An enterprise security team must perform routine vulnerability assessments across 5,000 corporate workstations distributed over low-bandwidth branch network links. The assessment must accurately detect missing operating system patches and local registry misconfigurations while minimizing network traffic and preventing false positives caused by endpoint firewalls. Which of the following vulnerability assessment methods should the security team implement?
- Deploying agent-based credentialed assessment software to execute scans locally on each endpointAnswer
- BRunning unauthenticated active network vulnerability scans across the remote branch subnets
- CPositioning inline honeypots within each branch network segment to record endpoint security posture
- DExecuting dynamic application security testing scripts focused on database injection flaws across endpoint management ports
Answer
Deploying agent-based credentialed assessment software to execute scans locally on each endpoint
Agent-based vulnerability scanning utilizes locally installed software agents that execute vulnerability checks directly on the host operating system using local privileges. This approach eliminates WAN bandwidth consumption because raw scan packets do not travel over the network, bypasses host firewall restrictions, and provides highly accurate patch and configuration state visibility.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Agent-Based vs. Network-Based Vulnerability Assessment