Setting up incremental scans

This guide shows you how to create an incremental scan in Acunetix 360 and how to view the detected changes.

Overview

With incremental scanning you benefit from a more efficient and targeted approach to securing your API or web application, saving you time and resources by selectively scanning only newly discovered or modified pages. The incremental scanning feature streamlines the process by automatically filtering out minor changes, enhancing your user experience and reducing the burden on your team. Additionally, minor changes such as displayed date/time or a visitor counter are automatically filtered out during the incremental scan, streamlining your security assessment process for a more user-friendly experience.

NOTE: Prior to running an incremental scan, an initial scan must be completed. The incremental scan then crawls only new or modified URLs.

How to set up incremental scans

  1. From the main menu, select Scheduled Scans > Schedule Scan to open the New Scheduled Scan window.
  2. In the Target URL field, input the complete URL, including the path.
  3. Under Scan Type, choose Incremental to activate incremental scanning. This action automatically hides the Scan Options section.

  1. Use the Select Scan Group dropdown to specify the Scan Group. Scan Groups represent scans configured with different settings (scan policy, scan scope, etc).
  2. Give the scan a Name and specify the Start Time.
  3. The Schedule allows you to specify the frequency of the scan. You can choose from the following options: Once, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly, Quarterly, Biannually, Custom.
  4. In the Scan tags field, you can enter as many as 20 scan tags. The tags allow you to give additional context to the scans and help you group similar scans under one tag. Refer to Tagging in Acunetix 360 for more information.
  5. Add any Comments you find useful and click Schedule. If you need further information, refer to How to Schedule a Full Scan in Acunetix 360.

How to view the changes in the Incremental Scan node

Once the scan is completed, all incremental scans are listed under the Incremental Scan node in the Knowledge Base. This information is also available in the Knowledge Base Report.

  1. In Acunetix 360, navigate to Scans and select Recent Scans.
  2. Locate the incremental scan you are interested in and click Report on the far right.
  3. In the Technical Report section, select the Knowledge Base tab.

  1. On the left, select Incremental Scan to view the list of results sorted into three groups - Unchanged, New, Changed.

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