Which tool is specifically designed to scan individual host devices for vulnerabilities and produce severity-ranked reports?

• A. Nessus
• B. Burp Suite
• C. Nmap
• D. OpenVAS

Answer: (D)

OpenVAS is built to scan a single host or a small set of hosts for known weaknesses and then present the results with severity ratings, using scores like CVSS to prioritize what to fix first. This combination—targeted host scanning plus an automatically ranked report—is exactly what you need when you want to understand the risk level of each vulnerability on a specific device and plan remediation accordingly. Burp Suite focuses on web applications rather than host-level vulnerabilities, so it isn’t the right fit for general host scanning with severity reports. Nmap is a network discovery tool that maps hosts and services; while powerful for visibility, its primary output isn’t severity-ranked vulnerability findings for individual devices. Nessus does offer host vulnerability scanning with severity rankings as well, but OpenVAS is the open-source alternative that embodies this host-centric, severity-driven reporting approach.