IVA

Verified, Risk-Ranked Visibility
Across Your Internal Network

ControlCase INTERNAL VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT combines authenticated and unauthenticated scanning with manual validation. You receive a verified, risk-ranked and actionable list of weaknesses, plus the evidence assessors expect under PCI DSS Requirement 11.3.1.

Assess Once, Comply to Many

Accurate Exposure Picture

Authenticated and unauthenticated scanning together show your true patch position and your real network exposure, not one view mistaken for the whole.

Validated Findings Only

Manual verification removes false positives before reporting, so infrastructure teams spend their time remediating rather than disproving.

Stronger Patch Management

Recurring measurement highlights systemic gaps, including unmanaged hosts, end-of-life software and images shipping outdated components.

Audit-Ready Evidence

Scope, scan records, authentication coverage, risk ranking and passing results are documented in the form assessors expect for PCI DSS, ISO 27001, SOC 2, HIPAA and Indian regulatory requirements.

What is an Internal Vulnerability Assessment?

What is an Internal Vulnerability Assessment?

An internal vulnerability assessment is the systematic identification, analysis and reporting of technical security weaknesses across the systems inside your network. It examines your security profile from the perspective of someone already behind the external perimeter: an insider, a contractor, or an attacker with a foothold through phishing, a compromised endpoint or a supplier connection. Every reported weakness is reviewed by an analyst before it reaches you.

Regular internal scanning is a mandatory control in most standards. PCI DSS v4.0.1 Requirement 11.3.1 requires internal scans at least once every three months, with all high-risk and critical vulnerabilities resolved and confirmed by rescan. Requirement 11.3.1.2 requires authenticated scanning, and Requirement 11.3.1.3 requires scanning after any significant change. ISO/IEC 27001:2022, HIPAA and HITRUST, SOC 2, NIST CSF 2.0 and SP 800-40, and RBI, SEBI CSCRF and CERT-In requirements set comparable expectations.

What We Assess

  • Servers and operating systems: Windows, Linux and Unix servers: missing patches, unsupported versions, local policy and hardening state, installed third-party software.
  • Network and security devices: Routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers and wireless controllers: firmware levels, insecure management protocols, default and weak credentials.
  • Virtualization and hypervisors: Hypervisor hosts and management consoles, including patch state and administrative interface exposure.
  • Endpoints and workstations: Corporate desktops, laptops and kiosks: operating system and application patch levels, and locally exploitable configuration weaknesses.
  • Databases: Engine versions and patch state, default accounts, weak authentication settings and insecure listener configuration.
  • Cloud and hybrid workloads: Virtual machine instances and managed services in IaaS and hybrid environments, assessed through agent, credentialed or API-based collection.
  • Containers and images: Container images and registries scanned for vulnerable base layers, outdated packages and embedded secrets, where in scope.

Why Choose ControlCase for Internal Vulnerability Assessment?

PCI SSC Qualified Security Assessor and Approved Scanning Vendor
ControlCase is a QSA and ASV certified by the PCI Security Standards Council, so scanning output is produced with a clear understanding of what an assessor accepts as evidence.
Verified Authentication Coverage
ControlCase verifies authentication success per host, then investigates and re-runs failures rather than reporting on partial data. An unnoticed authentication failure is one of the most common reasons internal scan evidence is rejected during assessment.
Trend Data Across Every Cycle
The ControlCase GRC platform holds scope, scan results, remediation ownership and closure evidence over time, showing trend, recurrence and exception data instead of disconnected quarterly reports.
Non-Invasive by Design
The service does not damage client systems or data. Denial of service testing, buffer overflow exploits, brute force attacks causing account lockout and excessive bandwidth consumption are excluded.
Flexible Scanner Deployment
Scanners deploy inside your environment as physical or virtual appliances, or as hosted collectors where network design allows. Your IT personnel receive instruction on secure operation and maintenance.

Scanning Approaches

ControlCase performs both unauthenticated and authenticated scanning. They answer different questions, and a mature vulnerability management program needs both.

Approach 1
Unauthenticated Scanning

Description: Probes each target from across the network without credentials, enumerating live hosts, open ports, listening services, protocol and cipher support, service banners and versions. This is the view an internal attacker has before compromising any account.

Key areas: Services that should not be listening, forgotten management interfaces, expired or weak certificates, and default credentials on network-accessible devices.

Applies to: Verifying segmentation assumptions, finding unmanaged and unexpected hosts, and confirming what is exposed.

Approach 2
Authenticated Scanning

Description: Logs into each target with a dedicated read-only scanning account: SMB and WMI or remote registry on Windows, SSH on Linux and Unix, and native read-only interfaces for databases, hypervisors, network devices and cloud instances.

Key areas: Missing patches in software not facing the network, end-of-life components, weak local policy and configuration drift against hardening baselines.

Applies to: Measuring true patch compliance, hardening verification and audit evidence. Required for internal scanning under PCI DSS Requirement 11.3.1.2.

ControlCase Internal Vulnerability Assessment Process

STEP 01
Scoping and Asset Inventory
You provide subnets or ranges for ControlCase host discovery, or individual IP addresses confirmed for reachability before scanning. Scope, scan windows and escalation contacts are documented and authorized.
STEP 02
Scanner Deployment and Configuration
ControlCase and your IT team place scanners relative to segmentation boundaries, set firewall rules for management protocols, provision and test scanning credentials, tune scan policies and coordinate with monitoring teams.
STEP 03
Unauthenticated and Authenticated Scanning
Unauthenticated scans establish the live asset picture and remotely visible exposure. Credentialed scans establish true patch and configuration state, with authentication success verified per host and failures investigated and re-run.
STEP 04
Manual Validation
Analysts eliminate false positives, consolidate duplicate and related findings, and confirm each vulnerability applies to the affected host and its configuration. Only validated findings are reported.
STEP 05
Risk Rating and Reporting
Each finding is rated by CVSS base score, adjusted where your environment or compensating controls justify it, and prioritized using exploitation intelligence. Results publish to your secure ControlCase portal with evidence and remediation guidance.
STEP 06
Remediation, Rescan and Passing Results
Critical, high and medium findings are shared as soon as they are validated. ControlCase follows up, advises on fixes, reviews false positive evidence and rescans to confirm mitigation. Passing results are issued with the final deliverables.
STEP 01
Scoping and Asset Inventory
You provide subnets or ranges for ControlCase host discovery, or individual IP addresses confirmed for reachability before scanning. Scope, scan windows and escalation contacts are documented and authorized.
STEP 02
Scanner Deployment and Configuration
ControlCase and your IT team place scanners relative to segmentation boundaries, set firewall rules for management protocols, provision and test scanning credentials, tune scan policies and coordinate with monitoring teams.
STEP 03
Unauthenticated and Authenticated Scanning
Unauthenticated scans establish the live asset picture and remotely visible exposure. Credentialed scans establish true patch and configuration state, with authentication success verified per host and failures investigated and re-run.
STEP 04
Manual Validation
Analysts eliminate false positives, consolidate duplicate and related findings, and confirm each vulnerability applies to the affected host and its configuration. Only validated findings are reported.
STEP 05
Risk Rating and Reporting
Each finding is rated by CVSS base score, adjusted where your environment or compensating controls justify it, and prioritized using exploitation intelligence. Results publish to your secure ControlCase portal with evidence and remediation guidance.
STEP 06
Remediation, Rescan and Passing Results
Critical, high and medium findings are shared as soon as they are validated. ControlCase follows up, advises on fixes, reviews false positive evidence and rescans to confirm mitigation. Passing results are issued with the final deliverables.

Ready to Start Your Internal Vulnerability Assessment?

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