15 Features MSSPs Must Look for in a DAST Scanner

In recent years, penetration testing has become a foundational security service. Compliance mandates, supply chain risks, and growing executive awareness have made quarterly or even continuous testing a must-have for organizations across industries. In fact, 51% of organizations now outsource their penetration testing projects to external providers. 

Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) are at the center of this demand. 

But while the market has grown, so have the delivery pressures. 

Most MSSPs offer penetration testing as a core service, but behind every engagement lies a familiar set of problems: thin margins, stretched teams, and delayed reporting. The work is important. The revenue looks promising on paper. Yet profitability often takes a hit because the operational model is full of inefficiencies. 

And one of the most overlooked causes? The way MSSPs use their DAST scanners. 

Penetration Testing Is Growing. Margins Are Not. 

It is easy to assume that more projects mean more revenue. But MSSPs know the truth: more clients often lead to more chaos. 

The competition is fierce. Many MSSPs operate in a commoditized market where pricing pressure is high. Clients expect detailed reports, rapid turnarounds, and flexibility in formats, timelines, and delivery models. What was once a premium service has become a race to deliver more, faster, and cheaper. 

According to internal estimates from several MSSPs, nearly 40 to 50 percent of the total delivery time per project is spent not on testing, but on consolidation, cleanup, and reporting. The work of combining automated and manual findings, verifying vulnerabilities, formatting reports, and responding to client queries eats up resources that could otherwise be used to grow the business. 

This is where the value chain breaks. 

The Hidden Bottlenecks Inside Delivery 

The typical delivery process involves running a DAST scan, performing manual penetration testing, and then combining the results into a report. But this process is rarely smooth. 

Common friction points include: 

• Manually verifying false positives and defending findings to clients 

• Navigating siloed scanners with no client-level segmentation 

• Copy-pasting screenshots from DAST tools like into Word templates 

• Reformatting reports to match each client’s expectations 

• Managing client-specific logins, credentials, and preferences with no central system 

What is worse – most MSSPs accept these inefficiencies as part of the job. 

DAST Is Treated Like an Add-On. But It Can Do More. 

For most MSSPs, DAST tools are secondary. They are used only to run the initial scan and extract raw findings. The real work happens elsewhere: in spreadsheets, Slack messages, Word documents, project management tools, and late-night calls. 

This is a missed opportunity. 

DAST platforms, when designed for MSSPs, can take on far more responsibility. They can automate the parts of delivery that drain the most time. They can structure reporting, simplify user access, and eliminate false positives before they reach the analyst. They can bring your manual and automated workflows together, not force your team to jump between tools. 

The key lies in choosing a DAST scanner that understands the MSSP business model. 

What an MSSP-Ready DAST Scanner Looks Like 

To move from tactical tool to strategic platform, a DAST scanner must offer features that solve real business and operational problems. 

Here is what MSSPs should look for: 

1. White-Labeled Platform Built for Your Brand

MSSPs invest heavily in building trust and credibility with clients. Yet when it comes to reporting, many tools offer little flexibility, forcing MSSPs to create branded reports from scratch. 

A modern DAST scanner should be fully white-labeled, allowing MSSPs to: 

• Generate reports with their own branding and logo 

• Customize visual elements and report structure to suit client preferences 

• Share access to a branded client portal, where customers can log in independently to download reports and view scan progress 

This ensures your brand remains front and center and reduces dependence on external formatting tools or ad hoc email sharing. 

2. False Positive Management by the Vendor

False positive validation is one of the most frustrating and time-consuming tasks for MSSPs. When analysts spend hours just to prove something is not a real vulnerability, it delays reports, customer communication, and action. 

To address this, the scanner must: 

• Include a dedicated vendor team that takes full ownership of false positive validation 

• Ensure only verified, accurate findings reach your analysts 

• Continuously improve detection accuracy through rule and logic updates 

• Offer false positive assurance as a built-in, ongoing part of the service 

This ensures that MSSPs can focus on value-added work instead of draining internal time verifying inaccurate results. 

3. Unlimited Proofs of Vulnerabilities

For clients to act quickly, findings must be backed by solid evidence. MSSPs need a scanner that does more than flag vulnerabilities. It should show exactly how each vulnerability was discovered and how it can be reproduced and fixed. 

To make this possible, the vendor should: 

• Provide detailed proof-of-vulnerabilities with step-by-step screenshots 

• Allow MSSPs to challenge any finding and request human verified PoCs without limits across sites, apps, and vulnerability types 

• Help MSSPs guide end-user remediation by linking PoCs to actionable steps 

This builds trust in every finding and accelerates remediation with clear, verifiable evidence. 

4. Multi-Tenant Architecture for Client-Specific Workflows

An MSSP might be handling dozens or even hundreds of clients at any given time. Without proper client isolation, user-role assignment, and asset mapping, operations can spiral into confusion. 

A DAST scanner built for MSSPs must provide a true multi-tenant environment where you can: 

• Create distinct client accounts or “companies” 

• Add and organize their websites, APIs, and other digital assets 

• Group client assets under their business units for easier tracking 

• Assign consultants, security analysts, and other internal users to specific clients 

• Clearly define client-level access control – who can scan, view vulnerabilities, generate reports, and more 

This makes onboarding easier and ensures accountability across every engagement. 

5. Capability to Run Parallel Scans Across Clients

MSSPs do not have the luxury to run scans one after another. Whether onboarding new clients or conducting regular tests, the ability to launch multiple scans simultaneously is non-negotiable. 

The platform should allow MSSPs to: 

• Run multiple scans in parallel without performance degradation 

• Schedule scans during off-hours or high-traffic periods to reduce impact 

This ensures MSSPs can scale operations efficiently while keeping testing cycles on track. 

6. AI-Powered Scanning Engine That Delivers Depth and Breadth

Many DAST tools offer surface-level scans that fail to capture the complexity of modern websites. MSSPs working with diverse client environments cannot afford to miss critical paths, hidden inputs, or authenticated areas. 

A modern DAST scanner must be equipped to: 

• Scan both websites and APIs with equal depth 

• Understand modern frameworks and UI behaviors 

• Handle single page applications, script-heavy JavaScript and HTML5 pages 

• Navigate password-protected areas and multi-level forms 

• Discover unlinked or hidden pages often missed in standard scans 

• Perform authenticated or gray-box scanning to reach deeper logic paths 

This allows MSSPs to uncover vulnerabilities that conventional tools overlook, ensuring broader coverage and more actionable results for every client. 

7. Centralized Vulnerability Management

MSSPs routinely conduct manual penetration testing to uncover business logic flaws, chained vulnerabilities, and other issues that scanners alone cannot detect. However, merging these manual findings with automated scanner results is often a time-consuming process.

An MSSP-ready DAST scanner should allow: 

• Provide a centralized vulnerability database where MSSPs can log, reuse, and reference past findings across assessments 

• Enable seamless addition of manual PT results into the same dashboard as automated scan outputs 

• Support deduplication, tagging, and categorization for easier triage and reporting 

• Generate export-ready, white-labeled reports that unify manual and automated results for clients 

• This approach simplifies workflows, enhances consistency, and allows MSSPs to deliver deeper insights at scale 

This can cut reporting time by over 50 percent and create one source of truth for every engagement. 

8. Pulling in Findings from Other Scanners Seamlessly

Some pentesters insist on using their own DAST tools or custom test cases on tools such as Burp Suite. Others may have findings from internal scanners that need to be merged. Instead of rejecting those tools, the right DAST platform should offer flexibility. 

It should support: 

• Using APIs to ingest data from tools like Burp Suite 

• Uploading results from other scanners via CSV 

• Standardizing findings into a single vulnerability tracking and reporting flow 

• Handling the de-duplication of findings to avoid redundant reporting  

This gives MSSPs the ability to work with client-preferred tools while maintaining delivery consistency. 

9. Plugin-Driven, Automated Revalidation Workflows

When clients say they have patched a vulnerability, your team should not need to rerun an entire scan just to confirm it. That wastes time and increases cost. 

With plugin support, MSSPs can: 

• Configure revalidation logic for specific vulnerability types 

• Trigger only the relevant test cases to verify a fix 

• Avoid full re-scans and rework 

This allows you to deliver faster remediation validation and meet SLAs more efficiently. 

10. Admin Features for End-to-End User and Client Control

Operational control is crucial for MSSPs. Admin capabilities must help define responsibilities, restrict access, and bring structure to daily operations. 

The scanner should include internal admin features to: 

• Create and manage user roles across functions (consultants, analysts, etc.) 

• Assign CRUD and scan rights based on user role or function 

• Map users to specific vulnerabilities, scan tasks, or client projects 

• Enable clear segregation of duties between teams 

This strengthens governance and ensures smooth collaboration across growing MSSP teams 

11. Client Portal That Simplifies Communication

Clients expect real-time access, not status emails that take days. A self-service portal can completely change how you engage with your customers. 

The portal should offer: 

• A clean view of all vulnerabilities (new, open, reopened, resolved) 

• Trends showing whether risks are reducing over time 

• URI-level visibility to show scan coverage 

• Report downloads in Word, PDF, CSV, or JSON formats 

• Detailed remediation guidelines 

This ensures transparency, trust, and reduces the time your team spends answering routine queries. 

12. Create Custom Reports

Not all clients want the same report. Some want full technical breakdowns. Others want just a business-level summary. 

The DAST platform should help MSSPs: 

• Create detailed, tabular, or summary-style reports based on their preference 

• Select from a wide range of fields such as URI, vulnerability type, severity, impacted headers, cookies, and HTTP methods, to build custom reports 

• Apply logic to generate reports, schedule delivery frequency daily, weekly, or post-test 

• Include expert summaries and strategic insights from consultants 

This ensures every stakeholder gets exactly the insights they need to act quickly.

13. CI/CD Integration

Many of your clients are shifting security left. Your platform should support that goal by integrating seamlessly into their pipelines. 

Look for integrations that enable: 

• Triggering scans from CI/CD tools such as Jenkins 

• Blocking deployments when critical issues are found 

• Sending vulnerabilities directly to Jira for auto-assignment 

• Tracking remediation within the development cycle 

This helps MSSPs embed security into their clients’ engineering workflows. 

14. Secured Login and Authentication

With so many users and clients interacting with the platform, access control is not optional. It is foundational. 

Your scanner should support: 

• SSO for internal and external users 

• MFA for all logins 

• Granular permissions to prevent overexposure 

This safeguards every customer environment from unauthorized access. 

15. Other Good-to-Have Features 

Some features may not feel essential on day one, but they quickly prove their value as your client base grows: 

• SIEM integration to support clients’ centralized visibility 

• Self-service or assisted client onboarding 

• Zero-downtime deployments 

• Advanced filtering options to surface what matters 

These small yet strategic additions help MSSPs streamline delivery, reduce manual effort, and improve client experience at scale. 

How Indusface WAS MSSP Edition Supports This Entire Workflow 

Indusface WAS MSSP Edition is purpose-built for service providers, bringing all essential capabilities into one platform. 

Whether it is: 

• Running automated vulnerability scans across multiple client environments 

• Performing false positive validation  

• Providing automated, step-by-step PoCs for easy reproduction 

• Managing manual and automated findings in a unified vulnerability dashboard 

• Importing and standardizing results from multiple scanners to support varied client preferences 

• Enabling white-labeled reporting, including custom branding and flexible formats 

• Supporting multi-tenant operations with role-based access for internal and client-side users 

• Offering self-service onboarding and centralized project visibility 

• Integrating with tools such as Jira, Jenkins, and SIEM platforms 

• Ensuring security through SSO, MFA, and client-level isolation 

Indusface’s WAS MSSP Edition provides MSSPs with a comprehensive security testing toolkit designed to enhance efficiency, margins, and client satisfaction –  all from ONE SINGLE PLATFORM. 

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