---
id: 2323
title: "Barriers to automation 1 - vulnerability scanners"
source_domain: portswigger.net
source_url: "https://portswigger.net/blog/barriers-to-automation-1-vulnerability-scanners"
published_at: "2007-05-22T23:24:00Z"
tags: ["automation", "sql-injection", "web-security", "xss", "vulnerability-scanning", "portswigger", "pen-testing", "scanner-limitations", "semantic-understanding"]
phying_url: "https://phying.com/item/2323"
lang: en
---

# Barriers to automation 1 - vulnerability scanners

## Summary

Web scanners reliably find signature-based bugs like error-producing SQLi or reflected XSS, but lack semantic understanding of application logic and thus miss most vulnerabilities in a typical app.

## Intelligence Metadata

- **Sources:** portswigger.net
- **Published:** 2007-05-22T23:24:00Z
- **Original:** https://portswigger.net/blog/barriers-to-automation-1-vulnerability-scanners
- **Phying News:** https://phying.com/item/2323