TuxCare Blog

Patch vs Vulnerability Management: What are the Key Differences?

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April 11, 2024 - Guest Writer

Two terms frequently trip up even seasoned data security professionals: patch management and vulnerability management. But while both are undeniably crucial for keeping your digital systems secure—and share similarities—they play distinct roles.

The former is a swift responder that plugs security holes before threats can exploit them. It’s a subset of the latter, which involves a broader spectrum of preventive measures for fortifying the system.

This article examines patch vs vulnerability management with the aim of differentiating between the two.

On top of that, we’ll explore the best practices for optimal implementation.

But first, an overview.

What Is Patch Management?

Patch management is the process of testing and applying software updates, or patches, to address security issues and bugs and to improve functionality. It’s a practice that involves identifying and then sealing cracks and weaknesses before malicious actors can latch onto and exploit them.

Patch management should be an essential part of your cyber architecture policy. That is, if you’re serious about keeping your servers, endpoints, and entire systems insulated from security threats and vulnerabilities.

Why Is Patch Management Important?

While being primarily a reactive measure, patch management also acts as a line of defense against several security issues. But there’s more to gain by implementing it into your cybersecurity strategy.

Let’s take a look at the key benefits.

Risk Mitigation

Patch management’s most direct benefit lies in its ability to significantly reduce the risk of successful cyberattacks.

Unpatched vulnerabilities are loopholes for malicious actors that can lead to unsavory consequences—they invite data breaches, malware infections, and various other cyber threats.

In fact, NinjaOne’s cybersecurity statistics report shows that installing a security patch would have prevented up to 57% of data breaches.

Compliance With Regulations

Regulators across many industries mandate specific security standards, including timely patching practices.

For instance, ISO-27001 is an international standard for data security. Its patch management policy has a framework for identifying, prioritizing, testing, deploying, and monitoring patches. And PCI DSS requirement 6.2 explicitly addresses patch management for payment systems.

Efficient Operational Flow

Unpatched vulnerabilities can become the entry point for major security incidents that can cripple your systems and cause widespread disruptions. Patches prevent these issues from cropping up, essentially ensuring operational continuity.

Besides, patches are more than just about security. Fixed bugs and errors may also improve performance.

Reduced Costs

Patch management involves initial costs, which pales in comparison to the financial consequences of a security breach. In essence, timely patching significantly reduces long-term security expenses.

Extended System Lifespan

We’ve already pointed out that software patches not only address security vulnerabilities but also software bugs and glitches that can impact system performance and stability.

Regular patching translates into smoother operations, fewer crashes, and, ultimately, enhanced overall system stability. User experience is improved, and so is the lifespan of your existing software, network, IoT equipment, and other hardware.

Reputational Damage Prevention

News of a security breach or data leak travels fast, and the consequences can be devastating. Beyond financial losses and regulatory sanctions, your organization’s reputation is bound to take a hit, resulting in the loss of customer trust and a damaged brand image.

Both of these are incredibly difficult to recover from.

What Is Vulnerability Management?

Patch management addresses known vulnerabilities after they’ve been identified. On the other hand, vulnerability management takes a proactive and strategic approach. It is a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy that looks at identifying, evaluating, and mitigating potential weaknesses within an organization’s infrastructure.

The goal? For one, to systematically discover and understand vulnerabilities before they are exploited. Secondly, it aims to establish a proactive defense against potential threats.

Why Is Vulnerability Management Important?

As established, patch management is a subset of vulnerability management. This means the former’s immediate issue resolution benefits also apply here. But beyond these, vulnerability management also brings two distinctive advantages.

Adaptive Security Oversight

Threats don’t rest, and neither should your monitoring. Through continuous monitoring, vulnerability management ensures you detect new threats as they surface, preventing them from taking root in your systems.

On top of that, it allows you to adapt your security strategies so you’re not caught off guard by new threats and can quickly implement countermeasures to minimize damage.

Prioritization and Focus

Not all vulnerabilities are created equal.

For instance, say you use a business management software tool to handle financial transactions and sensitive client data. As you can imagine, issues related to data encryption would carry significantly more weight than, say, a moderate privilege escalation vulnerability.

Vulnerability management considers factors like exploitability and potential impact. That way, you can focus resources on more critical issues.

Key Differences Between Patch and Vulnerability Management

So far, we’ve isolated patch and vulnerability management and extensively highlighted how essential they are for the security of your IT infrastructure.

Now, let’s delve into patch vs vulnerability management and consider the differences between both measures.

Scope

Patch management operates within a relatively narrow scope because it concentrates on patches and updates provided by software vendors or security teams. The focus is clear-cut: identify and address immediate concerns in existing various components.

As for vulnerability management, it takes on a more expansive scope. Applying fixes aside, there’s a broader strategy for fortifying your entire system against potential threats. What’s more, it’s not just about software and encompasses various other aspects, including a human angle.

Timing

Patch management is primarily reactive. The focus is on an immediate response—applying fixes after vulnerabilities have been known.

On the other hand, vulnerability management takes a more proactive stance. It involves continuous monitoring, which means your organization can anticipate potential weaknesses before they manifest into vulnerabilities that can be exploited.

That difference in timing is essential for your overall security posture because relying solely on patch management leaves a window of vulnerability—which the more comprehensive approach shrinks.

That said, there’s a proactive angle to patch management, too. Setting up automated systems to deploy patches as soon as they become available is another way you can minimize that window of vulnerability.

Processes

Both practices contribute to a secure digital environment, but patch and vulnerability management have distinctly different workflows.

Let’s consider each in turn:

Patch Management

Identification: Receive patch information from vendors.
Testing: Internally test patches for compatibility and potential issues.
Deployment: Schedule and deploy patches across various systems.
Validation: Verify successful patch installation and functionality.

Vulnerability Management

Scanning: Regularly scan systems and applications for vulnerabilities.
Assessment: Analyze vulnerabilities for severity, exploitability, and potential impact.
Prioritization: Rank what you find based on risk to determine immediate action items.
Remediation: Implement strategies like patching, system hardening, or configuration changes.
Monitoring: Keep monitoring for new vulnerabilities and changes in existing ones.

Reporting

Reporting provides insights into the effectiveness of your security measures. When it comes to patch management, it’s primarily focused on the status of patch deployments, as well as other aspects like success rate and compliance.

In contrast, vulnerability management reporting is more dynamic and aims to paint a broader picture of security gaps and potential risks. So, it covers things like scan results, vulnerability prioritization, strategic planning reports, and more.

Responsibility

Who handles patch and vulnerability management? For the former, the responsibility usually lies with IT operations and security teams.

As expected, more professionals are involved with vulnerability management. The security officers spearhead the effort, but they collaborate with risk analysts, IT systems engineers, and other relevant stakeholders.

Patch and Vulnerability Management Best Practices

Cybersecurity Ventures predicts the cost of cyberattacks worldwide will reach a staggering $9.5 trillion in 2024. Keeping your IT system and all its components secure requires a comprehensive approach, with patch and vulnerability management matching in the first line of defense.

When thinking about patch vs vulnerability management, what are the best practices to follow?

Have Them Work Together

With both providing distinct yet complementary roles, you want them working together. While patch management effectively provides endpoint security and functionality, you need it to fall within an extensive, proactive strategy involving vulnerability management.

Consider this scenario: Vulnerability management scans reveal critical weaknesses. Based on this, patch management then prioritizes patching, focusing on vulnerabilities that attackers are actively exploiting or those posing the highest risk to your specific environment. This way, you’re extinguishing the most dangerous fires first.

Streamline Patch Management

This will save you valuable time and effort.

Here’s another scenario: vulnerability management continuously scans for new vulnerabilities and changes in existing ones. The results feed into automated patch deployment systems, so you have rapid application of fixes as they become available.

Use the Right Tools

Equipping your organization with the right tools is paramount for securing your system and components. You want to invest in customizable automated patch management solutions that seamlessly integrate with vulnerability assessment results.

With some solutions (like live patching tools for the Linux kernel and critical system components like glibc and openssl), you may not even need a reboot or have to interrupt runtime.

You want areas like compliance covered, too. For instance, the enterprise architecture (EA) tool Ardoq has an Information Security Management System (ISMS) that is ISO 27001 certified.

Conclusion

In the face of escalating cyber threats, you need a solid line of defense to keep your software, hardware, networks, and systems secure. Patch and vulnerability management are distinct, if complementary, elements that form the backbone of this defense.

Remember, patch management effectively removes known vulnerabilities, but it primarily operates reactively. On the other hand, vulnerability management allows you to identify potential issues before they ignite and provides prioritized intelligence for patching.

For best results, stop thinking about patch vs vulnerability management as an either-or situation. Instead, look to integrate them to form a safety shield for your organization.