- Vulnerability management
- Policy compliance
- Scalability
Manager System Security at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
The installation of the local hardware scanner appliance is easy, but the asset tagging needs lots of improvements.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
As a leading IT services organization, it is very important for us to have a proactive identification/assessment of vulnerabilities. We also need to be able to remedy them in a timely manner before they exploit our security configuration compliance, and then harden our security for both system/network devices and applications. We need to do this both before and after placing them in production environment.
With QualsyGuard we have been able to achieve this by utilizing its modules, such as vulnerability management, policy compliance, web scanning, malware detection, and asset tagging.
What needs improvement?
As users of Qualys for the last three years, we have identified and shared many areas where Qualys needed to have improvements, including --
- Vulnerability database having some false positives, although this is rare;
- Web scan module requires authentication to access basic web forms;
- Asset tagging needs lots of improvements as it's currently a complex technique; and
- For policy compliance, they need to add more leading IT standards with regards to all the leading IT service provides like Juniper, Cisco, Microsoft, etc.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this product for the last three years.
Buyer's Guide
Qualys VMDR
December 2024
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a very stable product and we haven't faced any issues since its deployment apart from announced downtimes for upgrades and improvements.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No issues encountered.
How are customer service and support?
Customer Service:
Support is available 24/7 via phone and e-mail. Remote session support is also available.
Technical Support:They have excellent expertise.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
No previous solution was used.
How was the initial setup?
It's easy as it is a SaaS, cloud-based service. The installation of the local hardware scanner appliance is also easy.
What about the implementation team?
We used a vendor team who was excellent.
What was our ROI?
I cannot give you the exact ROI on this, but as a large information and communication technology service provider, a 24/7 service availability that leads to customer satisfaction is our key goal. Regular VM and compliance assessment results in the complete hardening of our critical assets defending us against any exploits that leads to unavailability of our services.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
No, because it was already in use at our parent company and it was providing good results for a low price as well.
What other advice do I have?
- Collect complete asset inventory details (asset type, service/application details, administrator details etc.).
- Provide awareness session to the support team about Qualys, its usage, and functionality.
- Prepare OLAs and SOPs for better co-ordination between the teams.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Security Compliance Analyst at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees
Delivers higher frequency of scans & better aggregation of results. Ticket management has room for improvement.
Valuable Features
Integrity of scanners; never do I need to worry….“Is this scanner going to bring down a host?”.
Improvements to My Organization
Higher frequency of scans, better aggregation of scan results, abundance of different reports (can be scheduled and automated), delivering metrics to senior management.
Room for Improvement
Ticket management
Use of Solution
5 + years
Deployment Issues
No
Stability Issues
No
Scalability Issues
No
Customer Service and Technical Support
Customer Service: Good – 4 out of 5Technical Support: Good – 4 out of 5
Initial Setup
Straightforward. Assuming you know your network layout, # of devices and other basic information it is pretty simple to figure out what you need. Qualys ships you the scanners, you rack them, set them up and technically could start scanning. Though, there is other recommended tasks to complete via the QualysGuard Vulnerability Management web portal such as defining asset groups, setting up scan rules, turning ticketing on, generating reports, etc.
Implementation Team
In-house
ROI
I do not have a specific quantitative number to provide but from a qualitative perspective it has been enormous. Once you are set up properly and have proper acceptance from support teams, device owners and senior management you can start to scan your environment much more often which increases your organizations ability to detect vulnerabilities more often reducing your overall vulnerability footprint and corresponding business risk.
Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing
The original setup cost was about $10,000 and the day-to-day costs is less than $100 per day with one caveat. Our parent company is large and has allowed us to fall under their pricing model. If we were not under their model our costs would be about 40% higher.
Other Solutions Considered
No, we had a 3rd party running the scans for us. We were very happy with Qualys but wanted to bring it “in-house”. We brought it in-house 5 years ago and never looked back.
Other Advice
Take the time to properly identify your network and as importantly get approval and acceptance from the group up – especially senior management. In addition, it is very important to have your scan schedule, profiles, reporting, metrics, expectations, etc. documented so that everyone in the company understands your expectations.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Qualys VMDR
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about Qualys VMDR. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.
President and CEO at a non-profit with 11-50 employees
Excellent intelligence and real-time inventory of vulnerabilities
Pros and Cons
- "Qualys VM has allowed us to know the vulnerabilities we need to prioritize based on the threat levels and the possible impact if there's an intrusion."
- "Qualys VM's machine learning and artificial intelligence features could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
I mainly use Qualys VM for CSAM, to complement vulnerability management on our assets, and to check for intrusions through our email gateways.
How has it helped my organization?
Qualys VM has allowed us to know the vulnerabilities we need to prioritize based on the threat levels and the possible impact if there's an intrusion. It also provides a view of inventories and vulnerabilities in the containers running on my infrastructure, which helps me to do better roadmapping on where I need to put my resources.
What is most valuable?
Qualys VM's best features are its machine-learning-backed intelligence, real-time inventory of vulnerabilities, backup, threat intelligence exposure database, and that it doesn't hold on to infrastructure resources like memory.
What needs improvement?
Qualys VM's machine learning and artificial intelligence features could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Qualys VM for over a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I've had no issues with Qualys VM's stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Qualys VM is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Qualys has an impeccable, readily available technical support team.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very simple - it's just a deploy-and-run.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Qualys VM is reasonably priced.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Qualys VM as nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Information Security Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The main purpose was to remove the granularity. It really helped us manage the security of our organization.
Pros and Cons
- "It is a simple solution that makes scanning easy. You just give it a scheduled task, and it will do everything for you."
- "The reporting is fine."
- "The only improvement I can think of is on the implementation side. At times it is a bit slow."
What is our primary use case?
My primary use case is for the web application scans of websites. I also made some new search profiles and other scanning profiles.
How has it helped my organization?
Before using Qualys, we had other security tools. And, the main purpose was to remove the granularity. We had so many attacks every day. Qualys really helped us manage the security for our operations.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are that it is a simple solution that makes scanning easy. You just give it a scheduled task, and it will do everything for you. The reporting is fine, too. And, the knowledge base is pretty good, too.
What needs improvement?
The only improvement I can think of is on the implementation side, otherwise the operation is fine. At times it is a bit slow.
Qualys is really nice, but people only use Qualys for the VM and web scan. They just file the report, and send the report to the customer or client. They don't do anything with the reports. They will get the report, and there are usually 30 to 40 vulnerabilities, not in the web servers. And, of those 30 vulnerabilities, 10 or 15 were usually the first cases. In case of those vulnerabilities are around 50, in which around 50-60% of vulnerabilities are usually found worse. So, for those cases, was pretty low and in Qualys we have to look for them also. Whenever the report comes, we just send the report from the client. And that was one of the biggest issues. So, in this area, we only have to actually check the vulnerabilities in the report. You just have to catch a little bit of this, when we do the type or not. That was one of the issues we had with Qualys.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No, we have not experienced any issues with stability of the product at all.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have not encountered issues with scalability of the solution. I had scanned 77 servers at a time, and found no issues with scalability while doing so.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have not had a need to deal with Qualys tech support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have previous experience with Tenable Nessus. I like Qualys better because there are so many nice features, it builds better.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am not personally involved with the pricing or licensing of the solution for our organization.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have prior experience with Alert Logic CloudDefender, RSA, Odyssey and Forcepoint Websense (formerly Raytheon Websense).
What other advice do I have?
A really nice feature of Qualys is the asset management. Some of the end users were using that function, and paid for that particular function. It is helpful to get a bit of history of all types of supports of scanning of particular servers.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Technology Security Expert at T-Mobile Polska (Deutsche Telekom)
Identifies and helps to remedy vulnerabilities, has good certificate management
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is the certificate management."
- "The reporting in this solution can be improved."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case is vulnerability assessment.
How has it helped my organization?
This solution has provided information about existing vulnerabilities, and helped with quick remediation in case of global malware attacks.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the certificate management. The reason is the limited license provided by the mother company.
What needs improvement?
The reporting in this solution can be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for five years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Information Security Specialist at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
This solution helps us fill out forms in a timely manner. It is more expensive than competitive products.
Pros and Cons
- "It is quite easy to implement."
- "When you want to cover yourself for scalability, you will be charged for the number you place on the scan itself."
- "It is more expensive vs. other products on the market."
What is our primary use case?
My primary use case is to actually fill out forms, ensure that they are being closed in a timely manner. This is why we use these one point solutions.
What is most valuable?
I find most valuable to achieve a channel system and we can also use it to track when we actually close the ticketing of the sites.
In addition, it is quite easy to implement. We found it quite convenient.
What needs improvement?
I think it could improve asset imagery.
For how long have I used the solution?
Less than one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have not encountered issues with stability of the product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have not encountered any issues of scalability function. We do have to pay extra according to the number we are placing on the scan. So, when you want to be covered for the scalability, you will have to pay more.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. It was quite simple. We just needed to download the image from the website, and onto our service team.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Qualys is considered more expensive versus other products on the market.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We were previously using McAfee. We had to switch because McAfee stopped producing the solution we needed. We considered Tenable Nessus, but we chose Qualys in the end.
What other advice do I have?
I advise that you see if this solution can fit your problems, and help your needs.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Manager Information Security at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
There are some stability issues with reporting, but it's straightforward to implement.
What is most valuable?
Vulnerability management.
How has it helped my organization?
It has helped to automate the vulnerability management program, increasing the security posture and helped us to identify the security risks in our infrastructure.
What needs improvement?
Web application security model needs some work.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using it for four years, including including VM, PCI, WAS and MDS features.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
No issues encountered.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There's been a few times, related to reporting, that we've had issues, but overall it's stable.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
Excellent, the Qualys support team always helps on a priority basis.
Technical Support:Excellent!
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
No previous solution was used.
How was the initial setup?
It was straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
It was done in-house.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
No other options were looked at.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Security Expert at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Makes many promises but in order to do so, Qualys requires the client to provide a backdoor to the system.
The QualysGuard Private Cloud Platform (QG PCP) makes many promises, one of which is that vulnerability scan data can be hosted by a private cloud platform in a client's data center and under the client's control. If taken at their word, this may seen promising, but the reality is that Qualys still will have to manage this platform remotely. By doing so, they will have access to this data remotely anyway and can pull it down to their site as needed. Needless to say, Qualys requires the client to provide a backdoor to the system.
The Qualys PCP equipment is leased and never sold to the customer. There are many legal issues with this which allows them to access their equipment. They require the customer to give them remote access in order for them to manage it remotely. That is a requirement and not an option. They keep it a big secret how it is managed.
Remote Access
What kind of remote access to the QG PCP do they require?
1. Persistent iVPN tunnel
2. VPN remote access account
Qualys still has the means to pull the data back to Qualys through SSH/SCP even though it is hosted on a customer site. In fact, Qualys does not allow the customer to monitor the network traffic being sent back to Qualys. Such requests were flat out refused during a security assessment. What they pull back is their business and the customer has no right to know.
Network Sniffer
Network monitoring had to be done outside of the QG PCP as Qualys did not allow internal network sniffing. This traffic analysis did show a few weaknesses.
1. Emails were being sent to email server UNENCRYPTED. Yes, one could see the message being sent as well as who the recipients were. Emails were being back to Qualys through the Internet. A lot of sensitive information were sent unencrypted including server names, configuration, scripts, running jobs, listening ports, full internal DNS names.
2. Internet connections from Indonesia were seen accessing the QG PCP even though it was supposed to be in a controlled access network in a data center
3. A lot of failed DNS requests to www.qualys.com and other qualys subdomains, looks like the system has not been fined tuned to be hosted at a client site. The interesting thing is that it tries to do windows updates on its own by accessing the Internet.
4. Undocumented protocols used by the Qualys PCP; namely AppleTalk, CMIP-Man, and Feixin
5. syslog messages sent across the network unencrypted.
Firewall Rule Analysis
Firewall rule analysis shows that SSH is allowed into the platform through VPN firewall as well as HTTP(S) protocols.
Internet Access
The Qualys PCP itself does access network traffic in and out of the controlled access network environment as seen in the diagram below.
1. The Qualys PCP Service Network requires outbound communication for
a. NTP – Time Synchronization
b. DNS – Name Resolution
c. SMTP – Email
d. WHOIS – External Internet
e. Daily Vulnerability Updates - External Internet.
WHOIS pulls information from the Internet and Daily Signature Updates are pulled from Qualys through the Internet on port 443. In effect, the PCP is pulling information from Qualys through the Internet to retrieve updates. A man-in-the-middle attack could intercept the update and instead return a malware update to the Qualys PCP provided that a vulnerability exists in the platform.
2. The physical scanners communicate to the Qualys PCP. This requires that inbound port 443 be opened on the PCP. Physical scanners in the DMZ also need to communicate to the PCP on port 443. Access to the PCP from the DMZ increases the risk.
3. Qualys SOC accesses the PCP through iVPN and VPN connections from the Internet for maintenance and support.
Virtual Scanners
A sniffer placed on a virtual scanner showed that it chose to use SSLv3, which is deprecated, by default on some servers to communicate to the Qualys PCP. In particular, it uses SSLv3 with RC4-MD5. MD5 is obsolete. Qualys documentation claims they use TLSv1 and the latest modern secure protocols.
Application Analysis
Perl API
Application analysis was done by running Perl scripts against the qualysapi server and testing for vulnerabilities. The server itself was found to be vulnerable by accepting login credentials for API requests via base64 encoding and passed through plaintext HTTP. This could result of loss and capture of Qualys Admin credentials which could result in access to vulnerability scan results.
Web Application
The Qualys Web Application tests resulted in a number of vulnerabilities.
Qualys PCP Internal
Additional vulnerabilities were found inside the Qualys PCP infrastructure itself. It was found to be very insecure.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Updated: December 2024
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Learn More: Questions:
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- Which is the best vulnerability scanner tool?
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