Qualys Recommended Option Profile Release Updates 

Qualys has introduced significant improvements to our Option Profiles in our recent releases as notified in our previous blog linked here. The final stage is to change the default ports.  

The deployment is set to begin this week and is expected to be rolled out to all PODs in the following weeks. These changes will enhance, increase vulnerability detection, and align with industry best practices.

What are these significant changes? 

• Expanding “Standard TCP Ports” scanned from 1,900 to 2,800 
• Extending “Additional TCP Ports” from 12,500 to 20,500 

What are the benefits that customers can expect here? 

• Improved scan coverage and vulnerability detection 
• Significantly faster scan completion times 
• Alignment with PCI DSS v4.0 requirements for authenticated scans 
• Reduced false positives and negatives 
• Streamlined option profile creation process 

Qualys team earlier posted a notification as “Qualys Recommended Option Profile – Upcoming Important Changes”; request all customers refer to this for more additional details. 

Reference Links

• Qualys Recommended Option Profile – Upcoming Important Changes 
• Qualys Cloud Platform Release Notes 
• Option Profiles for VM/VMDR 
• Option Profile Guide 
• Qualys VMDR Release Notes 
• Get Started with VMDR 
• Qualys VMDR Solution Brief 

Contributors 

• Kevin O’Keefe, Senior Security Solutions Architect