What is Vulnerability Management?

Summary

“Vulnerability management is the process of continuously identifying, evaluating, prioritizing, treating and reporting on security vulnerabilities in applications, systems and software. Discover how it works and how to sidestep the challenges.”

Vulnerability management is the process of continuously identifying, evaluating, prioritizing, treating and reporting on security vulnerabilities. This is done across applications, systems and software. The goal of vulnerability management is to reduce the risk of exploitation and minimize the attack surface. It also ensures that security weaknesses are addressed before they can be leveraged by malicious actors and have a business impact. Therefore, vulnerability management is the foundation of a robust cybersecurity strategy.

Vulnerability vs. Threat vs. Risk

“Vulnerability”, “risk” and “threat” are often mixed up in cybersecurity discussions. Let’s break down each one to clarify their roles:

Vulnerability – A flaw, weakness, or gap in a system, software, or process that can be exploited by a threat actor. It is the “soft spot” in your defenses. Vulnerabilities make the system susceptible to unauthorized access, data leaks, or other malicious actions.

Examples:

• An unpatched software weakness in a web server.
• Weak or default passwords.
• Misconfigured security settings in cloud storage.
• Outdated or unprotected software libraries in applications.

Threat – Any event that can exploit a vulnerability to cause damage or disruption to an organization’s assets, data, or operations.

Examples:

• Employees misusing access privileges.
• Cybercriminals launching a phishing campaign.
• A flood damaging server hardware.
• Malware, ransomware and zero-day exploits.

Risk – The potential for loss or disruption when a threat exploits a vulnerability. It represents the probability and impact of a successful attack or event: 

Risk = Threat x Vulnerability x Impact

Examples:

• Exploiting a vulnerability in a critical server could lead to data loss or service disruption, translating to a high risk for the organization.
• A vulnerability on a low-value system represents a low risk even if the vulnerability exists.

To better illustrate, consider the following scenario:

1. Vulnerability – A web application has an input validation flaw, making it susceptible to SQL Injection.
2. Threat – An external hacker is actively scanning websites for SQL Injection vulnerabilities.
3. Risk – If the hacker successfully exploits this flaw, they could access and manipulate sensitive customer data. This would lead to data loss, reputational damage, and legal repercussions.

Why Vulnerability Management Matters for Organizations

Vulnerability management is a proactive defense mechanism that helps organizations safeguard their systems, data, and overall business operations from potential security breaches and attacks. Without this structured approach to identifying and addressing vulnerabilities, organizations expose themselves to significant risks that could result in financial loss, reputational damage, legal penalties and operational disruption.

With a vulnerability management system, organizations can:

• Reduce the Window of Exploitation – Vulnerability management helps minimize the time between identifying and remediating a security flaw. The longer a vulnerability remains unpatched, the greater the chance of it being discovered and exploited by attackers, resulting in data breaches and other forms of attack.
• Meet Regulatory Compliance – Many industries are subject to strict regulations (e.g., PCI-DSS, GDPR, HIPAA) that mandate regular vulnerability assessments and remediation. Failing to adhere to these standards can lead to fines, legal actions and loss of customer trust. A robust vulnerability management program helps meet these requirements.
• Ensure Continued Operations – Security incidents can disrupt operations, cause downtime and impact the availability of critical services. Proper vulnerability management addresses issues that could lead to system failure or compromise.
• Save Resources – The cost of remediating a vulnerability after a breach is exponentially higher than addressing it proactively, and includes recovery costs, legal fees, lost revenue and sometimes a ransom. Investing in vulnerability management reduces the potential financial impact of an incident.
• Make Better Security Decisions – Continuous vulnerability assessment and reporting provide valuable insights into the organization’s security posture. This enables security teams to make informed decisions on resource allocation, focusing on areas with the highest risk and impact.

How Vulnerability Management Works

Vulnerability management is a systematic, iterative process that aspires to address weaknesses before attackers can exploit them. Here’s a detailed look at each step in the vulnerability management lifecycle:

1. Discovery – You can’t secure what you can’t see. This step involves identifying and mapping all the digital assets in the organization, such as servers, endpoints, cloud instances, network devices and applications, as well as any shadow IT.

Then, automated tools  are used to perform regular scans and identify potential vulnerabilities across each system and architecture layer.

2. Vulnerability Assessment – Using industry-standard scoring systems like the CVSS to assign risk ratings (e.g., low, medium, high, critical) to each vulnerability.

3. Prioritization – Determining which vulnerabilities pose the greatest risk to the organization. This requires considering their exploitability and the business impact of a breach involving them.

4. Remediation – Addressing vulnerabilities through patching, configuration changes or implementing relevant controls.

5. Verification – Ensuring fixes have been successfully implemented. This includes rescanning and testing, for example with penetration testing.

6. Reporting on the process for compliance, auditing and ongoing improvement.

Take these steps into consideration when you design a vulnerability management program.

Vulnerability Management Challenges

When conducting vulnerability management, organizations must navigate a number of challenges. The most common ones include:

Follow these tips to create an effective vulnerability management plan.

What to Look for in a Vulnerability Management Vendor

A reliable vendor should become a seamless part of your vulnerability management program. Here are some key criteria to consider when evaluating a vendor:

• Ensure the vendor can assess all types of code, including third-party libraries, with complete and accurate scans.
• Check if the vendor uses advanced threat intelligence to detect zero-day vulnerabilities and rapidly emerging threats.
• Choose a vendor that offers automated services to reduce the burden of manual updates and integrations and allow continuous scanning and monitoring.
• The tool should be designed for developer use, to build devsec trust and enhance security posture.
• The tool should be capable of conducting thorough scans without significantly impacting system performance or causing downtime.
• A reliable vendor should minimize false positives to streamline the remediation process.
• Opt for cloud solutions that allow flexible scheduling for assessments without complex installations.
• The tool should offer a risk-based scoring system, such as CVSS to prioritize vulnerabilities based on severity, asset criticality, and potential business impact.
• Ensure the solution can incorporate business context (e.g., asset value and location) to better prioritize remediation based on risk to the organization.
• The vendor should have a strong track record and expertise in vulnerability management, ensuring effective security solutions.
• Ensure the solution can scale to accommodate growth in your organization’s infrastructure, whether through cloud expansion, new data centers, or increased remote work endpoints.
• A well-designed dashboard with intuitive navigation and comprehensive reporting features makes vulnerability management more accessible to security teams.
• The solution should support detailed and customizable reports for different audiences (technical teams, management and compliance officers).
• The vendor should provide clear remediation guidance for each vulnerability and, if possible, support automated workflows to assign tasks and track remediation progress.

Checkmarx Vulnerability Assessments

Checkmarx provides automated vulnerability assessment services designed to enhance application security for enterprises. By combining static and dynamic code analysis with penetration testing, Checkmarx identifies and remediate vulnerabilities across all code, including third-party snippets.

Checkmarx’s cloud-based services are easily accessible, allowing organizations to perform assessments on their schedule without the complexities of local installations or constant updates. This comprehensive approach helps organizations secure their software development processes from code to cloud as part of their vulnerability management program, ensuring a higher level of protection against evolving threats.Ready to see how Checkmarx can enhance your vulnerability management program? Click here for a demo and take the first step toward securing your applications.