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Security Operations · Foundational

Non-Credentialed Scan

A vulnerability scan performed without logging in, seeing only what is exposed over the network.

Definition

Unauthenticated scans identify open ports, service banners and externally visible weaknesses, representing an outside attacker's view. They miss many local vulnerabilities and tend to produce more false positives based on banner versions.

Example

An external scan of the public IP range showing an outdated web server banner.

Exam tip

Non-credentialed = attacker's external view; less accurate than credentialed.

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