Vulnerability assessment reports play a vital role in ensuring the security of an organization’s applications, computer systems, and network infrastructure. The goal of a vulnerability assessment report is to highlight threats to an organization’s security posed by vulnerabilities in its IT environment.
Creating a vulnerability assessment report involves analyzing an organization’s systems, diagnosing system vulnerabilities, and describing the severity of those vulnerabilities. These assessments are carried out by security professionals who utilize a range of automated and manual testing tools. With the help of a vulnerability assessment, companies can understand their security posture and take measures to eliminate risks (EC-Council, 2020).
Vulnerability scanning includes automated network and system scans. Testers can also use penetration testing to locate vulnerabilities and determine the severity of a given risk. In this article, we’ll explain the core elements of a vulnerability assessment report.
Six Critical Elements of a Vulnerability Assessment Report
Because your client and their security team usually won’t have the time to read long explanations, it’s important to keep your report clear and concise—without omitting crucial information. Remember that you can link to quality sources to help others better understand the contents of the report while avoiding long segments of unnecessary text.
The below table outlines the six key elements of a vulnerability assessment report (EC-Council, n.d.).
Element | Description |
Executive summary |
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Scan results |
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Methodology |
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Findings |
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Risk assessment |
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Recommendations |
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EC-Council. (2020, May 20). All about penetration testing and vulnerability assessment. https://aware.eccouncil.org/all-about-penetration-testing-and-vulnerability-assessment.html
EC-Council. (n.d.).Introduction to CPENT. https://www.eccouncil.org/programs/certified-penetration-testing-professional-cpent/