The vulnerability assessment process follows a structured lifecycle. After an automated tool performs a scan and identifies potential vulnerabilities (exposures), the immediate next step is to analyze and assess these findings. This critical phase involves validating the results to eliminate false positives, evaluating the contextual risk of each vulnerability to the specific organization, and prioritizing them based on severity and business impact. This assessment transforms raw scan data into actionable intelligence, which is essential before any reporting or remediation activities can effectively take place.

A. Hardening the infrastructure: This is part of the remediation phase, which occurs much later in the process, after vulnerabilities have been assessed, reported, and prioritized for fixing.

B. Documenting exceptions: This is a risk management activity that happens after a vulnerability has been assessed. An organization may decide to accept the risk and document an exception, but this is not the immediate next step for all findings.

D. Generating reports: While a scanner generates an output file, the formal reporting step in a vulnerability assessment process involves communicating the analyzed and validated findings to stakeholders. Therefore, assessment must precede the creation of a meaningful report.

1. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-115

"Technical Guide to Information Security Testing and Assessment." This guide outlines the security assessment methodology. The post-execution phase consists of Analysis and then Reporting. Section 5.2

"Analysis

" states

"The analysis phase examines the data gathered during the execution phase [e.g.

vulnerability scan]... to identify vulnerabilities." Section 5.3

"Reporting

" follows

stating

"The reporting phase documents the results of the assessment." This clearly places analysis/assessment after the scan and before reporting.

2. Kim

D.

& Solomon

M. G. (2016). Fundamentals of information systems security (3rd ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning. Chapter 10

"Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing

" describes the vulnerability assessment process. The steps are outlined as: 1. Asset Identification

2. Vulnerability Scanning

3. Vulnerability Analysis and Prioritization

4. Reporting

5. Remediation. This academic source confirms that analysis is the direct next step after scanning.

3. OWASP. (2014). OWASP Testing Guide v4. Section 4.1

"Introduction and Objectives

" details the testing framework phases. After information gathering and discovery (which includes scanning)

the next phase is "Exploitation/Analysis

" where findings are validated and their impact is assessed before the final "Reporting" phase. This industry-standard guide for web application security follows the same logical progression.