Vulnerability Remediation: Step-by-Step Guide

Vulnerability remediation is a cybersecurity process that helps organizations fix security weaknesses from systems before attackers can exploit them. It includes finding and prioritizing security flaws to be able to resolve them and protect your data and systems from threats.

To eliminate risk effectively, you need a proper remediation plan, automated solutions, and clear vulnerability remediation timelines. Without a clear strategy, you may miss out on important details and find it challenging to manage vulnerabilities. Attackers could benefit from this chaos to enter your network and steal data.

In this article, we will discuss vulnerability remediation, its need, and differences between remediation, mitigation, and patching, key components, types, steps, how to prioritize vulnerabilities, automated vs manual remediation, challenges, and best practices.

What is Vulnerability Remediation?

Vulnerability remediation is a process of fixing security weaknesses in an organization’s networks, applications, or systems to prevent cyber attackers from exploiting those weaknesses. It is a part of vulnerability management, which translates to identifying, analyzing, prioritizing, and remediating security weaknesses. Remediation involves resolving security vulnerabilities to eliminate threats, risks, and protect your sensitive data and crucial operations.

For example, you discover a SQL injection vulnerability in your application. The cause of vulnerability is improper input validation and sanitization. This way, you unintentionally allow attackers to enter your application through malicious SQL code. Using remediation strategies, you can eliminate security risks by updating the SQL code and validating the input.

Need for Vulnerability Remediation

The unpatched vulnerabilities are the primary target for attackers to exploit. You need a proper vulnerability remediation method to prevent cyberattacks, operational disruptions, and data breaches.

• Protects brand reputation: Customers expect businesses to protect their information. A single breach can destroy their trust and tarnish your brand’s reputation. A proper vulnerability remediation process can fix issues before they become serious to protect reputation and maintain customer trust.

• Reduces attack surface: When you have a large attack surface with too many security vulnerabilities left unresolved for a long time, cybercriminals get an easy way to exploit them. With a proactive remediation strategy, you can reduce the number of entry points, strengthen your security posture, and lower risk exposure.

• Prevents cyberattacks: Cybercriminals scan the internet continuously for weak points, such as outdated security settings, unpatched software, and misconfigurations. With vulnerability remediation techniques, you can close these security gaps before hackers enter your systems and networks.

• Improves operational stability: Cyberattacks disrupt your regular operations. Remediating vulnerabilities in time reduces the risk of system failures, minimizes disruptions, and helps you provide uninterrupted services for users.

• Lower financial losses: Cyberattacks can cause heavy financial losses due to lawsuits, legal fees, lost revenue, ransomware payments, and regulatory fines. Vulnerability remediation helps you eliminate security risks and protect customer data to avoid legal disputes and financial losses.

Vulnerability Remediation vs. Mitigation vs. Patching

While dealing with security vulnerabilities, you may have heard of the terms remediation, mitigation, and patching. These terms are a part of the security vulnerability remediation strategy and are related to each other. However, they have different meanings and applications in your vulnerability management process.

Key Components of Vulnerability Remediation

Vulnerability management is a structured approach that helps organizations fix security vulnerabilities before attackers could exploit them. Let us go through the essential key components of the vulnerability remediation process.

• Vulnerability identification: Vulnerability remediation process allows you to detect security flaws in your networks, applications, and systems. It uses automated vulnerability scanners, penetration testing, and security audits to find security gaps.

• Vulnerability assessment: All vulnerabilities are not highly dangerous. You need to assess and prioritize which vulnerabilities pose higher risks. Do this through a business impact analysis, checking a vulnerability’s exploitability, and comparing CVSS scores of different vulnerabilities. This lets you address more dangerous risks first and reduce exposure to cyber threats.

• Remediation strategy: You will need to decide the best way to fix security weaknesses. You can use strategies like applying security updates, hardening security settings, modifying application code, and replacing systems.

• Fixing issues: You need to apply security fixes to get rid of risks. Install security patches from vendors, update drivers and firmware, and enforce security policies to fix vulnerabilities. Before applying a patch, it is a good idea to test it and confirm the patches do not break your existing business apps.

• Validation: Vulnerability remediation strategies help you verify the applied fixes and check whether all the security gaps are covered. To confirm, you can re-scan the systems, run penetration testing, re-monitor system logs, and fix remaining risks.

• Continuous monitoring: You need to monitor your IT environments continuously using threat intelligence feeds, automated security alerts, and SIEM tools. This helps you stay ahead of cyberattackers and prevent new vulnerabilities from emerging.

• Compliance and documentation: Vulnerability remediation allows you to document all the efforts that include records of identified vulnerability and remediation actions, compliance reports, and audit trails. This will make you legally binding and avoid regulatory scrutiny and fines.

Types of Vulnerability Remediation

Organizations use various remediation strategies to eliminate risks based on factors, such as system impact, business priorities, and vulnerability severity. Let’s talk about various vulnerability remediation types that you can consider:

• Patching: Patching is a type of vulnerability remediation technique that allows you to apply security patches to fix known weaknesses. For example, installing a Windows security patch to fix a zero-day exploit.

• Code remediation: It lets you modify source code to fix vulnerabilities in custom applications and block malicious actors from entering. For example, updating a web app by modifying SQL injection attacks.

• Configuration changes: It allows you to adjust or modify system, application, and network settings to remove security gaps. For example, disabling TLS 1.0 to prevent encryption downgrade attacks.

• Access control adjustments: Limit user access to systems or sensitive data to reduce attack surface. For example, limiting a finance employee’s access to IT systems they do not need for their daily tasks.

• Removing vulnerable components: Remove insecure or outdated software components from your system to reduce attack surface. For example, replacing Windows 7 machines with supported and modern OS versions.

• Security practices: Implement strong security policies to reduce the risk of attacks until the fix is available. For example, using a firewall to block SQL injection attacks while you wait for a patch.

Key Steps in the Vulnerability Remediation Process

Vulnerability remediation involves fixing and neutralizing security flaws by assessing an organization’s IT assets. If you perform the remediation process correctly, you can reduce the chance of data theft, malware, and other cyber attacks. Below are the key steps to effectively remediate the vulnerabilities from your system.

Identifying Vulnerabilities

The first step of the vulnerability remediation process is to discover vulnerabilities, including software misconfigurations, malicious code, weak passwords, open ports, and poor authentication. The process allows you to identify these security weaknesses across your IT infrastructure, networks, and applications.

The below steps should help you implement:

• Automated vulnerability scanning: Use security tools, such as vulnerability scanners, to detect vulnerabilities, missing patches, and misconfigurations automatically.

• Penetration testing: Allow your security teams to run penetration testing on your system to simulate real-world attacks. It helps you understand attack paths and hidden security weaknesses that vulnerability scanners could have missed.

• Security audits and assessments: Perform regular internal audits to verify if your security controls are adequate, working correctly, and aligned with industry standards, such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, and GDPR.

Modern vulnerability management software uses “shift-left” checks and applies the principles of DevOps to spot and fix vulnerabilities from the beginning of the software development cycle.

Prioritizing Risks

After you discover vulnerabilities in your networks and applications, you need to prioritize them based on CVSS scores, business impact, exploitability, and active threats. A good vulnerability management program identifies, assesses, and prioritizes weaknesses so that IT and security teams work together to eliminate the risks effectively.

Since not all vulnerabilities pose the same level of risk, organizations need to evaluate which is the critical one and which poses low risk. You need to use the below factors to check the severity level of vulnerabilities you have found.

• Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) score: The CVSS assigns a score ranging from 0 to 10 to differentiate the level of risks. Here, 0.1-3.9 means low risk, 4.0-6.9 means moderate risk, 7.0-8.9 means high risk, and 9.0-19.0 means critical risk.

• Business impact analysis: Once you have the vulnerability list, you can determine which vulnerability could affect data, compliance, and operations. If you find weak points in public-facing or external systems, you need to prioritize those over internal ones.

• Exploitability: If you find known exploits in communities or hacking forums, you need to address them immediately. Also, zero-day vulnerabilities require immediate attention as it does not have an available patch. You need to apply temporary security controls, such as enforcing security policies, establishing MFA, limiting access to vital systems, etc.

Remediating Vulnerabilities

The third step is the remediation process that neutralizes or fixes weaknesses by upgrading software, removing inactive components, and patching security gaps. This step lets you develop a remediation plan using the best approach to remove security flaws.

Here are some of the ways you can remediate vulnerabilities:

• Patching: Apply vendor-released security updates to fix outdated software. You can upgrade or patch existing software to secure your operations and data.

• Code fixes: If you find any malicious or faulty code inside your systems, you need to modify and fix the code immediately. This will help you remove security flaws from your application and prevent them from rootkit attacks.

• Configuration changes: Adjust system settings, enforce strong security and authentication policies, and disable unused devices to restrict attackers from entering.

• System replacement: Replace or remove obsolete software that can have big security risks for your system.

• Compensating controls: Implement temporary security measures, such as network segmentation and firewalls, in case a patch is not available to protect your apps and networks from attacks.

Implementing and Validating Remediation Plan

After you identify, prioritize, and develop a remediation plan, it is time to implement the plan and secure your systems from cyber attacks. This step involves security patching, system configuration changes, and code fixes. Before deploying fixes, test them to know whether the patches work for your system without breaking code or disrupting the operations.

After applying the final fix, verify whether the vulnerability is remediated successfully. For this, you need to re-scan the systems, conduct penetration tests, and analyze security logs to identify remaining vulnerabilities. In addition, validate your remediation plan periodically and adjust it according to new challenges and technologies available.

Document and Report

Organizations need to keep detailed records of all patched vulnerabilities, including how the gap was fixed, when, and how it was verified, the impacts, etc. This allows security teams to prepare for future threats. The documentation also helps you provide proof to regulatory bodies on their remediation strategies and stay compliant.

How to Prioritize Vulnerabilities for Remediation?

Different types of vulnerabilities pose different risk levels. Some vulnerabilities are easier for attackers to exploit and convert into a cyberattack, while others have a low risk of exploitation. To prioritize vulnerabilities, security and IT teams use the following methods to assign risk levels.

• CVSS Score: CVSS score is used to evaluate the severity of a security flaw. It assigns the rates to vulnerabilities on a scale from 0 to 10 depending on the risk levels, from low to critical.

• Exploitability: Vulnerabilities with high CVSS scores are not necessarily the riskier ones. You need to check databases to see if an exploit is publicly available and verify whether criminals actively use the vulnerability. Examine if there is a proof-of-concept for vulnerabilities.

• Business impact: To understand which vulnerabilities are more serious, you need to assess their impacts on your organization. You should check for data types and assets that are at high risk, and how it affects regulatory compliance.

• Vulnerability exposure: Check exposure levels, such as public-facing, internal, and isolated environments. Public-facing exposures should be given the highest priority, followed by internal, and isolated.

• Patch availability: If you find a security patch, you should immediately apply the patch and secure your environment. If no patch is available, you must follow mitigation strategies, such as restricting access, disabling the affected areas, and applying compensating controls.

• Remediation complexity: Some fixes are easier to apply and take less time, while others take longer and applying them can be complicated. Security teams need to balance risk vs. effort when prioritizing remediation. Check which vulnerability is at high-risk but takes less time to fix. Fix that vulnerability first.

• Continuous monitoring: Vulnerability remediation is not a one-time task. You need to monitor and examine them continuously to keep identifying new threats. This way, you can prioritize the risks and remediate them quickly.

Automated vs. Manual Vulnerability Remediation

Depending on your IT infrastructure, risk tolerance, and security posture, vulnerability remediation can be handled manually or automatically. Automated vulnerability remediation improves efficiency and speed, whereas manual vulnerability remediation is used for complex and high-risk vulnerabilities.

Challenges in Vulnerability Remediation

Vulnerability remediation is an important step in a vulnerability management program. Organizations often face challenges while trying to identify, assess, prioritize, and fix security flaws. These challenges could cause delays and raise compliance and security risks. Here are some of those challenges:

• High volume of vulnerabilities: Organizations discover thousands of vulnerabilities. Addressing all of them at a time is difficult. Security teams struggle to prioritize and remediate vulnerabilities.

Solution: Establish a risk-based vulnerability management program and prioritize risks based on CVSS score, business impact, and exploitability.

• Lack of patches: Vulnerabilities like zero-day threats don’t have patches. Proprietary software and legacy systems don’t receive security updates from vendors on time.

Solution: Implement compensating controls like firewalls and network segmentation, web applications firewalls (WAF), and restructuring controls.

• Limited security and IT resources: Organizations lack skilled professionals to handle the remediation program effectively. IT teams are packed with other tasks, so security patching could have a low priority.

Solution: You can use automation to handle routine patching. Adopt a shared responsibility model where your security and IT teams work together.

• Deploying patches: Some patches cause compatibility issues, performance slowdowns, and system crashes. Security teams may find it difficult to apply patches in critical systems.

Solution: Test and validate patches before deployment to check their compatibility. Implement automated patching with rollback options. You can also apply patches during maintenance to reduce business disruptions.

Best Practices for Effective Vulnerability Remediation

Organizations need to take a solid approach to simplify vulnerability remediation to reduce security risks and maintain compliance with industry standards with minimal service disruptions. Below are some best practices to follow for effective remediation:

• Focus on high risk vulnerabilities by using methods like CVSS score, business impact, and exploitability.
• Deploy automated scanners for real-time detection and remediation.
• Use patch management tools for faster remediation procedures.
• Divide and assign tasks across security, DevOps, and IT teams to prevent delays.
• Apply firewall rules, security policies, network segmentation, etc., as temporary fixes.
• Restrict access to affected systems until patches are available.
• Align remediation with HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI DSS guidelines.
• Automate compliance tracking to avoid fines and reputational damage.
• Enforce strong passwords, secure coding, and MFA policies to restrict entry of cybercriminals to your systems.
• Maintain a detailed remediation log for audit trails.
• Analyze and refine your remediation strategies continuously to stay safe from new cyber threats.

How SentinelOne Enhances Vulnerability Remediation with AI-Driven Security

SentinelOne offers Singularity Vulnerability Management to help you remediate and manage vulnerabilities in your systems, network, and applications. Use the platform to find risky assets, prioritize risks, close security gaps, and meet compliance with laws and regulations. Here is how you get superior vulnerability remediation to protect your systems and data from threats:

• Deeper, real-time visibility into systems and endpoints with active and passive scanning to detect hidden vulnerabilities that traditional scanners do not.
• Find, prioritize, and fix threats automatically to save time and effort instead of going manual.
• Supports multiple devices and operating systems – Windows, macOS, and Linux
• Prioritizes threats based on business criticality and likelihood of exploitation to minimize risks.
• Offers granular controls on your security and compliance controls with Singularity Identity, CNAPP, and other solutions.

Take a tour to explore how our Vulnerability Management solution works.

Conclusion

Vulnerability remediation protects your organization from ransomware attacks, data breaches, and operational disruptions. The process includes vulnerability identification, prioritization, and remediation, followed by validation, testing, and monitoring.

With vulnerability management, you can solve challenges, such as complexities in patch management, fixing a high volume of vulnerabilities, and resource constraints. Prioritize which vulnerabilities pose more risks by using methods like CVSS score, business impact, exploitability, and system exposure. Use a combination of risk-based prioritization, automation, and strong collaboration with IT and DevOps teams to monitor, identify, and remediate security flaws faster.

If you are looking for an easy way to manage and remediate vulnerabilities, SentinelOne’s Singularity Vulnerability Management is one of the best solutions.