Vulnerability management is a critical component of any effective security program. To ensure your vulnerability management efforts are on track, it's important to establish, monitor, and regularly report on key metrics. These metrics provide valuable insights into the performance and efficacy of your vulnerability management processes.

Where did this come from?

This control comes from the CSA Cloud Controls Matrix v4.0.10 - 2023-09-26. You can download the full matrix here. The matrix provides a comprehensive set of controls to help organizations assess and manage the security of their cloud computing environments. For more information on AWS vulnerability management best practices, check out the AWS Security Hub documentation.

Who should care?

This control is relevant for:

• Security analysts with responsibility for measuring and reporting on vulnerability management
• IT managers with oversight of the vulnerability management program
• CISOs and other security leaders who need visibility into the performance of vulnerability management efforts

What is the risk?

Without vulnerability management metrics, organizations have limited visibility into the effectiveness of their vulnerability management program. This lack of insight can lead to:

• Undetected vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit to gain unauthorized access to systems and data
• Inefficient use of resources if vulnerability scans and patching efforts are not properly prioritized
• Difficulty demonstrating compliance with security standards and regulations

While vulnerability management metrics alone cannot prevent security incidents, they are an important tool for identifying areas for improvement and ensuring the program is operating as intended.

What's the care factor?

Vulnerability management is a foundational security control that all organizations should prioritize. The metrics collected as part of this control provide essential visibility into the vulnerability management lifecycle. By regularly reviewing these metrics, organizations can identify trends, prioritize remediation efforts, and continuously improve their security posture.

For organizations subject to security regulations or customer security requirements, the ability to provide vulnerability management metrics may be mandatory. Failure to meet these requirements could result in financial penalties or loss of business.

When is it relevant?

Vulnerability management metrics should be established as part of any vulnerability management program. They are particularly important for organizations that:

• Have a large attack surface with many systems and applications to protect
• Are subject to security regulations or customer security requirements
• Have suffered past security incidents related to unpatched vulnerabilities

Smaller organizations with a limited attack surface and lower risk profile may be able to take a more streamlined approach to vulnerability management metrics. However, all organizations can benefit from the visibility and accountability that metrics provide.

What are the trade offs?

Collecting and reporting vulnerability management metrics requires time and effort from security staff. This may require additional tools and processes to be put in place. There is also a risk of "metrics overload" if too many metrics are collected without a clear purpose.

Organizations should carefully consider which metrics are most relevant to their business and prioritize accordingly. Automation can help reduce the manual effort required to collect and report metrics.

How to make it happen?

1. Define the key metrics to be collected, such as:
   • Number of vulnerabilities identified
   • Time to patch critical and high severity vulnerabilities
   • Percentage of systems with no known vulnerabilities
2. Establish a baseline for each metric to measure progress over time
3. Implement tools and processes to automatically collect the required data, such as:
   • Vulnerability scanners to identify vulnerabilities across the environment
   • Patch management systems to track the status of patches
   • SIEM or other log management tools to correlate vulnerability data with other security events
4. Configure dashboards and reports to present the metrics in a clear and actionable format
5. Define thresholds and alerts to notify security staff when metrics deviate from expected values
6. Schedule regular reviews of the metrics with stakeholders to discuss trends and identify areas for improvement
7. Continuously refine and update the metrics as the vulnerability management program matures

What are some gotchas?

To effectively implement vulnerability management metrics, organizations need to have a solid foundation of asset management and vulnerability scanning in place. Without an accurate inventory of assets and vulnerabilities, the metrics collected will be of limited value.

Organizations should also ensure they have the necessary permissions and access rights to collect the required data. This may involve coordination with asset owners and application teams. For AWS environments, security teams will need access to APIs such as AWS Config and AWS Systems Manager to collect asset and patch data.

What are the alternatives?

While vulnerability management metrics are an important part of any security program, they are not the only way to measure and manage vulnerabilities. Other approaches include:

• Penetration testing to actively identify vulnerabilities and misconfigurations
• Bug bounty programs to incentivize external researchers to identify vulnerabilities
• Threat modeling to proactively identify and mitigate potential vulnerabilities in systems and applications

These approaches can complement vulnerability management metrics by providing additional insights and validation of the organization's security posture.

Explore further

• CIS Control 7: Continuous Vulnerability Management
• NIST SP 800-40 Rev. 3: Guide to Enterprise Patch Management Technologies
• OWASP Vulnerability Management Guide