IS3110 LAB 5
Identify Threats and Vulnerabilities in an IT Infrastructure

1. What are the differences between ZeNmap GUI (Nmap) and Nessus? NMAP is primarily a host detection and port discovery tool. Instead of using Nessus to look for specific vulnerabilities against a known quantity of hosts, NMAP discovers active IP hosts using a combination of probes. On the other hand Nessus takes the open ports into account and notifies you if these ports have potential security vulnerabilities attached to them.
Nessus is typically installed on a server and runs as a web-based application. Nessus uses plugins to determine if a vulnerability is present on a specified machine.
2. Which scanning application is better for performing a …show more content…

Nessus “risk severities” are based on CVSS, which is a classification system for the exploitability of software vulnerabilities and exposures. That is, it only provides information on how easily a vulnerability can be exploited by an attacker, given the opportunity, and what the vulnerability allows an attacker to do with the specific system.
11. If Nessus provides a pointer in the vulnerability assessment scan report to look up CVE-2009-3555 when using the CVE search listing, specify what this CVE is, what the potential exploits are, and assess the severity of the vulnerability. CVE is a list of information security vulnerabilities and exposures that aims to provide common names for publicly known problems. The goal of CVE is to make it easier to share data across separate vulnerability capabilities (tools, repositories, and services) with this "common enumeration." CVE only contains the standard identifier number with status indicator, a brief description, and references to related vulnerability reports and advisories. A CVE Identifier will give you a standardized identifier for any given vulnerability or exposure. Knowing this identifier will allow you to quickly and accurately access information about the problem across multiple information sources that are CVE-compatible.
12. Explain how the CVE search listing can be a tool for security practitioners and a tool for hackers. They