The purist penetration testers will often comment that using an automated vulnerability scanner is cheating, but in some cases, such as penetration testing with a limited amount of time available, vulnerability scanners are critical to gaining a great deal of information about a target network in a short amount of time.
Automated vulnerability scanning
Vulnerability scanning with Nessus 7
Tenable's Nessus is a very popular vulnerability assessment tool and has been around for almost two decades. Nessus can accessed with an annual subscription; however, the good folks at Tenable have made Nessus Professional available as a 7-day trial for those that may wish to try it.
Before we install Nessus, you may wish to take note...