Final answer:
A vulnerability assessment is a non-intrusive security action designed to identify potential vulnerabilities without exploiting them, making it the correct answer to the student's question.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question relates to security actions that can be categorized as non-intrusive scanning within a framework. Among the options provided, b. Vulnerability assessment is the one that represents a non-intrusive scanning type of framework. Vulnerability assessments are designed to identify, rank, and report vulnerabilities that, if exploited, may potentially harm the environment, but they do not exploit the vulnerabilities, making them non-intrusive. They are particularly useful for maintaining a security posture without risking the operational status of critical systems.