Introduction to vulnerability and patch management

Vulnerability management is a cyclical process of identifying, assessing, remediating, and reporting vulnerabilities in endpoints, assets, and the network infrastructure. Vulnerabilities may require different remediation responses, such as patching or corrective security configurations, depending on the circumstances. Patching refers to the process of applying security updates to the affected systems to mitigate vulnerabilities. The process of fetching updates (security or otherwise) from the vendor, testing them for stability, and deploying them to managed systems across the IT network is called patch management.

The traditional approach

Traditionally, these processes involve dedicated tools operated by different teams, introducing unnecessary silos, disparity in data transferred between integrated solutions, potential delays in remediation, difficulties in scaling, and more.

The security team regularly scans the network and endpoints for vulnerabilities by employing a vulnerability scanner and emails the IT team with the details of the vulnerabilities and recommended remediation. The IT admins utilize patching tools to detect missing patches and manually correlate them with the vulnerability data sent by the security team to resolve the vulnerabilities. Then, the IT admins proceed to download patches from vendor sites, test them for stability, and deploy them to the production environment. Another round of scanning is performed by the IT team to ensure the vulnerability is thoroughly fixed. Next, the remediation status is sent to the security team that performs additional validation to close the vulnerability management loop.

There are several complications with this fragmented approach. Research from ESG on cyber risk management, surveying 340 cybersecurity professionals, reveals that 40 percent believe tracking patch and vulnerability management is their biggest challenge.

Let’s focus on the various limitations of this approach and discuss the five reasons why you’ll be better off with an integrated patch and vulnerability management solution.

Direct and accelerated remediation:

Juggling multiple tools for patch and vulnerability management results in a siloed, inefficient workflow that adds complexity, creates redundant scans, widens the gap between vulnerability detection and patching, and dramatically slows down the process of remediating risk. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that organizations in general take more than a couple of months to close a discovered vulnerability. The 2021 Vulnerability Statistics Report from edgescan states that it takes an average of 84 days to remediate high risk vulnerabilities.

With the gap between vulnerability disclosure and exploit code availability having shrunk in recent days, organizations have to be swift in their remediation. Research cited in a CSO Online article indicates that 60 percent of breaches are due to unapplied patches, ones that were readily available but not deployed.

Patch and vulnerability management are interdependent processes. Instead of jumping between different tools to execute a single task, an integrated patch and vulnerability management solution provides all teams with unified visibility and better tracking from detection to closure—all from a central location. This eliminates the need for redundant scans. A single scan fetches all the vulnerability and patch information and automatically correlates it to accomplish swift remediation.

Improved accuracy:

Point products don’t interface well with each other, increasing the likelihood of potential disparity in data between integrated solutions. Due to inconsistencies in information exchanged between integrated point products, all the required patches may not get deployed completely and critical vulnerabilities could remain unaddressed. A unified solution streamlines all interdependent tasks from one console, eliminating possible errors.

Subdue management challenges:

Deploying multiple tools, and training staff to use them, can be clumsy and time-consuming. Running several tools at the same time can impact network bandwidth consumption. Adding to this challenge, installing multiple agents strains system resources and affects performance. These ordeals can be minimized if you use an integrated solution.

Scale with ease:

With an integrated approach, you can also eliminate the hurdles that come with scaling two separate tools to support more devices in the long run. The modern IT landscape is extremely dynamic; it’s characterized by the frequent addition of assets, connections with new partners, and the like. An instance of one of the two agents not being installed in any of the new assets could introduce further complications in the workflow and leave behind several security gaps. That is not an issue with a unified approach.

Cut down security budget:

Let’s cut to the chase: the deployment and maintenance of two separate tools for patch and vulnerability management will cost you two times as much. It’s as simple as that. Further investments include dedicated training sessions on each product for new staff.

To do away with all these woes, your best bet is to invest in ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus, a completely integrated patch and vulnerability management solution that utilizes a single interface and a single agent to facilitate the detection, prioritization, and closure of vulnerabilities, all from one location.

Vulnerability Manager Plus‘ risk-based vulnerability management capability enables IT admins to prioritize response to high-risk vulnerabilities based on exploitability and impact. IT admins can remediate vulnerabilities across an environment of any size by deploying the latest patches quickly with the product’s built-in patching functionality. Its automated patch management capability keeps Windows, macOS, Linux, and over 350 third-party applications up-to-date by enabling IT admins to automate and customize the entire cycle of patching—from detecting missing patches, downloading them from vendor sites, testing them for stability, and deploying them to all endpoints.

Learn more about the extensive capabilities of Vulnerability Manager Plus, or

explore a free, 30-day trial to see the integrated patch and vulnerability management solution in action.