Skip to main content

Agent & Agentless Scanning

BEAK Security supports both agent-based and agentless scanning to provide continuous vulnerability visibility across your entire environment.

Agent-Based Scanning​

How It Works​

The BEAK agent runs on endpoints and continuously monitors for vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and compliance drift.

Advantages​

  • Real-time vulnerability detection
  • Deep system-level visibility (installed software, configurations, registry)
  • Works for offline/disconnected endpoints (syncs when reconnected)
  • Lower network overhead (scans happen locally)

Supported Platforms​

  • Windows Server 2016+, Windows 10/11
  • Ubuntu, RHEL, CentOS, Debian, SUSE
  • macOS 12+

Agentless Scanning​

How It Works​

Network-based scanning discovers and assesses assets without requiring software installation.

Advantages​

  • No deployment required on target systems
  • Covers unmanaged and IoT devices
  • Network device scanning (switches, routers, firewalls)
  • Quick initial assessment of unknown environments

Scan Protocols​

  • Network discovery (ICMP, ARP, TCP)
  • Vulnerability assessment (authenticated/unauthenticated)
  • Configuration auditing (SSH, WMI, SNMP)
  • Web application scanning (HTTP/HTTPS)

Hybrid Approach​

BEAK recommends a hybrid strategy:

  • Agent for managed endpoints (desktops, servers, laptops)
  • Agentless for network devices, IoT, and unmanaged systems
  • Cloud API for cloud-native resources (see BEAK ITAM Asset Discovery)

Both methods feed into the same unified vulnerability database and risk scoring engine.