In my experience that's true... I've already discovered and developed exploits to unknown vulnerabilities during pentesting.

As nessus is a "knowledge base" driven tool, it cannot discover vulnerabilities which aren't in its base.

Some Blind Sql injections, buffer and heap overflows will not be covered by scanning tools. Social engeneering will not be covered as well ;)

About the glorified repackaged scans, that is indeed a really sad reality... :(

On 19/12/2011, at 21:48, Todd Haverkos <infosec (at) haverkos (dot) com [email concealed]> wrote:

> Fábio Soto <fabio (at) andradesoto.com (dot) br [email concealed]> writes:
>
>> Nessus or any other scanning tool will give too much false
>> positives, or fail to detect many vulnerabilities.
>
> That's not true in my experience if credentialed scanning is used,
> unless you're highlighting that scanners do poorly against web app
> vulns. Passive vulnerability scanning is not prone to false positives
> either, for what it's worth.
>
>> Probably you'll need some professional pentesting services.
>
> Which at the low and unethical end are glorified repackaged Nessus or
> [insert other vuln scanner] scans (sad to say).
>
> Best Regards,
> --
> Todd Haverkos, LPT MsCompE
> http://haverkos.com/
>
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In this guide we examine the importance of Apache-SSL and who needs an SSL certificate. We look at how SSL works, how it benefits your company and how your customers can tell if a site is secure. You will find out how to test, purchase, install and use a thawte Digital Certificate on your Apache web server. Throughout, best practices for set-up are highlighted to help you ensure efficient ongoing management of your encryption keys and digital certificates.

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