVSS scores, risk level, affected services, and recommended remediation actions.
Get immediately notified of discovered vulnerabilities or affected services and take action. You can customize security alerts according to vulnerability type and severity and choose specific security events when you want to be notified. Receive security alerts via email, in-platform notifications, or other security tools.
Compliance with various industry regulations requires regular vulnerability assessment, which NordStellar can help to achieve. Let your company meet higher compliance standards –
Explore more security solutions from NordStellar
NordStellar lets your cybersecurity team patch critical vulnerabilities and intervene at the earliest stages of an attack – before any real damage is done.
Dark web monitoring
Dark web monitoring allows you to track all keywords associated with your business across deep and dark web communities, such as hacker forums, illicit marketplaces, and Telegram channels. It helps you uncover brand mentions, issues with vendors, and leaked information about your VIP personnel.
Data breach monitoring
Data breach monitoring involves scanning the deep and dark web for leaked sensitive information linked to your business. To spot breached data, NordStellar checks infostealer logs, leaked databases, and collections of stolen credentials combinations. This solution provides real-time monitoring and the full context of past and present attacks.
Attack surface management
Attack surface management (ASM) helps you monitor your business's external attack surface to prevent potential cyber risks. It lets you efficiently manage your company's internet-facing assets, such as websites, servers, applications, and cloud resources, by searching for vulnerabilities and security gaps within them.
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Frequently asked questions
External vulnerability scanners identify flaws in internet-facing parts of systems and networks. This allows companies to detect security risks in their early stages and patch vulnerabilities before cybercriminals can exploit them.
Vulnerability prioritization is the process of ranking vulnerabilities according to their severity, potential impact, and chances of exploitation. Prioritization helps companies to detect and address the most pressing vulnerabilities before it's too late.
The more frequent the vulnerability scans, the better. However, you should scan your external assets for security risks at least once a quarter. They help control your business's attack surface and stay proactive about your company's security.
With NordStellar, you can schedule vulnerability scans to run automatically at regular intervals, such as daily or weekly, or you can initiate scans manually on demand.
Once you've discovered the existing or new vulnerabilities, you should assign relevant security teams to remediate security risks by applying security patches, updates, or configurations. However, you may not be able to fix all faults in your system right away. In this case, you should implement adequate mitigation strategies to reduce vulnerability exposure and lower the chances of the attack.
An external vulnerability scan can help you fulfill regulations and standards that require regular security check-ups and prompts to address the system’s shortcomings in a timely manner.
An external vulnerability scan examines a business's internet-facing resources, such as websites and servers. It helps detect vulnerabilities that attackers typically target outside your network. Meanwhile, an internal vulnerability scan focuses on weaknesses within the company's internal network. It includes systems, devices, and applications that your employees can access.