Which of the following best describes the function of a vulnerability scanner?

• A. It identifies security weaknesses in a system or network.
• B. It monitors user activity for suspicious behavior.
• C. It manages encryption keys for secure communications.
• D. It performs traffic shaping to optimize bandwidth.

Answer: (A)

A vulnerability scanner is designed to identify security weaknesses in a system or network. It automatically probes hosts, services, and configurations, looking for known vulnerabilities, missing patches, weak configurations, default credentials, and other misconfigurations. By comparing findings against up-to-date vulnerability databases (such as CVEs) and policy checks, it highlights areas that could be exploited and helps prioritize remediation. This functionality is distinct from monitoring user activity for suspicious behavior (that describes an intrusion detection or security monitoring system), managing encryption keys (core to key management), or shaping traffic to optimize bandwidth (a networking performance task).