Qualys Penetration Testing

Qualys Penetration Testing is a cloud-based solution that automates the process of identifying, prioritizing, and remediating security vulnerabilities across an organization's infrastructure. It integrates with existing security workflows to provide continuous visibility and actionable insights into potential threats.

This blog explores Qualys Penetration Testing, covering its features, usage, various use cases, and challenges.

What is Qualys Penetration Testing?

Qualys Penetration Testing is a cloud-based security solution that identifies and assesses vulnerabilities across an organization's IT infrastructure. It automates the process of scanning for weaknesses in an organization’s networks, systems, and web applications by simulating real-world attacks.

With its continuous monitoring and real-time insights, Qualys helps security teams prioritize and remediate risks quickly. The platform seamlessly integrates with existing security workflows, making it easier to maintain an up-to-date security posture and improve overall protection against cyber threats.

Qualys Penetration Testing Features

Qualys Penetration Testing offers a robust set of features designed to enhance an organization's security posture and protect against potential threats. The features include:

Automated Vulnerability Scanning

Qualys automates comprehensive scanning of the organization's network, applications, and cloud environments. This proactive and efficient process identifies vulnerabilities as they arise, ensuring continuous protection. The automated nature of scanning reduces manual intervention, allowing security teams to focus on remediation rather than detection.

Real-Time Alerts

Qualys provides real-time alerts and instantly notifies security teams when it detects a vulnerability. These alerts empower teams to quickly prioritize and address security issues, mitigating risks before they can be exploited. It enhances the overall incident response time and minimizes potential damage.

Detailed Reporting

Qualys generates detailed reports that highlight each identified vulnerability, its risk severity, and actionable remediation steps. These comprehensive insights help security teams understand their organization's risk landscape and make informed decisions to safeguard systems. Reports are customizable and can align with compliance requirements.

Continuous Monitoring

The platform performs continuous monitoring across the entire IT environment, enabling security teams to detect and respond to new vulnerabilities as they arise. This proactive approach ensures that the security posture remains robust, reducing gaps in defenses and minimizing exposure to potential threats.

Seamless Integration

Qualys seamlessly integrates with various existing security tools and workflows, enhancing the efficiency of vulnerability management. It allows teams to incorporate vulnerability data into their current processes and automate tasks for better risk management, enabling a unified, streamlined security infrastructure.

How to use Qualys for Penetration Testing?

Follow these essential steps to leverage Qualys for effective penetration testing and enhance the organization's security posture.

1. Set Up Qualys Account

Start by visiting the Qualys website to register for a new account. Provide essential details, including the organization’s name, contact information, and industry, to ensure the profile is complete. Register the account, set up login credentials, use a complex password, and enable two-factor authentication if available.

Access the account settings to configure additional preferences like time zones for accurate reporting, email notifications for real-time alerts, and user roles to define access levels for team members based on their responsibilities in managing security operations.

2. Access the Dashboard

Log in to the Qualys platform using credentials to access the main dashboard. The dashboard serves as the central hub for managing all security activities, offering a clear, organized view of the assets and testing operations.

From here, navigate through various modules to perform asset discovery, initiate scans, and track progress in real time. Use the dashboard to access summary reports, view scan results, and prioritize remediation steps, ensuring the organization’s security posture is constantly monitored and updated.

3. Identify and Organize Assets

Leverage Qualys' asset discovery tools to scan the entire network, detecting all connected devices, applications, and endpoints. Conduct a comprehensive asset inventory to identify everything from servers, databases, and cloud instances to workstations and IoT devices.

Categorize these assets based on factors like type, location, security level, or function. Group assets to manage scans more easily and prioritize high-risk areas, ensuring you test critical systems first. Update and refine asset lists regularly as the network evolves to maintain accurate visibility of the environment.

4. Create Scanning Profiles

Start by creating scanning profiles tailored to the organization's security requirements. Choose specific assets or asset groups to be tested, ensuring that high-priority systems are given focus. Customize scanning parameters by setting the type of scans (e.g., internal, external, web application) and the depth, such as quick scans for immediate detection or comprehensive scans for deeper analysis.

Define the frequency of these tests—whether continuous, scheduled, or on-demand—to match the risk management strategy. Additionally, specify which types of vulnerabilities to target, based on compliance needs or emerging threats.

5. Schedule and Execute Scans

Define the testing schedule by specifying exact start times and setting recurrence intervals—whether daily, weekly, or monthly—based on the security needs and asset criticality. Execute scans in alignment with business hours or low-traffic times to minimize network disruption.

Monitor scan progress through the Qualys dashboard in real-time. View status updates, current results, and any issues that arise. Ensure each scan adheres to its defined parameters, including scope and frequency. This ensures thorough and effective vulnerability assessment across the assets.

6. Conducting Penetration Tests

Qualys empowers organizations to conduct comprehensive penetration tests, uncovering vulnerabilities across their digital infrastructure.

Qualys supports a variety of penetration tests designed to target different areas of an organization's security infrastructure. Network Penetration Tests focus on identifying vulnerabilities within network infrastructure, ensuring that routers, switches, and other network devices are secure.

Web Application Penetration Tests target web applications to uncover flaws such as injection vulnerabilities, authentication issues, and misconfiguration that attackers could exploit. Additionally, API Penetration Tests assess the security of APIs, which are increasingly targeted by cyberattacks due to their critical role in data exchange and integration. These diverse testing capabilities provide comprehensive coverage for protecting an organization's assets.

Once the scanning profiles are configured, launching penetration tests with Qualys is straightforward. The intuitive interface guides the process—simply select the scanning profile, specify the assets to be tested, and initiate the scan. Qualys then simulate attacks on the organization’s system to identify vulnerabilities. During the scan, real-time monitoring capabilities allow security engineers to track progress and see results as they emerge.

7. Analysis and Reporting

Qualys conducts a detailed analysis of the identified vulnerabilities after completing the scan. It classifies each vulnerability based on severity to help prioritize remediation. The platform provides insights into the potential impact of each vulnerability, aiding in a thorough risk assessment. Qualys enables informed decision-making by evaluating the likelihood and severity of vulnerabilities, ensuring that organizations effectively allocate resources to mitigate the most significant threats.

Qualys generates comprehensive, customizable reports suitable for various stakeholders. It provides detailed technical reports for security teams and creates high-level executive summaries for management.

8. Remediation and Continuous Improvement

Qualys identifies vulnerabilities and provides clear remediation paths with actionable recommendations. These include patching, updating configurations, or adding security controls to address specific issues. Qualys integrates directly with patch management systems to facilitate this process. This integration ensures quick patch application and efficient vulnerability remediation.

The tight integration streamlines the remediation process and minimizes the window of exposure to potential exploitation. Qualys supports continuous monitoring through regular scans and real-time threat detection. This ongoing effort helps organizations quickly identify new vulnerabilities and stay ahead of evolving threats.

Use Cases of Qualys Penetration Testing

Qualys Penetration Testing empowers organizations to proactively identify and address vulnerabilities across various use cases, enhancing their overall security posture.

Identifying Web Application Vulnerabilities

Companies use Qualys to test their web applications against various attack vectors, such as SQL injections, XSS, and file inclusion attacks. A large e-commerce platform relies on Qualys to regularly scan its website, ensuring customer data is protected, and transactions are secure from potential breaches.

Securing Cloud Infrastructure

Qualys assists businesses in scanning their cloud assets for security misconfigurations and vulnerabilities. A tech company that uses multi-cloud environments employs Qualys to regularly test and secure instances, databases, and storage to prevent unauthorized access and data loss across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

Network Perimeter Hardening

Organizations with large and complex network perimeters utilize Qualys to detect weaknesses, such as open ports or insecure protocols. A telecom company, for example, uses Qualys to continuously test its external-facing systems, ensuring that any new vulnerabilities are discovered and patched before they can be exploited by attackers.

Compliance with Regulatory Standards

Enterprises operating under strict compliance standards, like finance and healthcare sectors, use Qualys for vulnerability scanning to ensure they adhere to industry regulations, such as GDPR, PCI-DSS, and HIPAA. A global bank may deploy Qualys to identify security gaps across its network and produce reports to demonstrate compliance during audits.

Continuous Security in DevOps

DevOps teams integrate Qualys into their CI/CD pipelines to scan applications during the development and deployment stages. A software development company adopts Qualys to automatically test each code change, detecting any vulnerabilities before they are pushed to production, ultimately fostering a secure DevOps environment.

Securing IoT and Industrial Systems

Manufacturing companies often use Qualys to test the security of their IoT devices and control systems. For instance, a smart factory might deploy Qualys to identify and fix vulnerabilities in its network-connected machinery and sensors, ensuring that production systems are not at risk of cyberattacks.

Ensuring Secure Remote Work Environments

Organizations with remote workforces use Qualys to secure endpoints like laptops and mobile devices. A multinational company might use Qualys to scan employees' devices for outdated software, insecure configurations, and potential threats, ensuring that remote access to the corporate network remains secure.

Enhancing Incident Response

Qualys assists in incident response by scanning for vulnerabilities immediately after a security incident. A retail chain experiencing a data breach could use Qualys to rapidly assess affected systems, identify entry points, and remediate issues to prevent further damage.

Qualys Penetrating Testing Challenges

Qualys Penetration Testing presents several challenges that organizations must navigate to maximize its effectiveness and ensure comprehensive security coverage.

Configuring Complex Network Environments

Setting up penetration testing in large or complex networks requires detailed planning and accurate configuration. Networks with various segments, diverse device types, and cloud-based components demand careful scanning parameters to avoid missing critical assets. Additionally, defining proper access permissions and ensuring thorough coverage can be time-consuming.

Managing False Positives

Qualys tests can sometimes produce false positives—incorrectly identifying safe components as vulnerabilities. This can overwhelm security teams, leading to wasted time and effort. Fine-tuning scan settings and continuously validating findings are crucial to ensure that only legitimate threats are being addressed.

Performance Impact on Assets

Penetration tests can place a heavy load on network resources, affecting the availability and performance of essential services or applications. Testing large environments without a clear plan can cause unintended downtime.

Limited Customization of Test Scenarios

While Qualys provides a broad range of scanning options, highly specialized test scenarios might not be fully covered by built-in templates. Customizing tests to target specific or emerging vulnerabilities can require additional manual intervention or alternative tools. Balancing automation and manual efforts is necessary for comprehensive security testing.

Balancing Frequency and Resource Usage

Finding the right balance between frequent scanning and resource usage is challenging. Frequent tests can improve security by detecting vulnerabilities quickly, but they also consume bandwidth and processing power. Organizations must strategically determine the scanning schedule to keep systems secure without impacting performance or draining resources unnecessarily.

Final Thoughts

Qualys Penetration Testing is a powerful tool that helps organizations protect their digital assets by identifying and addressing vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them. With Qualys, organizations have the resources and capabilities to maintain a robust security posture and ensure the safety of the data.

Unlike Qualys, which covers general penetration testing, Akto focuses exclusively on securing APIs, allowing organizations to proactively address API-specific threats and improve their development processes. With API discovery, sensitive data detection, and automated testing for OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities, Akto empowers teams to secure APIs throughout the development lifecycle. Discover how Akto’s API-first approach enhances the organization’s security—book a demo today.