Hexiosec ASM uses 'in scope' and 'out of scope' to control how much of an attack surface to scan. Since everything on the internet is connected, we need to ensure the scope of a Hexiosec ASM scan is appropriately focussed.

'In scope' nodes, be they Domains, IP addresses, Components, etc., are connected back to one of the seed nodes via a valid path. A subdomain (or child) of a seed domain will be in scope. However, the domain of a 3rd-party script used on the seed domain's website will be 'out of scope'.

Simply put, if it is 'in scope', then Hexiosec ASM has determined that the risks associated with the asset are your responsibility. If it is out of scope, then Hexiosec ASM can't be sure it is yours, and you will need to add it as a seed to get Hexiosec ASM to inspect it further.

To view the 'out of scope' nodes, go to the 'Out of Scope' page on a scan, and you can add nodes to scope as seeds. Note, this will depend on your permissions within Hexiosec ASM.

Hexiosec ASM may mark some domains as stale in the results of a scan. Domains will be marked as stale if they have been identified, but do not have a DNS entry, i.e. they are not 'live' and have no associated IP address.



Stale domains will not typically have risks associated with them, as they are not live. They can still provide details of information found by Hexiosec ASM.

The following scenarios can result in stale domains:

Every day, new cyber threats emerge, targeting organisations and systems worldwide. To manage these threats effectively, it’s crucial to understand the core concepts of cyber security and vulnerability identification systems.

Our blog post 'Vulnerability identification: key concepts and terms explained' provides a guide to key vulnerability identification systems in cyber security and explains how they interconnect to manage vulnerabilities. It introduces the following terms, some of which you will see referenced in your scan results: