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- Welcome to Lesson 16:
Explain Various Activities

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Associated with Vulnerability Management.

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Now, in this lesson, 16.1,

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we're gonna start with talking about

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vulnerability identification.

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We'll review what a vulnerability is,

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and we're gonna then
really look closely at

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what are all the ways that we
can identify vulnerabilities,

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which is certainly the starting point

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in vulnerability management.

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And just as a review, a
vulnerability is a weakness

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in a system, hardware,
software, process, person,

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building, infrastructure,
right, that can be exploited.

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It's a weakness that can be exploited.

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Now, another term that's gonna come up

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as we're talking about our
vulnerabilities is exposure.

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The term exposure means a system

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or software configuration
issue or lack of a control

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that could contribute to a
successful exploit or compromise,

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and one more refresher about
our zero-day vulnerabilities.

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A zero-day vulnerability
refers to a vulnerability

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that is actively being
exploited by attackers

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before the vendor has an opportunity

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to develop or release
a patch or fix for it.

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Now, the term zero-day really
is used just to indicate

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that there was no notice
or advanced warning given

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to the software vendor or the
public about the vulnerability

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before it began to be exploited.

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Now, our attackers we know
go right after these, right?

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The attackers aim to
exploit the vulnerability

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before it becomes widely
known and patched,

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maximizing their opportunity
to compromise systems,

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but as soon as we know about
a zero-day vulnerability,

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we need to take action,

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and that action will be determining

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what the impact might be
to our organization, right,

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if that vulnerability was exploited

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and what additional
controls we can put in place

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until such time that a fix is available.

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How are new vulnerabilities discovered?

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Well, organizations are, you know,

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continually doing research
on their own code,

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but many organizations also offer

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what's known as a bug bounty problem.

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No. (laughing)

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Many organizations also offer

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what is known as a bug bounty program.

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It's also known as a VRP,

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which is a vulnerability rewards program,

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and that's an incentive program
that compensates individuals

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for identifying and reporting
vulnerabilities, aka bugs.

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Now, there are two types
of bug bounty programs.

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There are open bug bounties
and closed bug bounties.

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Open bug bounty programs are offered

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by hundreds of companies,

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including Google and
Microsoft and Facebook.

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A closed bug bounty program
is by invitation only.

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Now, if a vulnerability is discovered

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in third-party software or hardware

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by you or by someone in your organization

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or by someone who you hired to come in

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and do a vulnerability
assessment or a pen test,

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best practices dictate
notifying the vendor directly.

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So you've reached out to the vendor.

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You've said, "We found
this vulnerability,"

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or this issue, this exposure,

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and hopefully they respond and say,

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"Great. We're on it and
we'll keep you updated."

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And maybe they'll even give
you a little reward or,

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you know, at least an acknowledgement,

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but if you don't hear from them,
so if you have no response,

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or you have an inadequate
response is forthcoming,

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here in the US,
vulnerabilities can be sent

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to U.S. CERT Coordination Center,

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and CERT/CC will then forward
the report to the vendor,

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and this is from their policy.

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They say, "Vulnerabilities
reported to CERT/CC

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will be disclosed to the public

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45 days after the initial report

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regardless of the existence
or availability of patches

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or workarounds from affected vendors."

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Then they go on to say,

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"Extenuating circumstances,"
kind of dot, dot, dot,

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"may result in either
earlier or later disclosure,"

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and you can read more about the policy

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by just going to the link
that you see on your screen.

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Now, we really should let everybody know,

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right, about vulnerabilities.

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It shouldn't be a secret, but, you know,

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sometimes it's a little
disconcerting for an organization

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to release information
about a vulnerability

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because they don't wanna
take the reputation hit,

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but our good organizations,
our ethical organizations know

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that this is really the right thing to do.

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So ethical disclosure, which
we've talked about earlier,

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is the practice of publishing
information related

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to a vulnerability or finding,

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and the purpose is to inform
others of potential risks

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so they can make informed decisions

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and take appropriate action.

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Now, full disclosure about a vulnerability

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is making all details
public without regard

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to the additional harm that
may be caused to others,

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including exploits by adversaries.

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At first blush, it's like,

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"Oh, no, we should never
do full disclosure,"

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but there may be valid
reasons for full disclosure.

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The second is responsible disclosure,

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and responsible disclosure is making

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just enough information known
so that informed decisions

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can be made without releasing details

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that could be useful to an adversary,

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but, you know, the discussion
that comes up a lot

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about responsible disclosure is,

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who's really making that decision,

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you know, about what should be disclosed

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and are they truly
disclosing the right thing?

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So there's a lot of
conversation in our industry

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about full disclosure versus
responsible disclosure.

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Now, where can you go to find
out about vulnerabilities?

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Well, there's this fantastic program

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known as the CVE Program.

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The CVE Program is an international,
community-driven effort

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to catalog hardware and
software vulnerabilities

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for public access.

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Now, a CVE, Common
Vulnerabilities and Exposure,

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is a standardized identifier

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for a given vulnerability or exposure.

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Now, the CVE records are maintained

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in the CVE Program catalog,
and as of May 2023,

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there were 202,679 records.

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Now, the use of a CVE ensures
that two or more parties

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can confidently refer to a CVE identifier

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when discussing or sharing information

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about a unique vulnerability,

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and they know they're
talking about the same thing.

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So where do you go to
get this information?

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You're gonna go out to cve.org.

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Now, it used to be mitre.cve.org.

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They've recently brought
it over to a new website,

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so cve.org.

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If you have not been there before,

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you definitely, definitely wanna go there.

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That's where you can get information

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about all current and past CVEs,

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but they also have some
other great publications

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and a full tutorial,

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both in video form and in written form,

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to really understand, you know,
how the CVE Program works,

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how to understand CVE documentation,

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and just how to make best
use of the information.

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So when you're looking
at a CVE at cve.org,

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one of the things you're gonna notice

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is that there's a score,

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and that score is noted as a CVSS score.

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CVSS stands for Common
Vulnerability Scoring System.

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Now, the Common
Vulnerability Scoring System

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is an open framework for
communicating the characteristics

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and the severity of hardware
and software vulnerabilities.

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There are five ratings:

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none, low, medium, high, and critical.

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The two common uses of CVSS
are calculating the severity

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of vulnerabilities
discovered on your own system

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and as a factor in the prioritization

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of your vulnerability
remediation activities.

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Now, the National
Vulnerability Database, NVD,

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provides the CVSS scores

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for almost all known vulnerabilities,

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and you can learn more about

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the National Vulnerability Database at,

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well, one of our favorite places, NIST,

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National Institute of
Standards and Technology,

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by going to nvd.nist.gov,

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and this is what a CVSS description

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is gonna look like, right?

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You'll go out there, you'll see the CVE,

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and then you can note
where it says severity.

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Right over here, you can see severity,

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and then it's going to give you

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the various severity ratings,

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as well as information
about characteristics.

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So this is going out to nvd.nist.gov,

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but you can link directly
to this from cve.org.

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So when you bring up a CVE,

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there'll be a hyperlink that will take you

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right to the NVD, the National
Vulnerability Database,

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to give you the scoring information.

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Now, once you're there,
I want you to look around

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because the NVD is also a really,

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really great source of information.

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One of the things they
have is this dashboard,

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the NVD dashboard that tells you about

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CVEs received and
processed and status count

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and scoring distribution and
just so many other things

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that really you're gonna
find really interesting,

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truly interesting, and of course,

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just like there was in the cve.org site,

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there's a great tutorial.

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So go there. You know, just look around.

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Get familiar with it, and
definitely take the tutorial

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so you become more
familiar with how to use

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the National Vulnerability Database.

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And that, my friends, brings
us to a three-second challenge.

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Five challenge questions,
three seconds each.

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Let's do it.

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Hardware or software weakness

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that can potentially be exploited.

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This is an easy one. One, two, three.

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That's a vulnerability.

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When there's no notice or advance warning

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about a vulnerability before
it begins to be exploited.

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What do we call that
type of vulnerability?

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One, two, three. It's very dangerous type.

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That's gonna be our zero-day.

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Number 3, a standardized identifier

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for a given vulnerability or exposure.

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One, two, three.

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That's gonna be the CVE.

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Number 4, scoring system
used to communicate

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the severity of vulnerabilities.

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One, two, three,

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and that's gonna be the
CVSS, and lastly, number 5,

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an incentive program that
compensates individuals

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for identifying and
reporting vulnerabilities.

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One, two, three, and that's
gonna be a bug bounty.

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That brings us to a Security-in-Action

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about a vulnerability discovery.

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During a routine penetration test,

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a serious vulnerability
was discovered in the COTS,

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that stands for
commercial-off-the-shelf, application.

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You researched the issue,

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and you found no related
CVE or CVSS entry.

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You reached out to the
vendor multiple times

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by phone and by email to report it,

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but they haven't responded
at all or even acknowledged,

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right, in any form that there's an issue.

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So my question to you is, what do you do?

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Should you do nothing?
Should you do something?

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What are you gonna do? Put me on pause.

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Think about it, how you might take action

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or who you might report this to.

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Well, if no response

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or an inadequate response is forthcoming,

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vulnerabilities can be sent

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to the U.S. CERT Coordination Center.

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CERT/CC will forward the
report to the vendor.

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Now, if CERT/CC doesn't
get an adequate response,

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they will publish a notification.

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Now, if you belong to an ISAC,

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that's an information sharing group,

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or any other industry group,

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you may wanna share the information
on a confidential basis.

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So perhaps you're part of

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a banking group or a hospital group,

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and this vulnerability was
in your banking software

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or in your hospital software.

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You may wanna share it
on a confidential basis,

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again, inside that group.

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And in the meantime, right,
management needs to determine

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if there are adequate
compensating controls,

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and if not, is this
vulnerability so severe

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that we should discontinue
using the software?

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Because you found this vulnerability,

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obviously there's no patch for it

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because they haven't even
acknowledged that it exists.

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So now you have to say,
what other controls,

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what compensating controls do
we also have to put in place,

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right, because of this vulnerability

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or is it just so significant

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that maybe we really have to think about

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not using this software?

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Those decisions, those
conversations, Security-in-Action.

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There's your word cloud.

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Make sure that you know
all of these terms,

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you can speak to them,
and I would suggest,

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before you move on, go out to cve.org

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and go out to the National
Vulnerability Database.

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Take a look around.

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It's a good time to do it,
right now so you don't forget,

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and then when you're ready,
head on over to the next lesson.

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I'll be waiting for you right there.