What is the vulnerability management process?

Fashionable enterprise networks are huge methods of distant and on-premises endpoints, regionally put in software program, cloud apps, and third-party providers. Each certainly one of these belongings performs an important function in enterprise operations—and any of them may include vulnerabilities that menace actors can use to sow chaos. Organizations depend on the vulnerability administration course of to move off these cyberthreats earlier than they strike.

The vulnerability administration course of is a steady course of for locating, prioritizing, and resolving safety vulnerabilities throughout a corporation’s IT infrastructure.

Safety vulnerabilities outlined

A safety vulnerability is any weak spot or flaw within the construction, perform, or implementation of an IT asset or community that hackers or cybercriminals can exploit to trigger hurt. Coding errors—e.g., a bug in an internet app that lets menace actors inject the system with malware—are a standard sort of vulnerability. Misconfigurations, like a cloud storage bucket that exposes delicate information to the general public web, are additionally widespread.

In line with the IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index, the exploitation of vulnerabilities like these is the second most typical cyberattack vector (technique of infiltrating the goal system or community).

A steady vulnerability administration course of helps cease cyberattacks—and soften the blow of those who succeed—by discovering and fixing flaws earlier than menace actors can weaponize them. Briefly, it allows the safety crew to undertake a extra proactive safety posture, which is why vulnerability administration is a key part of enterprise risk management methods immediately.

The vulnerability administration lifecycle  

Company networks will not be static. Each change—adopting a brand new app, updating an working system—can introduce new vulnerabilities. Plus, hackers are all the time trying to find undiscovered flaws, and it solely takes them about 12 days to start exploiting the ones they find. 

To maintain up with these adversaries and reply to cyberthreats in a well timed method, safety groups handle vulnerabilities in an ongoing course of referred to as the vulnerability administration lifecycle. Every cycle leads straight into the subsequent, and the intel collected in every cycle shapes how the subsequent one performs out.

Usually the vulnerability administration lifecycle contains 5 phases, plus an occasional planning part.

Planning and prework  

Earlier than the lifecycle formally begins, the group establishes its total technique for addressing safety weaknesses. This contains figuring out accountable stakeholders, earmarking sources, setting objectives, and defining key efficiency metrics.

Organizations undergo this stage as soon as earlier than implementing a proper vulnerability administration course of. Then, the general technique is revisited periodically and up to date as wanted.

1. Asset discovery and vulnerability evaluation

Each spherical of the vulnerability administration lifecycle begins with updating the stock of all of the {hardware}, software program, and different IT belongings lively on the corporate community. Safety groups usually use attack surface management platforms or different asset discovery instruments to automate this course of.   

Subsequent, the safety crew conducts vulnerability scans to establish vulnerabilities in these belongings. The crew could use a mixture of vulnerability administration instruments and strategies to evaluate all belongings, together with automated vulnerability scanners, penetration tests, and logs from inside safety instruments.

2. Vulnerability prioritization

The safety crew makes use of the outcomes of vulnerability assessments to kind out false positives and prioritize found vulnerabilities by stage of criticality. Prioritization allows safety groups to concentrate on the largest safety dangers first.

Assets just like the Widespread Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS), MITRE’s checklist of Widespread Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs), and NIST’s Nationwide Vulnerability Database (NVD) may help safety groups get a baseline understanding of how crucial their vulnerabilities are.

Cybersecurity groups then mix this exterior menace intelligence with company-specific information to know how recognized vulnerabilities have an effect on their distinctive networks.

3. Vulnerability decision

The safety crew works via the checklist of vulnerabilities, transferring from most crucial to least. Usually, they’ve three choices for resolving these flaws:

• Remediation: Totally addressing a vulnerability so it may well not be exploited, resembling by patching software program vulnerabilities or fixing machine misconfigurations.
• Mitigation: Making a vulnerability harder to take advantage of and/or lessening the impression of exploitation with out eradicating the vulnerability solely. For instance, placing a firewall round a susceptible asset and coaching staff on social engineering assaults can be types of mitigation.
• Acceptance: If a vulnerability is unlikely to be exploited or wouldn’t trigger a lot impression, the corporate could settle for it.

4. Reassessment and monitoring

To verify that mitigation and remediation efforts labored—and to make sure they don’t introduce any new issues—the safety crew reassesses the belongings. The crew additionally takes inventory of the general community and the overall cyberthreat panorama, as adjustments in both one could require updates to safety controls or criticality rankings.

5. Reporting and enchancment

Vulnerability administration platforms usually present dashboards for reporting metrics like imply time to detect (MTTD), imply time to reply (MTTR), and vulnerability recurrences. The safety crew can use these metrics to report again to stakeholders and audit the vulnerability administration program, in search of alternatives to enhance efficiency over time.

Learn more about the vulnerability management lifecycle

Greatest practices for an efficient vulnerability administration program  

Correlate vulnerabilities

Safety groups can higher perceive every vulnerability’s criticality by contemplating how a flaw pertains to different vulnerabilities within the system. For instance, a non-critical flaw in a non-critical asset could not appear essential in isolation. If hackers can use that non-critical asset as a stepping stone to take advantage of a vulnerability in a extra crucial system, it could tackle a better precedence. 

Correlating vulnerabilities can even assist discover and repair underlying points which will make the community extra prone to cyberattacks. For instance, if vulnerability assessments preserve turning up outdated belongings, it could be an indication the patch management course of wants an overhaul. 

Curate data

According to Gartner, one of the widespread vulnerability administration errors is when safety groups ship uncooked vulnerability scan outcomes to asset house owners. These reviews can include tons of or 1000’s of vulnerabilities, making it laborious for IT groups to find out the simplest remediation technique.   

Safety groups can use the prioritization stage to not solely rank vulnerabilities but in addition curate menace intelligence and different data into digestible reviews. That approach, different stakeholders in vulnerability administration may help transfer the method alongside as an alternative of getting slowed down within the particulars.

Strategically schedule scans

Some organizations use steady scanning instruments to flag vulnerabilities in actual time. People who don’t should be intentional about scheduling scans.  

Vulnerability assessments may be time- and resource-intensive, so safety groups could not wish to scan each asset throughout each evaluation. Usually, organizations group belongings on their networks in line with criticality stage. Extra crucial asset teams are scanned extra usually, usually weekly or month-to-month. Much less crucial belongings could also be scanned quarterly or much less.  

Scans can even have an effect on the efficiency of some belongings, so the group could schedule assessments for off-hours when the belongings aren’t getting used.

Automate wherever doable

Given the sheer variety of belongings within the common enterprise community, handbook vulnerability administration processes usually aren’t possible. As an alternative, safety groups usually use vulnerability administration methods to automate key workflows like asset discovery, vulnerability evaluation, prioritization, and patch administration.

Discover vulnerability administration options

Even with the precise safety instruments in place, it may be laborious for safety groups to maintain up with all of the potential threats and dangers of their enterprise networks.

IBM X-Drive® Crimson may help streamline the vulnerability administration course of. The X-Drive® Crimson crew affords complete vulnerability management services, working with organizations to establish crucial belongings, uncover high-risk vulnerabilities, totally remediate weaknesses, and apply efficient countermeasures. X-Drive Crimson’s patented, hacker-developed rating engine robotically prioritizes vulnerabilities primarily based on weaponized exploits and key danger elements. And concurrent remediation helps even small safety groups repair probably the most crucial vulnerabilities first, and quick. The end result may help organizations decrease danger of compromise whereas saving time and sources.

Explore IBM X-Force® Red vulnerability management services

IBM Safety® QRadar® Suite can additional assist resource-strained safety groups with a modernized menace detection and response answer. QRadar Suite integrates endpoint security, log administration, SIEM and SOAR merchandise inside a standard person interface, and embeds enterprise automation and AI to assist safety analysts improve productiveness and work extra successfully throughout applied sciences.

Explore IBM Security QRadar Suite