Managing Target Groups

Acunetix 360 lets you create target groups, so you can manage many targets easily. You can create different groups to differentiate targets, like production or staging target groups.

By grouping targets you can:

  • Scan all targets in a group simultaneously, using the same Scan Policy
  • Get an overview of the security state of all targets in that group
  • Filter the list of targets by group
  • Assign permissions to users by group (For further information, see Managing Teams in Acunetix 360)

Use cases for target groups

You can group targets depending on their location, state, or importance. Here are three practical examples:

  • Staging vs Live Environments
  • Locations of Targets
  • Technology

Example 1: Staging vs Live Environments

You can use Acunetix 360 to scan web applications during the different stages of development, and once they are live. Since you probably use different Scan Policies, you can group all the staging and live targets in different groups. This enables you to scan all live targets simultaneously using a specific Scan Policy or scan all the targets on the staging server using another Scan Policy.

Example 2: Locations of Targets

Since there are many differences between the US and EU laws, it is common to have US and EU-based targets running under different configurations. And since you have to use different scan policies, you can use Target Groups to scan all the targets in a specific location.

Example 3: Technology  

You can group, for example, your targets by technology. If you group targets by technology, such as PHP, once a specific PHP vulnerability is announced, you can easily run scans on all the targets built with PHP by scanning that Target Group.

Multiple and Default Groups

Targets can be included in more than one Target Group, for example:

  • Company target (the US, Critical groups)
  • Staging Company target (US, Staging, Non Critical groups)
  • Europe Employees Online Portal (EMEA, Critical groups)

By default your Acunetix 360 account has a built-in group called Default. This group cannot be deleted, and unless you specify otherwise, new targets you add to your Acunetix 360 account will be automatically added to the Default group.

Target Groups columns

This table lists the columns displayed on the Targets page. All can be filtered.

Field

Description

Name

This column shows the name of the target group you provided while creating a target group.

Tags

This column displays the tags you added to the target group.

Description

This column shows the information of the target group you provided while creating the target group.

How to create a target group
  1. Log in to Acunetix 360.
  2. From the main menu, select Targets > New Group.

  1. In the Name field, enter a Group name.
  2. In the Description field, enter information for the target group.
  3. In the Target Group Tags field, enter tags.
  4. In the Targets field, check the display option.
  5. Check those targets you want to be included in the group.
  6. Select Save.

Tips

Once you create a target group, you can select Scan beside the target group to launch a security scan.

How to add a target to a group
  1. From the main menu, select Targets > Targets.
  2. From the Targets page, select the Edit button beside the target you want to add to a group.
  3. In the Target Groups field, check the group to which you want to add the target.
  4. Select Save.
How to edit a target group
  1. From the main menu, select Targets > Manage Groups.
  2. From the Target Groups page, select the Edit button beside the group you want to edit.
  3. Make whatever edits you want.
  4. Select Save.
How to delete a target from a group
  1. From the main menu, select Targets > Manage Groups.

Information

To delete, the target group must not have any target associated with that group.

  1. From the Target Groups page, select Delete beside the group you want to edit.
  2. From the Delete Target Group pop-up, select Delete to delete the group.

Filtering target groups

Column filters

All columns can be filtered, using a highly customizable combination of Fields, Operators, and Values. Each is explained below. This is useful for teams that manage the security of many targets.

Filters & Values

This table lists the filters and values available for columns listed above. Select an option to filter the list by that criterion.

  • In many cases, values can be entered into the value field; in others, the value can be selected from a drop-down menu.
  • You can enter more than one filter at a time.

Field

Description

Value

Name

Select to filter by the target name as defined in the New Target page.

Enter a value.

Tags

Select to filter by tags

Enter a value.

Description

Select to filter by the description as entered in the New Target Group page.

Enter a value.

Operator

This table lists and explains the Operators available for filtering columns. They work in conjunction with the Field, Operator, and Value.

Operator

Description

Equal

This operator can be used for exact matching. For example, if you filtered by the Target URL http://www.example.com/, the filtered list of results would not also list http://api.example.com.

Not Equal

This operator can be used to exclude some results based on exactly matching. For example, if you filtered by the Target URL of http://www.example.com/, the filtered list of results would exclude scans for that one.

Contains

This operator can be used to include results if the filtered column contains the value. It does not matter where the value is. For example, you could filter for the word 'production'.

Not Contains

This operator can be used to exclude certain results on the Targets page.

Starts with

This operator can be used to filter for columns that begin with the value. For example, you could filter for Target fields that begin with the 'https://' scheme.

Ends with

This operator can be used to filter for columns that end with the value. For example, you could filter for Target Name fields ending with 'Staging'.

How to filter target groups in Acunetix 360
  1. From the main menu, select Targets > Manage Groups.
  2. From the Target Groups page, select the filter button () next to any header column.
  3. Select Clear to clear all fields.
  4. Add a New Filter.
  5. In the relevant filter, where relevant:
  1. From the Field drop-down, select Tag.
  2. From the Operator drop-down, select an option.
  3. In the Value field, enter a value.
  1. Select Apply.

Overview of the Security State of Targets in a Group

To get an overview of the security state of all targets in a particular group, navigate to the Acunetix 360 dashboard and use the Groups drop-down to select the group.

Once you select the group, the Acunetix 360 dashboard will be updated to reflect the security state of all the targets in the chosen group.

 

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