vulnerability scanning parameter

A configurable attribute or setting that governs the behavior of a vulnerability scanning process — such as scan scope (IP ranges, ports, or asset types), scan frequency, authentication credentials, scanning depth, and included or excluded checks. Standards and compliance frameworks treat these settings as security-relevant information, because their unauthorized disclosure or modification could allow an adversary to evade detection or narrow the scan's coverage. In practice, documents such as NIST SP 800-171r3 group them alongside intrusion-detection parameters and filtering rules as items requiring access controls and least-privilege protections.