Vulnerability Management Process: 5 Essential Steps

With increasing threat levels and frequency, it is no longer sustainable for organizations to apply patches to vulnerabilities as they are discovered. As many as 22,254 CVEs were reported in the previous year, which is 30% more than in the year before in terms of exploitable vulnerabilities. Given this situation, it is crucial to develop and adopt an end to end vulnerability management process that can prevent infiltration, data theft, or compliance failures. Through the detection and correction of defects, organizations minimize the chances of a giant exploit, as well as the time that they will spend recovering from the attack.

In this guide, we describe the process of vulnerability management in cybersecurity and outline its five stages. We also point out the features of the vulnerability management process, which make it an essential element in today’s security strategies. After that, we discuss the challenges that limit full coverage and the strategies to implement for sustainable success. Last but not least, we will demonstrate how SentinelOne takes scanning, automation, and real-time threat intelligence to the next level for an effective threat and vulnerability management.

What is the Vulnerability Management Process?

Vulnerability management is the process of identifying, categorizing, prioritizing, and addressing security weaknesses in systems, software, networks, devices, and applications. When even the smallest loophole is exploited in infiltration attempts, organizations require constant monitoring and timely coordination of patches.

Experts have also revealed that 38% of intrusions started from attackers exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities, which is up 6 percent from the previous year. In other words, if an organization does not resolve existing flaws quickly, it may experience catastrophic attacks. This explains why there should be a proper structure for the lifecycle, especially when dealing with resources like containers or serverless environments.

However, the process goes beyond scanning to include reporting, risk assessment, compliance checks, and improving the process. It integrates information from scanning engines, a vulnerability and patch management procedure, and analytical tools, and results in an efficient and effective vulnerability management cycle that enhances security postures. The synergy generally works in harmony with other protective systems, such as IDS, EDR, or SIEM, synchronizing infiltration detection with patch priority.

In each iteration, the process transitions from a reactive to a proactive defense approach so that infiltration attempts do not remain undetected for very long. In conclusion, the vulnerability management cycle is crucial for any modern enterprise that seeks to safeguard its data, ensure availability, and adhere to compliance requirements.

Characteristics of the Vulnerability Management Process

The nature of the vulnerability management process does not significantly differ whether it is done on a small or large scale or using different tools. From automated asset discovery to risk-based prioritization, these recurring features tie each phase down to maintain continuity. With the increase in zero-day exploits, it is essential to develop a zero-day vulnerability management process that will run concurrently with the scanning process. Here are six characteristics that describe how a strong vulnerability management process should work:

1. Continuous & Iterative: One of the most important characteristics of any end to end vulnerability management process is the fact that it is continuous. In contrast, the conventional approach would be to scan the networks only once a year or after a massive security breach, the recommended approach is to scan daily, weekly, or near real-time. Due to continuous data capture, teams ensure that infiltration windows are short, even if criminals learn new vulnerabilities. This also covers ephemeral usage so that newly spun containers or microservices are frequently scanned shortly after creation.
2. Comprehensive Asset Coverage: Companies may have applications that span across multiple data centers, cloud accounts, IoT devices, and containers. It must integrate scanning across all such endpoints, blurring the line between ephemeral usage in DevOps and more traditional on-premises servers. Excluding any segment tempts intruders to attack the areas that receive less attention and scrutiny. Making sure that all nodes are identified and classified as well as checked and verified on a regular basis, continues to be an inherent characteristic of a good threat and vulnerability management process.
3. Risk-Based Prioritization: There can be hundreds if not thousands of potential issues that may arise weekly, so it is critical to address the most critical ones first. The tools use the prevalence of exploits, the criticality of assets, and the current threat feeds to prioritize vulnerabilities. This synergy combines the scanning results with business context, mapping the temporary container misconfigurations with known angles of infiltration. Risk-based triage means that the most critical vulnerabilities are addressed first, so that criminals cannot use them to perpetrate major breaches.
4. Automation & Integration: Many of the steps, such as deciding which bugs to address or how to monitor the progress of the patches, are manual and can be time-consuming and imprecise. An efficient vulnerability management system minimizes dwell time through automation right from ticket creation to patch implementation. When used as a part of CI/CD pipelines or config management tools, ephemeral usage scanning aligns with daily development work. This synergy creates a near-real-time patch cycle, which makes it difficult for the infiltration to be successful.
5. Reporting & Compliance Alignment: It also encompasses creating clear and simple dashboards for different audiences, including CISOs, auditors, or development teams. It also correlates with well-known standards such as PCI DSS, HIPAA, or ISO, associating each identified vulnerability with compliance requirements. Through subsequent expansions, transient usage blurs infiltration detection with established norms for continuous assessments. This creates awareness within the organization so that everyone can see the proof of timely patching or risk management.
6. Continual Feedback & Improvement: Lastly, an effective approach to vulnerability lifecycle management includes retrospectives and changes due to the dynamics in threats. Each cycle provides lessons—such as chronic root causes or fresh attack vectors—into scanning rules or patch approaches. This integration combines the usage logs of short-lived applications with high-level correlation, linking infiltration with iterative growth. In this way, every aspect of the vulnerability management framework continues to improve and become more refined.

End-to-End Vulnerability Management Process

There are many models of how the tasks related to vulnerability and patch management processes should be organized, but most of them are based on five steps: identification, evaluation, prioritization, mitigation, and verification. These steps are cumulative in nature and create an end to end vulnerability management process that integrates dev, security, and operations teams. Each cycle also minimizes the dwell time of infiltrators, thus guaranteeing that criminals do not take advantage of identified weaknesses. Here is the breakdown of each phase, illustrating how the cycle contributes to continuous risk management. These steps help build the foundation for a robust ecosystem for an organization, from containers to monolithic on-premises applications.

Step 1: Identify and Discover

This phase begins with listing all the systems that can be considered, such as cloud VMs, IoT devices, microservices, or user endpoints. Tools use network scanning, agent-based detection, or passive watchers to discover new nodes. However, with ephemeral usage in DevOps, daily or weekly scans might not be enough, and some enterprises perform continuous scanning. After this, the same scanners search for known vulnerabilities with the help of a sound threat and vulnerability management process. In the long run, organizations improve the time at which scanning occurs to correspond with code releases, integrating temporary usage identification with instant penetration.

Step 2: Analyze and Assess

Once endpoints are identified, scanners analyze software versions, settings, or application algorithms against a database of known vulnerabilities. This synergy connects frequently changing usage logs, such as container images or serverless function detail with identified infiltration patterns. For example, the solution could identify remaining default credentials, unapplied patches, or logical vulnerabilities. The assessment provides a list of vulnerabilities ranked by risk or exploit, which can be categorized as high, medium, or low. Across multiple expansion cycles, the use of the word ‘ephemeral’ blurs the line between infiltration detection and initial scanning, guaranteeing that new assets are tested from day one.

Step 3: Prioritize Risks

Among the many problems highlighted, not all of them are critical and can be solved at the moment. A vulnerability management process involves the use of exploit intelligence, business relevance, and system sensitivity to prioritize them. Critical system exploitation is much more common than misconfigurations in low-priority development environments in terms of zero-day exploits. This synergy combines usage scan with analytics, synchronizing the probability of infiltration with real-world consequences. In this way, top-tier threats allow teams to keep patch cycles realistic while at the same time denying criminals opportunities to develop new angles that they can use to infiltrate the system.

Step 4: Remediate and Mitigate

Here, staff address the vulnerabilities starting with the most severe level of risk. Remediation usually entails applying patches, changing the server settings, or using new container images. In such short-lived use cases, dev teams may just repopulate containers from a specific base image and completely eliminate the defect. However, if there is no patch available, particularly in the zero day vulnerability management process, the team may implement temporary workarounds (such as WAF rules) before a permanent solution is developed. Through integrating patch tasks with ticketing systems, the time that an attacker spends within an organization significantly reduces.

Step 5: Validate and Monitor

Last of all, the cycle ends by confirming that the applied patches or the changes made in the config files did fix the identified flaws. New scans prove that infiltration angles are sealed and if there are any, a new fix iteration commences. This combination links transient usage detection to daily scanning, uniting infiltration prevention with almost continual monitoring. In the long run, the process of vulnerability management creates a never-ending cycle of scanning, patching, and rescanning, making it very hard for criminals to find a stable way of penetrating the system. It simply means the cycle begins again and continues indefinitely in search of the best security position.

Common Vulnerability Management Process Challenges

Despite this, it is important to point out that the vulnerability management process may be hampered by real-world constraints, even with the best of planning. These are some of the difficulties that can affect the detection of infiltration, ranging from incomplete asset tracking to a backlog of patches. Here are some of the six common pitfalls and how each of them negates an end to end vulnerability management process. Understanding them allows teams to improve the intervals between scans, implement improved automation and synchronize identification of temporary usage with daily tasks.

1. Overlooked Assets & Shadow IT: Application owners deploy new cloud instances or container images for their business units without consulting with security. These hidden nodes are often unlatched or improperly configured, and attackers are well aware of this fact. If scanning does not automatically pick up ephemeral usage or rogue subnets, the angles of infiltration increase. The combination of auto-discovery and continuous monitoring neutralizes criminals who depend on the negligence of shadow IT.
2. Patch Delays or Rollout Failures: Despite the discovery of the vulnerabilities, there could be a lack of resources to apply the patches or fear of disrupting production. This friction prolongs infiltration dwell time, allowing attackers to systematically exploit known vulnerabilities. Preventing infiltration and quickly releasing patches can be accomplished by using automated test environments or ephemeral staging pipelines to minimize the risk of breakage. However, if such measures are not taken, there are critical vulnerabilities that are left exposed and can be exploited.
3. Siloed Responsibilities: Security personnel might label threats, but developers or operations personnel consider them as low-priority issues. This siloed structure hinders patch cycles and allows for infiltration attempts to remain a possibility. Effective vulnerability and patch management involve incorporating the results from the scans into the development sprints or incident boards. By equating temporary usage with dev responsibilities, organizations consolidate the whole pipeline towards the prevention of infiltration.
4. Inconsistent Scanning Schedules: Scheduling only monthly or quarterly scans may leave many infiltration angles open for weeks. Cyber criminals can take as little as a few hours to exploit newly published CVEs. In this way, through daily or continuous scanning, especially if the scan is made for ephemeral use, the infiltration angles remain limited in time. It is impossible for any process to remain secure when checks are rarely made in the current world.
5. Excessive False Positives: If scanning tools generate large volumes of alerts and notifications, it is possible for personnel to become complacent and disregard signs of infiltration. For noise reduction, it is necessary to have a more refined solution or dedicated triage procedures. When vulnerabilities are aligned with exploit intelligence or infiltration patterns, then it becomes possible to identify actual threats. This is because the vulnerability management process that lacks robust analytics creates alert fatigue, which weakens security.
6. Lack of Historical Trend Analysis: Security improvements hinge on learning from repeated flaws or root causes. However, many organizations fail to conduct historical analysis, and therefore, infiltration angles are repeated. Ideally, an effective end to end vulnerability management process should monitor the closure rates, the frequency of vulnerability recurrence, and the average time taken to patch. Across some expansions, transient use incorporates infiltration detection with data correlation, aligning scanning tasks and dev knowledge for enhancements.

Vulnerability Management Process: Best Practices

To overcome these challenges, mature security teams apply best practices that integrate scanning, development, and DevOps, and continuous feedback. Below, we outline six best practices that enhance each stage of the vulnerability management process cycle for containers or serverless applications. Through collaboration, automation, and risk-based triage, organizations develop a robust strategy for stopping infiltration. Now, let us examine how it is possible to apply these strategies.

1. Integrate with DevOps & Ticketing Systems: Integrating vulnerability data into the JIRA, GitLab, or other DevOps tools means that patch tasks will be displayed together with regular bug fixes. This synergy combines usage scanning for transient purposes with daily developer sprints, so infiltration angles can be closed as quickly as possible. It provides developers with more precise information about the gravity of the issue, the type of fix required, and the time frame within which it should be addressed. When the patch cycle is executed in a collaborative manner, there is limited interference and fewer missed problems.
2. Embrace Automated Remediation Scripts: For critical vulnerabilities, time is of the essence—particularly when the exploit is already public. Automated playbooks can fix OS-level exploits, deploy new container images or change the firewall rules, significantly reducing the dwell time of infiltrators. Across expansions, temporary usage combines infiltration detection with one-click solutions in microservices or temporary VMs. This synergy fosters a near-real-time approach to infiltration prevention.
3. Prioritize Based on Threat Intelligence: An effective vulnerability management process may find value in external intelligence, such as known exploit usage, an adversary’s TTPs or real-time severity of CVEs. Some tools compare the scanning results with the databases of known exploits and show the vectors criminals use in fact. The best approach is to prioritize a range of the most critical issues, which may take up to 5–10% of the total number of issues identified. While the issues of a lower severity can be addressed during regular development cycles, tying infiltration resilience to daily tasks.
4. Conduct Periodic Post-Mortems: After each critical failure or attack attempt, bring together security, development, and operations teams to understand what occurred, why it occurred, and how to prevent it in the future. This synergy links usage logs that exist for a short period to root-cause analysis, correlating infiltration identification with actionable insights. By looking at patch success, dwell times or missed scanning intervals, each cycle becomes more efficient. In the long run, the totality of the vulnerability lifecycle management is more streamlined and efficient.
5. Document and Track Compliance and Audit Activity: Regulatory audits or internal compliance checks require documentation of the scanning schedules, patch actions or risk scoring. Recording each step of the vulnerability management process allows teams to save a significant amount of time during the formal reviews. Across iterations, temporary usage intertwines infiltration detection with industry benchmarks such as PCI DSS or HIPAA. This synergy not only satisfies the compliance requirements but also ensures that there is consistent accountability for security.
6. Evolve with Zero-Day Awareness: New exploits, particularly those in the zero-day vulnerability management process, are other emerging issues that deserve attention. Using the standard scanning intervals means that it may not be able to detect important infiltration angles or missing patches. Therefore, follow vendor advisories and threat intelligence for zero-day releases and align the usage of ephemeral scan with patch management. By quickly moving from detection to prevention, you slow down infiltration attempts before a large-scale exploitation is achieved.

SentinelOne for Vulnerability Management

SentinelOne’s Singularity™ platform is an advanced XDR AI solution that offers unrestricted visibility, unparalleled detection, and self-executing responses. Designed to safeguard endpoints, cloud workloads, and identity layers at machine speeds, it integrates scanning, analysis, and remediation capabilities. The platform covers Kubernetes clusters, servers, and containers in both public and private data centers, effectively targeting infiltration angles for ephemeral usage. The high scalability and the ability to detect specific weaknesses make it possible to incorporate vulnerability and patch management into the system in its entirety.

1. Multi-Layered Security Coverage: Singularity™ unifies detection and response across endpoints, networks, clouds, identity, and mobile. This breadth ensures infiltration signals don’t go unnoticed, unheard, or lost in the cracks of departmental silos or uncharted territories. In this manner, the teams ensure that the vulnerability management process is continuous and aligned in real-time with known as well as the zero-day vulnerabilities. In conclusion, the platform also supports a coherent defense approach by consolidating analytics and patch guidance.
2. Proactive Identity & Network Discovery: Singularity Identity also has the capability to track the usage of suspicious credentials or possible identity theft attempts. At the same time, the built-in agent technology and passive scans help in identifying networks that are not monitored and devices that can be connected temporarily and are not noticed by the conventional monitoring processes. This synergy combines infiltration detection with asset discovery, joining the temporary usage and the direct patch instructions. Organizations remove remaining misconfigurations that the criminals can take advantage of.
3. Contextual Threat Analysis & Active Threat Hunting: Using ActiveEDR, Singularity™ provides extended context for threats, linking several events into a single attack storyline. Hunting teams can track complex patterns of infiltration in real-time and ensure that criminals cannot raise their privileges or escape detection. Ranger® capability expands coverage and provides a view of unmanaged asset or concealed entry points. With this synergy, the end to end vulnerability management process gains from an enhanced situation awareness.
4. Automated Patch Management & Quick Deployments: When threats are identified, Singularity™ accelerates the remediation process—applying fixes, quarantining affected hosts, or orchestrating patch process at scale. The swift rollout times across thousands of endpoints reduce the time of infiltration and address the requirements of the zero day vulnerability management process. Integrating with devops toolchains guarantees that the usage is temporary and patched, while linking infiltration detection with minimum downtime. Consequently, security teams stay dynamic and continually update patch management.
5. Scalable Intelligence & Performance: To accommodate large and complex environments, SentinelOne processes millions of security events while maintaining high accuracy. Its distributed intelligence processes the scans of ephemeral usage in real-time, providing near-immediate infiltration alerts. With Singularity™, infiltration detection can be complemented with real-time patch suggestions, making it possible to manage vulnerabilities of even the most complex ecosystems. Enterprises therefore rely on SentinelOne to integrate analytics, threat response, and patching into a single, powerful platform.

Conclusion

Today, the absence of a structured vulnerability management process is no longer a luxury that can be afforded, and it has become a crucial aspect in safeguarding organizations from cyber threats. By outlining the five essential steps—from asset discovery to verification—organizations systematically address vulnerabilities, narrow the infiltration windows, and build trust with stakeholders. This becomes important, especially as the usage of ephemeral instances in DevOps or hybrid clouds increases the number of possible vectors of attack. Using constant scanning, risk-based prioritization, and automated mitigation, security teams are always ready for criminals to exploit known vulnerabilities or zero-day exploits.

However, vulnerability lifecycle management is not easy, and depends on the strategies implemented, integration of the DevOps pipelines, and support from leadership. Solutions such as SentinelOne’s Singularity™ integrate the scanning, intelligence, and immediate threat response, thus eliminating silos between security, IT, and dev departments. The platforms also combine the most effective detection techniques, patch management, and enterprise-wide analytics to transform your security strategy.

Why wait?  Book a demo for  SentinelOne’s Singularity™ platform today!