Vulnerability Scanning and Penetration Testing

During an authorized penetration test, a tester obtains a low-privilege shell on a Windows server and wants to identify missing patches and insecure configurations that a remote unauthenticated scan may have missed. Which action BEST supports this goal?

A penetration tester is planning a web application assessment for a client. The tester wants to combine automated scanning with manual techniques to maximize coverage. Which two actions are MOST appropriate to include in the plan? (Choose two.)

A junior security analyst at a healthcare company must scan a subnet of 254 hosts for known vulnerabilities. The analyst has no budget for commercial tools and needs a scanner that is open source, actively maintained, and capable of authenticated and unauthenticated checks. Which tool BEST meets these requirements?

A security analyst is preparing to run an authenticated vulnerability scan against a Windows Server 2019 host. The analyst has domain credentials with local administrator rights on the target. Which Nmap scan type should the analyst use to perform a full TCP connect scan without requiring raw packet privileges?

A penetration tester is preparing an authorized internal assessment and must decide how to handle the discovery phase before running exploitation attempts. The client's rules of engagement permit scanning but forbid any action that could cause a denial of service on production hosts. The tester's goal is to map live hosts, open ports, and service versions with minimal impact while still gathering enough data to plan later exploitation. Which approach best satisfies both the engagement constraints and the assessment objective?

A security consultant is configuring a Tenable Nessus scan to assess a mixed environment of Windows and Linux servers. The consultant needs to ensure the scan can authenticate to targets and perform local checks without relying on agent installation. Which two Nessus scan settings should the consultant configure to provide credentials for authenticated scanning? (Choose two.)

A security team is configuring an authenticated vulnerability scan of a Linux server farm using SSH. The scanner reports that it cannot log in to several hosts even though the same credentials work manually. Which configuration change is MOST likely to resolve the issue?

A vulnerability scan of a production web server reports a critical remote code execution vulnerability, but the system administrator insists the server is fully patched. The scanner used only unauthenticated checks. Which step should the security analyst take FIRST to resolve the discrepancy?