What is Vulnerability Management?

Learn the basics of vulnerability management and discover the latest tools, detection techniques, and more. Vulnerability management is important for security posture and you’ll find out how soon.

What is Vulnerability Management?

Vulnerability management is an ongoing process of identifying and assessing cyber vulnerabilities in your organization. It involves reporting and remediating these vulnerabilities as well. Your vulnerability management tool will scan endpoints, workloads, and systems. Threat and vulnerability management uses different detection techniques to patch and remediate them. Good vulnerability management programs make use of threat intelligence and address risks rapidly.

Importance of Vulnerability Management

Implementing a solid vulnerability management program helps you identify and remove security risks before cyber criminals exploit them. This way, it helps prevent cyber threats, such as DDoS attacks, zero-day attacks, unauthorized access, phishing, and more.

Here are some of the reasons why vulnerability management is important to your business:

• Prevents cyber risks: Attackers enter your systems through unpatched vulnerabilities. But vulnerability management identifies and addresses these weak points before attacks can find or exploit them. This prevents data breaches and attacks from harming your organization.

• Optimize IT resources: Security teams face difficulties in managing resources while addressing security flaws. Vulnerability management allows security professionals to prioritize risks and understand which security risks are more important. This way, they can allocate resources to security issues based on their criticality.

• Improves customer trust: Customers and partners share their personal data with organizations and expect you will keep up their trust. Data breaches can break that trust and make you pay huge fines. Vulnerability management ensures your organization complies with industry standards and safeguards your data. This helps in improving long-term business relationships and trust.

• Reduces service downtimes: Cyber attacks can disrupt your operations by hijacking your systems, gaining unauthorized access, and manipulating data. An effective vulnerability management program addresses security incidents faster from systems to reduce the risk of attacks and costly downtimes.
• Better incident response: Vulnerability management proactively identifies and mitigates risks. This means businesses can respond to security incidents effectively and strengthen their security posture.

What is RBVM & How it Differs from Traditional Scanning?

Risk-based vulnerability management takes into account risks that your organization faces before mitigating various vulnerabilities. You identify, rank them, and prioritize these vulnerabilities based on their level of severity. Unlike traditional vulnerability management, risk-based vulnerability management will incorporate contextual factors. These include things such as: the likelihood of vulnerabilities being exploited, insights about current cyber attack tactics and trends, and asset criticality.

Traditional vulnerability scanning will look for all vulnerabilities. But RBVM will dial down and reduce wasted effort by focusing on the most critical issues. It weeds out low-risk issues as well and provides quicker response times, thus leading to greater operational efficiency.

An example of RBVM in action when compared to traditional vulnerability scanning is when it would patch a less severe vulnerability first. That vulnerability could be a critical customer-facing web server which may have higher potential business impact tied to assets connected to it. If those assets get compromised, then the low vulnerability becomes something very severe later. Traditional vulnerability scanning would miss this and just focus on technical severity scores such as CVSS. Risk-based vulnerability management will consider your business’s asset criticality and factor in real-world threat intelligence.

Vulnerability Management vs Vulnerability Assessment

Vulnerability management is an ongoing and cyclical process that will continuously help you identify, prioritize, monitor and resolve weaknesses for reducing risks. Vulnerability assessment is a single scan or checkup that helps you find weaknesses in operations, apps, networks, and systems

The focus of vulnerability assessment is finding problems that exist right now, whereas in vulnerability management, you hone in on reducing risks long term. Check out this guide to learn about the differences between vulnerability management vs vulnerability assessment in detail.

Vulnerability Management Lifecycle

Vulnerability management typically goes through the following phases. Here is how it works:

Discovery and Inventory

This is the first step where you will make a complete and accurate inventory of all your assets within your organization's network. It will include all hardware, software, network devices, cloud instances, and apps. 

Assessment and Prioritization

After you identify your assets, you will use automated vulnerability scanners and other security tools to probe your infrastructure for known misconfigurations and security weaknesses. Whatever vulnerabilities you identify, you will then assess them based on their level of severity using standardized frameworks like the Common Vulnerability Scoring System. 

Remediation and Mitigation

Your prioritized vulnerabilities will then be remediated. You will fully eliminate it by applying the necessary software updates, patches, and use security tools and solutions. If you can't fully remediate your found vulnerabilities, then your team will implement the right mitigation strategies to reduce the likelihood of them being exploited and minimize potential damages. 

Verification and Monitoring

After you have remediated or mitigated your vulnerabilities, you will re-scan your affected systems to see if your fixes worked as intended. If no vulnerabilities are found, then you will close the loop and provide feedback to your team. If anything else is found, you will just repeat the process all over again. 

Reporting and Improvement

Once you have managed your vulnerabilities, you will generate detailed reports and report your findings to different stakeholders, IT team members, and security leadership. You will also report to compliance officers and your reports will track key metrics like mean time to remediate and ensure compliance with the latest regulations. Whatever insights you gain from these reports, you will use them to continuously refine and improve your existing vulnerability management program.

Vulnerability Management Frameworks and Compliance

Here is what you need to know about vulnerability management frameworks and compliance:

• A vulnerability management framework lays down a set of guidelines and best practices which organizations should follow to patch risks and fix existing vulnerabilities. It’s a supporting structure or blueprint for the organization, basically. You will learn about key vulnerability management metrics from it.
• The National Vulnerability Database (NVD) is a US government repository that contains info about more than 195,000 common vulnerabilities. Companies around the world use its vulnerability data to spot common threats and locate new CVEs, whenever they come out or published. It’s a reference for global organizations.
• The NIST cybersecurity framework is another example that goes into what kind of safeguards to implement, how to detect and respond to cybersecurity incidents, and establishes recommended recovery processes.

Vulnerability Management Benefits

Here are some of the key vulnerability management benefits for companies:

• Operational efficiency: Good vulnerability management can improve your organization’s operational efficiency. It takes less to get more work done without compromising security.
• Stronger security posture: Vulnerability management enhances visibility and reveals the state of your cloud security posture. It streamlines compliance management and makes sure you adhere to the latest regulatory frameworks.
• Risk reduction: It reduces the risk of potential data breaches, minimizes downtimes, and optimizes resource allocation. You reduce the time taken to find and mitigate emerging threats.
• Real-time reporting: Real-time reporting features, increased ROI on security investments, and reduced long-term costs are some of the other benefits of vulnerability management.
• Security automation and human expertise: You can hire vulnerability management services to get human insights on top security automation. These are expert professionals who review alerts manually and provide additional help that technology can’t provide.
• Flexible and scalable services: Vulnerability management as a service can provide customized help, reduce security risks, and provide various benefits. The best part is no commitment or fixed subscription, you can hire help for the necessary workloads or size of your organization as needed.

Learn about the difference between vulnerability management vs. vulnerability assessment here.

Common Types of Vulnerabilities

Here are the most common types of vulnerabilities you should be aware of:

Software Vulnerabilities

Common software vulnerabilities you may encounter are cross-site scripting, SQL injection, unpatched systems, reused or weak passwords, IDOR, etc. You may not have proper error handling mechanisms or 2FA in place. Broken authentication, unpatched software, lack of updates, insecure deserialization, and outdated code are among other common software vulnerabilities. You may also deal with vulnerable APIs, cryptographic failures, and server-side request forgery. Software and data integrity failures are also there.

Network Vulnerabilities

When it comes to common network vulnerabilities, we mostly deal with technical ones. Think poorly configured devices, no firewalling, and networks that are left open and exposed to unauthorized access. Your network may be infected by malware, viruses, worms, and Trojans. Zero-day network security vulnerabilities are hard to identify and slip through the cracks. Even vendors aren’t aware of them.

Then there are issues such as poorly secured Wi-Fi access, network misconfigurations, outdated network security software or unpatched flaws, etc. Attackers can also flood networks with Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, and Man-in-the-Middle attacks where they intercept communication between two or more parties operating on these networks.

Human Vulnerabilities

If someone disgruntled or inside your organizations steals, leaks, or hijacks sensitive data or accounts, then that can be an insider threat. Insider threats can occur anytime and there is no clear detection mechanism for them. Even the most trusted user can become an insider threat which is the scary part.

The other side of human vulnerabilities is human error. Employees may lack training, awareness, and easily fall prey to the most common phishing and social engineering schemes. They may not know that they’re engaging with adversaries and accidentally leak sensitive data during conversations or digital interactions.

Physical Vulnerabilities

Physical vulnerabilities are things you just can’t control within or from outside your organization. For example, if a natural disaster strikes and your data centers go offline, then it’s not your or anyone’s fault. If you are located in close proximity to crime zones where break-ins happen for physical facilities, then you’re introducing the risk of hardware damages and device theft.

Lack of poor infrastructure planning can lead to faulty equipment, poor connections, and physical workflows that don’t work as intended. The thing is, physical vulnerabilities are tied to the other types of vulnerabilities. If they are left unaddressed, these external agents can disrupt your business operations and bring things to a complete halt unexpectedly one day.

Vulnerability Management Best Practices

Here are some of the best practices for effective vulnerability management:

• Factor all IT assets and networks – Make a comprehensive inventory of all your IT assets and networks. Hardware, software, systems, data, everything.  Make sure you’ve installed the latest security fixes, patches, and updates as soon as they’re released.
• Make a vulnerability management process policy –  This will serve as guidelines for your organization. Your vulnerability management process policy will outline the roles and responsibilities of each team member. It will also set clear expectations on how to report and communicate with stakeholders and board members about upcoming or pending threats.
• Use high-quality threat intelligence feeds – Good threat intelligence can supply your security team with real-time information on new exploits, vulnerabilities, and threats. It will help you stay ahead by including diverse threat types and sources. You can extract insights from their behaviors and understand them better. Singularity™ Threat Intelligence can help you get a better understanding of your threat landscape and proactively identify adversaries to reduce risks in environments.
• Do regular penetration testing – Regular penetration testing can help you learn about your security’s strengths and weaknesses. You’ll be better equipped with the ability to defend against incoming threats. You will also get insights on how to tackle new threat actors and potential adversaries who are capable of infiltrating systems. It will help you assess the impact of potential data breaches as well and validate your current security posture.
• Apply network segmentation – Network segmentation is useful for quarantining threats and isolates IoT devices. You can get timely notifications about vulnerabilities and understand specific risks associated with these devices. Network segmentation can limit the potential damages in the event of security compromises.

AI Vulnerability Management: The Future of Automated Risk Detection

AI vulnerability scanners fill in the gaps that humans can’t. Sometimes you’re just tired or miss errors. Automated real-time detection with these tools can enhance your responses, plus you get machine-driven insights. You get the benefits of continuous monitoring, behavioral analysis, risk-based prioritization, automated threat detection, and more. AI in vulnerability management can analyze attack paths and provide contextual insights to security teams. It focuses on actual threats and filters out false positives, thus reducing alert fatigue.

Some of these AI vulnerability management tools can also integrate with SIEM, SOAR, and EDR solutions. In the future, we can expect self-learning AI models that can adapt to emerging threats, enhanced deep learning algorithms for spotting zero-day exploits better, and greater integrations with security ecosystems.

How to Choose a Vulnerability Management Tool?

When you choose a vulnerability management tool, there will be several factors that you will have to consider:

• First, is the tool scalable and can it provide sufficient coverage? Can your tools scan on-premises hardware, software, network devices, and cloud and containerized workloads? 
• Will it impact your business performance as it scales up with your organization? 
• Risk-based prioritization: Not all vulnerability management tools will prioritize risks in the same way. You'll want to look for tools that provide real-world threat intelligence that aligns with your business context. 
• Tools that provide the least amount of false positives and ensure reliable accuracy in detecting vulnerabilities are also important. You should also look for integration options for your vulnerability management tools. See if they integrate with ticketing systems, CI/CD pipelines, SIEM solutions, and more. 
• Your tools should also give you a way to provide clear and actionable reports. You also want to look for support for various industry-specific compliance standards from these tools. 
• Can your tool be deployed across cloud, on-prem, and hybrid environments? Are they easy to maintain?
• Lastly, you'll also want to look at the vendor support and see if you get timely updates. Good quality customer support is also important for troubleshooting and guidance.

If you’d like a vulnerability management tool that checks all these boxes and can do vulnerability assessments too in your organization, you should try out Singularity™ Vulnerability Management. SentinelOne’s CNAPP can also scan container registries, images, repositories, and IaC templates. You can perform agentless vulnerability scanning and use its 1,000+ out-of-the-box and custom rules.

FAQs

What is vulnerability management in cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity vulnerability management is discovering, evaluating, and remediating security threats in IT infrastructures. It is a regular scanning and risk prioritization routine, enabling organizations to fix vulnerabilities before attackers. Companies can reduce their attack surface, remain compliant, and avoid expensive data breaches by applying timely patches and updates.

What are the best automated vulnerability management tools?

Good automated vulnerability management solutions provide continuous scanning, threat intelligence via AI, and simple-to-use dashboards for real-time analysis. They natively integrate into current security stacks and provide actionable remediation steps, saving teams effort and time. Some of the most popular solutions might be all-in-one platforms, open-source solutions, or niche solutions, each serving distinctive needs depending on the organization’s size, infrastructure, and risk tolerance.

How often should vulnerability management be performed?

Vulnerability management must be ongoing and recurring, not one-time. Organisations perform vulnerability scans weekly or monthly, depending on risk tolerance and infrastructure complexity. Additionally, assessments are recommended whenever significant updates are made available, substantial changes to the network occur, or new applications are added so that new threats and zero-day exploits are addressed promptly.

What is the difference between vulnerability scanning and vulnerability management?

Vulnerability scanning is security vulnerability testing that involves performing automated tests against assets. It gives you a snapshot of what you can do but isn’t about prioritizing or remediation. Vulnerability management, on the other hand, is an organized, repeat program. Scanning, risk assessment, prioritization, remediation, and continuous monitoring are all part of it so weaknesses can be resolved quickly and kept to a minimum.

What is Vulnerability Remediation?

Vulnerability remediation is patching identified security vulnerabilities to protect systems, applications, or networks. It can involve patching software, modifying configurations, disabling outdated services, or altering access controls. By remediating vulnerabilities in a structured manner, organizations reduce attack surfaces, stay compliant, and protect data, ultimately saving user trust and preventing costly cyber breaches.

What is Vulnerability Mitigation?

Vulnerability mitigation is the reduction of the impact of security vulnerabilities until the remediation is permanent. It can involve the deployment of workarounds, restricting network access, or the implementation of compensating controls like more secure firewalls. By restricting the ability of an attacker to exploit known vulnerabilities, mitigation controls enable organizations to maintain business continuity and safeguard critical assets until the remediation process is complete.