Difference between Penetration Testing and Vulnerability Scanning

Both penetration testing and vulnerability scanning improve network security by locating weeknesses. However, the methods for arriving at the results are distinctly different.

Vulnerability scanning relies almost entirely the brute force provided by automated tools; in contrast, penetration testing relies on the ingenuity of the penetration tester.

Adopted from the book Assessing Network Security by Ben Smith, David LeBlanc, Kevin Lam.