Most teams equate “discovery” with running a scanner and sifting through the output.
The problem is that scanners are built to show you what’s easy to find.
They’ll surface thousands of low-priority findings, but they won’t tell you what’s exploitable, interconnected, or business-critical.
Done right, it helps you uncover the full picture of your exposure: vulnerabilities, but also misconfigurations, privilege pathways, internet-facing assets you forgot existed, and more.
In this article, you’ll learn:
Let’s begin.
In most security programs, discovery starts and ends with a vulnerability scan. You run the tool, it gives you a list, and that’s that. But in CTEM, discovery is a much broader, more strategic phase.
It’s about building a full, contextual picture of what’s exposed in your scoped environment, not just what’s unpatched.
It’s important to stress that Discovery is a continuous process. While adopting CTEM, your initial Discovery efforts will take more time than they will during your 15th iteration. As we discuss this phase, consider that ideally we are building a wealth of exposure data to filter through once a scope has been solidified.
CTEM doesn’t start with, “What does my scanner find?” It starts with, “If I were an attacker, what could I exploit here and how would I get in?” That means looking at:
CTEM discovery isn’t limited to CVEs. It also surfaces:
These are often more dangerous than a patchable vulnerability, yet they’re the kinds of things standard scanners are not revealing.
Understanding and documenting impact is critical to this phase of CTEM:
Context turns a list of findings into a threat story and that’s what makes discovery meaningful.
Let’s get one thing straight: scanners have their place. They’re great at surfacing known vulnerabilities and misconfigurations especially at scale. But in a CTEM program, they’re only one piece of the puzzle.
If vulnerability scanning is the surface layer, CTEM discovery is the deep dive. It’s about uncovering all the entry points, missteps, and oversights that attackers could realistically exploit—whether or not there’s a CVE attached.
Here’s what you should be looking for in a well-run CTEM discovery phase:
Yes, these still matter especially those:
However, this is just the starting point.
Such as:
These are the common and provide attackers with a lucky break at your expense.
Maybe it’s a brand new asset or maybe its “shadow IT”. Think:
If you don’t know it exists, you can’t protect it and attackers love that.
Discovery should include checking for:
Include looking for identity exposure, such as:
Privilege escalation almost always plays a role in real cyber attacks.
One weak spot on its own might not be dangerous. But link a few together such as, a misconfigured API, an exposed key, and a high-privileged user and you’ve got a real-world breach scenario.
CTEM discovery should help surface these chains, not just isolated findings.
These attack paths will be more apparent the more comprehensive your exposure data is.
Finding exposures is one thing. Understanding why they matter is what makes discovery useful.
CTEM doesn’t stop at “what’s vulnerable” it keeps going until you can answer, “So what?”
Here’s how context transforms discovery from a list of issues into a clear security picture:
An exposure on an unused dev server isn’t the same as one on your payments API.
That’s what turns a generic finding into a business risk.
An internal-facing issue might seem low-risk until you realize the system has lateral access to your production database.
Discovery should show you not just the location of an exposure, but its connectivity, reach, and potential for escalation.
Exposure tied to a service account is one thing. Exposure tied to a high-privilege admin who hasn’t rotated credentials in a year? Whole different story.
Understanding who has access, what they can do, and how they’re authenticated adds a vital layer of meaning to what you discover.
Is the exposure in production, staging, or a personal dev box? CTEM helps you triage not just by severity, but by where the issue lives and what could happen if it’s exploited there.
Context is what lets you move from raw findings to real insight. It’s also what sets CTEM discovery apart from legacy vulnerability management.
You’ve scoped your environment. You understand what you’re looking for. Now it’s time to actually run discovery.
Here’s how to structure your CTEM discovery phase so it’s efficient, relevant, and leads to action:
No single tool will find everything. Use a combination:
Each tool fills a different gap. Combined, they give you a richer picture.
Discovery doesn’t mean scanning every system. Focus your effort on what’s in scope—and go deep, not wide.
Add threat intel feeds or internal red team input to shape what you’re looking for. If attackers are exploiting certain cloud misconfigs or API flaws in your sector, adjust your discovery focus to match.
This helps you find exposures that are relevant to today’s attack landscape.
Once you’ve gathered data, start mapping:
This is what turns discovery into something that can actually be prioritized later.
Don’t do discovery in a silo. Involve DevOps, Cloud, IAM, or whoever owns the systems in your scope. They can help you find things scanners won’t and they’ll be more likely to act on the results later.
Effective CTEM discovery is about depth, context, and collaboration. If you treat it like a box-ticking scan, you’ll miss the point and the risk.
Discovery is where you uncover your exposures. But exposure alone doesn’t equal risk. The next step is figuring out which of those findings matter and which ones can wait (or even be ignored).
That’s where Prioritization, the next phase in CTEM, comes in.
In the next blog in the CTEM Chronicles, you’ll learn:
Because if discovery shows you the battlefield, prioritization tells you where to strike.
Unlock your organization's full security potential and uncover even more vulnerabilities than before by choosing our advanced penetration testing services.
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