Vulnerability Intelligence: Proactively Identify and Prioritize Your Security Weaknesses

Learn how to leverage vulnerability intelligence and why it is a critical component of your organization’s cybersecurity strategy.

Understanding Vulnerability Intelligence

As the number of software systems used by organizations grows exponentially, so too has the number of vulnerabilities that expose them to exploitation by threat actors. As a direct effect of the rapid rise in new software and vulnerabilities, exploitation of vulnerabilities almost tripled as an initial access vector in 2023, with new vulnerabilities continuing to increase by at least 30 percent in 2024.  The rapid surge in the mass exploitation of vulnerabilities makes it more crucial than ever for organizations to defend against these threats. Vulnerability intelligence solutions offer a powerful, proactive approach to safeguarding organizations from potential attacks.

Vulnerabilities, or flaws, in software or hardware can pose various risks, such as allowing attackers to cross privilege boundaries. By taking advantage of such flaws, threat actors can infiltrate an organization’s system, stealing sensitive data or causing damage to the network. 

Read on to learn how vulnerability intelligence empowers organizations to counteract and protect themselves from the growing threat of vulnerability exploitation.

What is Vulnerability Intelligence?

Vulnerability intelligence is a specialized area of threat intelligence focused on detecting and reporting the latest vulnerabilities and exploits that cybercriminals use to infiltrate and steal sensitive data from targeted enterprises. By identifying, analyzing, and disseminating information about software and system vulnerabilities, it enables organizations to prioritize and address security flaws before malicious actors can exploit them. Staying informed about these vulnerabilities allows security professionals to implement timely patches, reducing the risk of cyberattacks and data breaches.

Types of Vulnerabilities

There are many different types of software vulnerabilities that may be exploited by cyber attackers. The following are common types of vulnerabilities: 

1. Unpatched or outdated software

Despite knowing about vulnerabilities and having access to updates or patches, enterprises often fail to apply them before the vulnerabilities are exploited. In fact, 60% of respondents in a Ponemon Institute survey revealed that they experienced a data breach due to not applying a patch for a known vulnerability. This underscores the critical need for contextually relevant and actionable vulnerability intelligence, which enables security teams to prioritize and address the most pressing software vulnerabilities first.

3. Vulnerabilities in dependencies

Modern software applications typically integrate various open-source or third-party code, as well as external libraries or dependencies. While utilizing these resources can speed up the development of new software products, it can also introduce security vulnerabilities present in third-party code into the application. Some software applications rely on dozens or even hundreds of external dependencies, making it a time-consuming and tedious task for development teams to update them all as new versions and patches are released. Vulnerability intelligence can enhance situational awareness by identifying software vulnerabilities affecting an application’s dependencies and third-party code.

4. Zero-day vulnerabilities

A zero-day vulnerability is a security flaw in software that threat actors exploit before the software vendor is aware of it or has released a patch. These vulnerabilities are challenging to predict and prevent, but they must be addressed swiftly to avoid data breaches, service disruptions or financial loss. Vulnerability intelligence offers crucial insights into the behaviors, motivations and tactics of threat actors who target organizations with zero-day exploits, empowering security teams to effectively disrupt and mitigate such attacks.

5. N-day/one-day vulnerabilities

These are vulnerabilities that have been publicly disclosed and for which patches or mitigations are available. While they are less critical than zero-day vulnerabilities, they still pose significant risks if not promptly addressed, as attackers can exploit them in systems that have not been updated. Vulnerability intelligence provides the information necessary to contextualize and prioritize mitigation efforts for these vulnerabilities, as well as streamlining the process from discovery to patching.

Mass Exploitation of Vulnerabilities

Mass exploitation of zero-day and one-day vulnerabilities has emerged as a deeply alarming trend, threatening virtually all organizations with a digital presence. Threat groups and nation-state actors worldwide are becoming increasingly adept at identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities as soon as they are discovered, even before they have been publicly disclosed.

Recent high-profile vulnerability exploitations include:

• The ESXi hypervisors vulnerability (CVE-2024-37085), which poses a critical risk as it allows ransomware operators to gain full administrative control over domain-joined ESXi hypervisors, and has impacted over 20,000 internet-accessible VMware ESXi instances, affecting numerous organizations globally. This widespread exploitation has led to significant disruptions, including ransomware attacks that compromise critical virtual machines and network infrastructures.
• The ScreenConnect vulnerability (CVE-2024-1709), which allows unauthorized individuals to bypass authentication and gain administrative control, has led to hundreds of initial access brokers and cybercrime gangs to carry out exploitation attacks, threatening organizations and downstream customers.
• Ivanti’s Connect Secure and Policy Secure gateways (CVE-2023-46805, CVE-2024-21887, and CVE-2024-21893), which have been actively exploited by multiple threat actors, including Chinese APT groups, have impacted over 30,000 internet-exposed VPN gateways to bypass authentication, craft malicious requests, and execute arbitrary commands with elevated privileges.

Dark web marketplaces, as well as forums, instant messaging platforms and other online channels are being used to accelerate the mass exploitation of vulnerabilities. Exploits are increasingly being shared and sold for profit, making exploits more accessible than ever, even to those without technical expertise. A top-tier vulnerability intelligence solution provides real-time information on sharing and selling of exploits, enabling security teams to understand the context around exploits relevant to their organization’s software and systems, to aid in prioritization of mitigation efforts.

Key Components of Vulnerability Intelligence

A comprehensive approach to vulnerability intelligence is critical to keeping your organization safe from cyber attacks. Incomplete intelligence can leave your organization exposed to risks, with potentially devastating effects.

The following are key elements of vulnerability intelligence:

1. Vulnerability discovery

Vulnerability discovery involves examining your organization’s IT infrastructure to identify potential security weaknesses. Organizations can only address the risks they are aware of, making the discovery of vulnerabilities a critical first step in the vulnerability intelligence process. This step determines the overall effectiveness of your vulnerability management strategy.

Researchers uncover and document vulnerabilities, which are then compiled by vulnerability databases (VDBs) for further analysis. The effectiveness of vulnerability intelligence depends on monitoring the multitude of channels where vulnerabilities are disclosed.

The process of vulnerability discovery can be broken down into two components:

• Vulnerability sources: The more sources you monitor, the stronger your vulnerability coverage. Vulnerabilities can be disclosed through various sources, including security advisories, threat intelligence feeds, vulnerability databases, mailing lists, blogs, platforms like GitHub, exploit disclosure websites, social media, the dark web, bug trackers and code repositories. Since no single source provides complete coverage, it’s crucial to aggregate as many vulnerabilities as possible to prioritize responses.
• Vulnerability monitoring: This involves continuously tracking multiple sources to identify new vulnerabilities. It includes validating the information, normalizing data, and integrating it into your vulnerability feed, ensuring your organization stays informed and can effectively address emerging threats.

2. Vulnerability research

Vulnerability research involves analyzing the severity and potential impact of identified vulnerabilities to assess whether they pose a threat to your organization’s systems.

As you monitor various sources for vulnerability disclosures, it’s crucial to evaluate these vulnerabilities to determine their potential impact on your systems. This includes mapping your organization’s internal software and systems, assessing whether a vulnerability affects a vendor in your supply chain or a product your organization uses, identifying which versions are susceptible, checking if an exploit is available, and determining whether a patch or upgrade can be implemented to address the issue.

3. Vulnerability risk assessment

Vulnerability risk assessment is the final step in the vulnerability intelligence process, in which security analysts assess the potential damage a vulnerability could cause if exploited, and determine the severity of the risk posed to the organization. This is critical in order to proactively address potential exploits.

To accurately evaluate the potential damage that a vulnerability exploitation can cause an organization, it’s essential to take into account vulnerability metadata (including information on the attacker’s location, the type of attack, availability of a solution, exploit status, types of technology involved, authentication requirements, etc.), the level of risk posed to the organization, and the potential impact of the exploitation.

How to Choose a Vulnerability Intelligence Solution

Top-tier solutions such as Cognyte’s LUMINAR threat intelligence solution offer a comprehensive, one-stop platform for all elements of vulnerability intelligence. In choosing a vulnerability intelligence solution, the following capabilities are critical:

1. Automatic mapping and correlation of internal systems and software with information from a comprehensive list of vulnerability information sources and adversaries’ platforms. This ensures that potential exploitations are detected as early as possible.

2. Continuous monitoring of vulnerability sources, including lists of known vulnerabilities, forums and marketplaces on the dark web where exploits are shared and sold. This enables your organization to be aware of vulnerabilities and exploits as soon as they emerge.

3. Automatic prioritization of vulnerabilities based on a sophisticated risk scoring mechanism. This allows security teams to mitigate and patch the most urgent vulnerabilities first, improving the efficiency of security teams and ensuring that resources are utilized in the most effective way possible.

4. Direct links and resources to patches, vendor advisories and mitigation guidelines. This allows security teams to quickly and easily access patches and critical information needed for mitigating a vulnerability or exploitation.

5. A user-friendly UI with visualization widgets and vulnerability intelligence workflow. This streamlines the vulnerability management and mitigation process, and speeds up the time from discovery to patching.

Conclusion

By leveraging vulnerability intelligence, organizations can proactively defend against emerging threats and minimize their exposure to cyber risks. Click here to learn how your organization can benefit from LUMINAR threat intelligence