In Tenable's ecosystem, what is primarily used to identify vulnerabilities during scans?

In Tenable's ecosystem, plugins play a crucial role in identifying vulnerabilities during scans. These plugins are scripts or sets of instructions that perform checks against various systems and applications to detect vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and compliance issues. Each plugin is designed to assess specific vulnerabilities and communicate with the target systems to gather relevant data.

When a scan is initiated, the Security Center utilizes the plugins to actively probe the designated assets for known vulnerabilities and weaknesses. The effectiveness of the scanning process heavily relies on the up-to-date nature of these plugins, which continuously evolve to include new threats and vulnerabilities as they are discovered. This dynamic approach is essential in ensuring that organizations remain vigilant and informed about their security posture.

While policies, users, and reports are integral components of Tenable's overall security management framework, they do not directly execute the identification of vulnerabilities during scans. Policies may specify the scope and settings of the scans, users can manage and configure the environment, and reports provide the outcomes and findings of the scans. However, the actual detection of vulnerabilities is fundamentally accomplished through the use of plugins.