A vulnerability scanner is a computer program designed to assess computers, computer systems, networks or applications for weaknesses.

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.

Typically, Vulnerability scanning, 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.

Products which address this strategy:

	Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner
	Metadefender Core Vulnerability Engine
	Flexera Corporate Software Inspector