How to Find Vulnerabilities on Your Website

Did you know that 96 percent of all digital breaches start with a vulnerability scan? That’s right—without the ability to test your website for security flaws, hackers will have no trouble breaking into your network. Google also determined that people trust secure sites, so it’s important to validate that your site is free from vulnerabilities and safeguarded against attacks. Fortunately, finding and fixing these security vulnerabilities is fairly easy once you know how! In this blog post, we’ll outline the process you can use to find any potential security holes on your site.

How to Find Security Vulnerabilities on Your Website

The first step to finding security vulnerabilities on your website is to audit your asset management. This step can be challenging, as it requires you to be objective and critical while trying to be positive. The easiest way to audit your asset management is to enlist the help of a security consultant. This process can be costly, but it’s the best way to ensure that you are auditing your asset management correctly. If done correctly, you may save money on fixing issues that don’t exist. Next, set out to audit all of your websites. Make a list of all the URLs for each of your sites, including subdomains, and do an audit of each one individually.

Test for common vulnerabilities

There are many vulnerabilities that can be found during a vulnerability scan. First, determine what kinds of vulnerabilities are most common on websites. The following are some common vulnerabilities that you can test for during a vulnerability scan:

• Insecure admin panel: Suppose you are able to access the admin panel on your website. In that case, you can delete all of your files, access the server’s root directory, and reset the password. This is especially important if your admin panel is not password-protected. The best way to prevent this is to not put the admin panel on the web. However, if this is a requirement, you can password-protect it with 2-factor authentication.
• SSL/TLS leak: When you’re visiting a major website, chances are you’re being passed through multiple servers. This can lead to information being sent in the clear, like your passwords and personal information. To prevent this, make sure you connect to the website using HTTPS. If you’re still seeing this problem, take a look at your cookies. 
• Broken/Weak encryption: This could be as simple as having the wrong cipher used for encrypting data. It could also be an issue with the encryption itself, like it is unsecured. 
• Key management: This is a critical security issue that can be easy to overlook. The problem is that most website keys are stored on the server, which makes them vulnerable to attack. The best practice is to always rotate your encryption keys and store them on a separate hardware appliance.

Test for unknown vulnerabilities

Often, the issues that arise during a vulnerability scan are unknown to you. It’s important to understand that many unknown vulnerabilities can be found on your websites. These could be issues that have not been reported yet, or they could be new issues that have been created due to a recent code update. To find unknown vulnerabilities, perform an additional audit of your asset management to look for issues that have gone unnoticed. You can also use a tool such as Fixpark to inspect your website’s traffic and identify any security issues.

What is a Vulnerability Scan?

A vulnerability scan is a kind of security assessment that probes your website for flaws that hackers can exploit and infiltrate your network. Getting a vulnerability scan done regularly will help you find any security holes on your website, as well as prevent any future attacks by hackers. A vulnerability scan can be performed manually or automatically, depending on your needs.

• Manual scans take the most time and require a team of cybersecurity experts to manually scan your site for vulnerabilities.
• Automated tools, such as Fixpark, on the other hand, can scan your site automatically and report any findings.

Both methods are helpful and can give you the information you need to improve your website’s security.

What to look for in a Vulnerability Scan

You’ll want to look at the vulnerabilities that are discovered during your vulnerability scan. If you receive a red flag from a scan, there’s a good chance that there’s a security issue that needs to be addressed. Before you begin addressing the issues found during your vulnerability scan, ensure you understand them and how they can be addressed. The following are the most important things to look for when you are performing a vulnerability scan:

Final Words

Vulnerability scans are an essential security tool that assists you in identifying potential issues with your website. These issues can include coding flaws, infrastructural vulnerabilities, and more. To find these issues, you’ll want to audit your asset management and scan each of your websites individually.