Vulnerabilities are everywhere in technology systems, but they don't have to ruin your day. Establishing a process to regularly detect and track vulnerabilities is essential to keeping your environment secure. The Vulnerability Identification control from the Cloud Security Alliance provides guidance on how to make that happen.

Where did this come from?

This control comes from the CSA Cloud Controls Matrix v4.0.10 released on 2023-09-26. You can download the full document here. The matrix provides a comprehensive set of controls that are especially relevant for cloud computing environments. For some complementary reading, check out the AWS documentation on vulnerability management.

Who should care?

This one is for the security operations folks responsible for keeping things locked down. If identifying and stomping out vulnerabilities is part of your job description, this control is speaking your language. Infrastructure engineers will also want to pay attention, since remediation often falls on their plate.

What is the risk?

Unidentified and unpatched vulnerabilities are an attacker's best friend. They provide an easy entry point to gain unauthorized access, steal data, install malware, or otherwise wreak havoc. Even a single undetected vulnerability can lead to a major incident. The Vulnerability Identification control aims to minimize this risk by ensuring a regular, systematic vulnerability detection process is in place.

What's the care factor?

On a scale of "meh" to "everybody panic!", this one rates pretty highly. While it may not be the most exciting security task, vulnerability management is essential. Unpatched vulnerabilities are one of the most common causes of data breaches. Unless you enjoy explaining to your boss how the company ended up on the front page news, it's worth investing the time to get this right.

When is it relevant?

Any system that is exposed to the internet or untrusted networks should have vulnerability scanning. That's pretty much everything these days. The control suggests scanning at least monthly, but in high-risk environments, you may want to crank that up to weekly or even daily. The only time you can really ignore this is for completely isolated, air-gapped systems (and even then, you should probably still scan occasionally just to be sure).

What are the trade offs?

Scanning for vulnerabilities does require some time and effort to set up and maintain. It also consumes system resources while running. However, this is a small price to pay compared to the potential impact of an undetected vulnerability. Just make sure to schedule your scans during off-peak hours to minimize disruption.

There's also the question of what to do with the results. Investigating and patching takes additional time and may introduce compatibility issues or unintended side effects. You'll need to balance the risk of the vulnerability against the impact of the remediation.

How to make it happen?

1. Select a vulnerability scanning tool. There are many commercial and open source options such as Nessus, OpenVAS, and AWS Inspector.
2. Define the scope of your scanning. Ideally you want to cover all systems, but you may need to start with critical assets and expand from there.
3. Configure authentication for the scanner. This may involve creating dedicated scan accounts and managing credentials securely.
4. Set up regular scheduled scans at a frequency in line with your risk tolerance.
5. Establish a process to review scan results and prioritize vulnerabilities for remediation based on severity and risk.
6. Assign vulnerabilities to the appropriate team for investigation and patching.
7. Track metrics on vulnerability detection and remediation time to measure the effectiveness of your program.

For bonus points, integrate the results into a centralized GRC or ticketing system for better visibility and oversight.

What are some gotchas?

Make sure you have permission and change approval before scanning. An unexpected scan could trigger alerts, result in performance issues, or even knock a system offline.

If you're scanning cloud assets, you'll need to manage authentication carefully. For AWS, scanners often need read-only permissions for services like EC2 (ec2:DescribeInstances), Inspector (inspector:ListFindings), etc. Refer to your cloud provider's documentation for specific guidance.

Also keep in mind that not all vulnerabilities can or should be patched immediately. You'll need to factor in the business impact and change management processes.

What are the alternatives?

For cloud assets, you can leverage provider-native tools like AWS Inspector and Azure Security Center to identify vulnerabilities. These are often easier to deploy but may not be as comprehensive as a dedicated scanner.

You can also supplement active scanning with passive monitoring and threat intelligence to detect signs of exploited vulnerabilities. A SIEM or XDR solution can help correlate multiple signals.

Explore further

• CIS Control 7 provides additional guidance on continuous vulnerability management
• NIST SP 800-53 control RA-5 covers vulnerability scanning
• OWASP provides a guide on reviewing vulnerabilities from a web app testing perspective
• AWS provides a whitepaper on best practices for vulnerability management in DevOps environments

So there you have it - your crash course on the Vulnerability Identification control. Go forth and conquer those vulnerabilities!