Vulnerability management

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Vulnerability management is the "cyclical practice of identifying, classifying, prioritizing, remediating, and mitigating" software vulnerabilities.^[1] Vulnerability management is integral to computer security and network security, and must not be confused with vulnerability assessment.^[2]

Vulnerabilities can be discovered with a vulnerability scanner, which analyzes a computer system in search of known vulnerabilities,^[3] such as open ports, insecure software configurations, and susceptibility to malware infections. They may also be identified by consulting public sources, such as NVD, vendor specific security updates or subscribing to a commercial vulnerability alerting service. Unknown vulnerabilities, such as a zero-day,^[3] may be found with fuzz testing. Fuzzing is a cornerstone technique where random or semi-random input data is fed to programs to detect unexpected behavior. Tools such as AFL (American Fuzzy Lop) and libFuzzer automate this process, making it faster and more efficient. Fuzzy testing can identify certain kinds of vulnerabilities, such as a buffer overflow with relevant test cases. Similarly, static analysis tools analyze source code or binaries to identify potential vulnerabilities without executing the program. Symbolic execution, an advanced technique combining static and dynamic analysis, further aids in pinpointing vulnerabilities.^[4] Such analysis can be facilitated by test automation. In addition, antivirus software capable of heuristic analysis may discover undocumented malware if it finds software behaving suspiciously (such as attempting to overwrite a system file).

Correcting vulnerabilities may variously involve the installation of a patch, a change in network security policy, reconfiguration of software, or educating users about social engineering.

Project vulnerability is the project's susceptibility to being subject to negative events, the analysis of their impact, and the project's capability to cope with negative events.^[5] Based on Systems Thinking, project systemic vulnerability management takes a holistic vision, and proposes the following process:

1. Project vulnerability identification
2. Vulnerability analysis
3. Vulnerability response planning
4. Vulnerability controlling – which includes implementation, monitoring, control, and lessons learned

Coping with negative events is done, in this model, through:

• resistance – the static aspect, referring to the capacity to withstand instantaneous damage, and
• resilience – the dynamic aspect, referring to the capacity to recover in time.

Redundancy is a specific method to increase resistance and resilience in vulnerability management.^[6]

Antifragility is a concept introduced by Nassim Nicholas Taleb to describe the capacity of systems to not only resist or recover from adverse events, but also to improve because of them. Antifragility is similar to the concept of positive complexity proposed by Stefan Morcov.

• "Implementing a Vulnerability Management Process". SANS Institute.