3. How Vulnerability Prioritization Should Be Done

To enhance vulnerability prioritization, organizations should adopt a more holistic approach that considers the entire security landscape. We call this approach the Pillars of Prioritization.

Comprehensive Inventory

The foundation of many control frameworks, including the Center for Internet Security (CIS) Critical Security
Control 1, begins with a comprehensive inventory of assets to accurately understand the totality of the attack surface. Understanding what you have is imperative to vulnerability prioritization. Therefore, organizations should look to integrate and centralize data from siloed tools to get real-time visibility into their environment. This inventory should include devices, identities, software, and vulnerabilities.

Integration of Threat Intelligence

Utilize threat intelligence feeds for vulnerability prioritization based on real-world data. By including detailed exploit intelligence like EPSS scores, known exploits, exploit maturity and type classifications, and real-time evidence of exploit usage, organizations can make better decisions to quantify risk.

Business Context Assessment

Evaluate all of the characteristics of each asset, including the associated users, their roles within the organization, and the potential impact on business operations if compromised. This assessment enables vulnerability prioritization based on not only technical variables but also on the potential impact on your operations.

Environmental Vulnerability Analysis

Limiting vulnerability analysis to CVEs does not provide a complete picture of exposure and represents a substantial risk. Identify and analyze environmental vulnerabilities such as missing or misconfigured agents, end-of-life systems, cloud misconfigurations, shadow IT, and more. By doing a more thorough analysis, risks that may not be captured by traditional vulnerability assessments or vulnerability scanners will be revealed.