The site will not scan
Why discovery fails, and what to check in order.
- 1Check the address resolves publicly
A hostname that only resolves inside your network, or only over a VPN, cannot be reached. Try it from a phone on mobile data.
- 2Check it answers without a login
A site behind basic auth, an allowlist or a holding page will limit what can be read. The scanner waits out interstitials, but not a login form.
- 3Check the certificate
An invalid certificate is itself a finding, but a broken TLS handshake can stop discovery entirely.
- 4Check your WAF or CDN
Aggressive bot protection may block the scanner. It identifies itself with a scanner user agent, which you can allow.
- 5Run it again
A site that was briefly down produces a failed step rather than a wrong conclusion. Re-running is cheap.
The report says which step failed and with what error. That is usually the whole answer.
Questions
My scan says “we could not scan this site”. What now?
It means discovery never got a usable response. Confirm the address is public, answers over HTTPS and does not require a login, then try again.
Can I allowlist the scanner?
It sends a scanner user agent you can match on. Remember that allowlisting also hides genuine exposure from your own report.
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