How to Write a Vulnerability Assessment Report

Cybersecurity is an ever-expanding industry with specialized domains. At times, it challenges seasoned security professionals while identifying vulnerabilities. The report carries information on the network, system, and application vulnerabilities. If one is not into penetration testing, then it gets tough to decode a vulnerability assessment report.

The vulnerability scanning and assessment report guides security professionals on how to address security issues. A vulnerability scan works in two phases – scanning and reporting. Regardless of the type of vulnerability reports, it demands immediate action.

All about a vulnerability scanning report

A vulnerability assessment report offers detailed information on existing vulnerabilities. With the help of this report, companies can assess their security posture and find appropriate solutions to eliminate the vulnerabilities.

7 Critical Elements of a Vulnerability Assessment Report

Every vulnerability scanning and assessment report should cover the following elements

Element	Description
Scan Information	It carries information like the name of the scanning tool, its version, and the network ports to be scanned.
Target Information	Under this section, the report carries details on the targeted system – its name and address.
Results	This is the part where a reader would find the complete scanning report.
Target	This sub-section of ‘Results’ comes with the detailed information of all the involved hosts, which includes – ◓ This element contains the name and address of the host. ◓ This will give the details of the operating system and its type. ◓ It will show the date of the test.
Services	The subtopic covers the names and ports of the network services.
Classification	With this element, the system administrator can find out the additional details about scanning, like the origin of the scan.
Assessment	The part covers the information on the scanner’s vulnerability assessment.

Source: eccouncil.org