After nearly a decade of relatively stable numbers, there was a dramatic spike in newly discovered common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs), going from just under 6,500 in 2016 to over 14,700 in 2017. Since then, the number has only grown exponentially. HackerOne’s ethical hackers identified a whopping 65,000 vulnerabilities last year. According to those hackers, the rapid pace of digital transformation has outpaced security measures, resulting in a surge of vulnerability reports, with misconfigurations and improper authorization spiking by 150% and 45%, respectively. 

In the age of interconnectedness, vulnerabilities within systems are a potential Achille’s heel for organizations. Growing attack surfaces, leaner budgets, and a too-small pool of security experts leave companies in a dangerous position. While this isn’t a doomsday scenario yet, it is a warning call. If organizations take the proper proactive steps, vulnerabilities can be remediated quickly, misconfigurations can be caught earlier, and secure authentication mechanisms can be implemented, significantly reducing the likelihood of an attack. 

The Challenges of Vulnerability Management

Since unpatched vulnerabilities were the second most common attack vector in 2022, proactive vulnerability management must be a critical component of organizational resilience. Reactive measures, which only address vulnerabilities after they’ve been exploited, are largely ineffective and can lead to costly breaches. The only way forward is to adopt a proactive approach, which isn’t just about identifying weaknesses but fixing vulnerabilities before they become gateways for threat actors.

Despite its importance, organizations routinely face several vulnerability management challenges. The sheer volume of existing vulnerabilities and a lack of dedicated resources make it difficult to keep up. Complex IT environments, constructed from a web of systems, software, and networks, make gaining visibility tough. Vulnerabilities often span multiple systems and applications, making it challenging to coordinate remediation efforts. Patching can introduce new vulnerabilities or cause system outages and downtime. Regardless of the challenges, businesses must prioritize vulnerability management and remediation to avoid becoming a statistic.

Steps of Vulnerability Remediation

Vulnerability remediation is the process of fixing or mitigating vulnerabilities in systems or software. It can be accomplished through a four-step process and using the right tools.

Step 1: Attack Surface Mapping Through a Vulnerability Management Program

Understanding your environment is the first line of defense. A comprehensive vulnerability management solution will allow you to map your digital landscape and identify all visible and hidden assets.

You’ll want to take a shift-left approach that moves security checks to the earliest stages of the development lifecycle. Choose a solution that continuously scans environments for known vulnerabilities and employs different scanning methods based on the product’s lifecycle stage and environment type. It should include a white-box testing tool like static application security testing (SAST) to examine source code for security issues during the development phase, a black-box tool like dynamic application security testing (DAST) to test running applications while in testing and staging phases, and a runtime application self-protection (RASP) tool to identify vulnerabilities in real-time in production environments.

Step 2: Understand Your Risk and Prioritize

Not all vulnerabilities are created equal, and not all need remediation. When prioritizing vulnerabilities, consider their threat level, the potential impact on business operations, the sensitivity of the data involved, and regulatory compliance.

To optimize remediation efforts, you’ll need automated analysis and manual investigation. Penetration testing tools will identify false positives, reducing the number of vulnerabilities you need to consider, while your vulnerability management platform will help you understand each vulnerability’s risk by assigning it a score using the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).

Ensure threat intelligence is integrated into your vulnerability management processes, as it is crucial in prioritization. Threat intelligence can identify vulnerabilities that threat actors are actively exploiting, assess whether exploits are publicly available for known vulnerabilities, link vulnerabilities to threat actor TTPs, and provide insights into the threats most relevant to an organization’s industry.

Step 3: Patch and Harden Your Environment and Verify

Patch management is the cornerstone of vulnerability remediation; however, it involves meticulous planning, evaluation, and execution that aligns with your organization’s patch management policy.

Review your vulnerability management system’s recommended actions, but also consider your business’s particular requirements. Ultimately, there are three ways to treat vulnerabilities:

• Remediation – This refers to completely fixing or patching the vulnerability.
• Mitigation – This reduces the impact of the vulnerability by changing configurations or applying compensating controls. It may be necessary if no patch is available, or patching will cause downtime during critical business periods.
• Acceptance – No action may be needed for low-severity vulnerabilities, those not in live environments, or those rendered obsolete because of other adjusted settings.

After applying patches and hardening your environment by configuring systems securely, conduct thorough testing to ensure the changes don’t introduce unintended consequences. This iterative patching, hardening, and verifying process is essential for any vulnerability remediation strategy.

Step 4: Establish 24/7 Monitoring Across All Systems and Environments

Proactive defense requires an ongoing commitment. Regularly and continuously perform vulnerability assessments to understand your program’s efficiency. Review your vulnerability management solution’s reports to gain insight into which remediation tactics fixed vulnerabilities with the least effort, monitor vulnerability trends in your network, and ensure your business maintains compliance with regulatory requirements.

Continuous monitoring is equally important. It provides real-time threat detection so suspicious activities can be identified promptly and addressed quickly. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools deliver real-time analysis of security alerts generated by applications and network hardware while efficiently reducing false positives and alert storms. An Intrusion Detection System (IDS) adds a layer of security by monitoring and analyzing network traffic for signs of malicious activities.

Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) and its Significance

When benchmarking the effectiveness of a vulnerability management program, organizations should track their mean time to repair (MTTR) – a metric that quantifies the average time taken to fix a vulnerability once identified. A lower MTTR is indicative of a more efficient and responsive cybersecurity strategy.

Security leaders can improve their MTTR by fostering a culture of collaboration and communication within their technical teams, automating vulnerability scanning and remediation processes, establishing clear prioritization criteria for vulnerabilities based on their severity and potential impact, investing in the right security tools and technologies, and maintaining a regular cadence of vulnerability assessments and penetration testing.

Proactive Approaches Thwart Threats 

The evolving nature of threats demands vulnerability management be continuous, iterative, and informed by up-to-date threat intelligence sources. Organizations, like their threat actor adversaries, gather intelligence and scan their environments. The difference lies in the intent – one seeks to fortify vulnerabilities, the other to exploit them the instant a company takes its eye off the ball.

By adopting a proactive approach to vulnerability management and continuous monitoring, companies can minimize their attack surface, reduce the Mean Time to Repair, fortify their digital environments, and stay one step ahead of adversaries.