In 2025, security researchers counted more than 48,000 new Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) published — a roughly 20% jump over 2024’s record pace of around 40,000. Every organization, regardless of size, is dealing with a constant stream of security vulnerabilities and expanding attack surfaces that could turn into real risk if they’re not handled quickly.

That’s why vulnerability management can’t be a quarterly checklist. It has to be an ongoing, operational process that helps teams spot issues early, prioritize the metrics that matter, and fix problems before attackers find them.

In this guide, we’ll walk through what vulnerability management really means in practice, how it differs from a basic vulnerability assessment, and the key steps involved in building a program that actually works. We’ll also show where automation fits in and how it can make the whole process far more manageable.

What is vulnerability management?

Vulnerability management is how organizations find, evaluate, and reduce security weaknesses across their environment over time.

Those weaknesses can live in a lot of places. Sometimes they’re technical, like unpatched software, insecure configurations, or missing encryption. Other times they’re operational, such as unclear policies, weak internal controls, or employees who haven’t been trained to recognize common threats.

Examples of vulnerabilities include:

• Insecure code
• Unpatched software
• Cloud security misconfigurations
• Lack of encryption
• Default authentication
• Lack of security awareness and training
• Improper internal controls
• Weak or missing policies

A strong vulnerability management program isn’t just about identifying these issues once. It’s about having a repeatable process to find them as they occur, understand their impact, and reduce real-world risk before they can be exploited.

Vulnerability management vs. vulnerability assessment

While often used interchangeably, vulnerability management and vulnerability assessment are distinct processes that serve different purposes within an organization's cybersecurity program.

Here are the key differences:

• Definition and scope: A vulnerability assessment is a one-time evaluation that identifies and analyzes known vulnerabilities in systems, applications, and networks. It provides a snapshot of an organization’s current security posture. Vulnerability management, on the other hand, is a continuous and comprehensive process that involves discovery, analysis, prioritization, remediation, and tracking of vulnerabilities over time.
• Objective: While the goal of a vulnerability assessment is to uncover existing security weaknesses, the goal of vulnerability management is to create a repeatable and strategic process to reduce risk over time by continuously addressing new and existing vulnerabilities.
• Frequency: Vulnerability assessments are typically performed on a scheduled basis (e.g., quarterly) or after significant system changes. Vulnerability management is an ongoing process with regular scanning, monitoring, and continuous updates.
• Tools and techniques: Vulnerability assessments often rely on scanning tools like Nessus or OpenVAS and produce a report of identified issues. Vulnerability management leverages not only these scanners but also integrates with risk scoring tools, ticketing systems, remediation workflows, and reporting dashboards.
• Outcome: The outcome of a vulnerability assessment is a report that lists discovered vulnerabilities along with their severity and suggested remediations. The outcome of vulnerability management is a continuously improved security posture, reduced attack surface, and a repeatable process for resolving vulnerabilities over time.

In practice, vulnerability assessments feed into vulnerability management. The assessment tells you what’s wrong. The management process ensures something actually gets done about it and keeps happening as your environment changes.

Why is vulnerability management important?

Vulnerability management plays a critical role in risk management because it connects technical findings to real business impact.

When organizations consistently discover, categorize, and prioritize vulnerabilities, they gain a much clearer picture of where their true risks lie and their business impact. That insight helps teams decide which mitigating controls to implement, where to invest resources, and how to prevent the same issues from recurring.

It’s also a foundational requirement across most security and compliance frameworks. Whether you’re working toward SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, or FedRAMP, vulnerability management shows that security isn’t reactive or ad hoc. It’s intentional, documented, and continuously improving.

What is a vulnerability management program?

A vulnerability management program is how all of this gets formalized.

It defines how vulnerabilities are identified, monitored, prioritized, and remediated across the organization. It also clearly outlines roles and responsibilities, so everyone understands who owns each part of the process and what’s expected of them.

When done well, a vulnerability management program helps organizations prioritize the issues that pose the greatest risk, reduce exposure before vulnerabilities are exploited, maintain compliance with security standards, and steadily improve their overall security posture.

A strong vulnerability management program helps organizations:

• Prioritize vulnerabilities based on risk and exposure
• Prevent the introduction of known vulnerabilities
• Maintain compliance with security standards and regulations
• Minimize the number of attack paths
• Understand and improve their security posture

To support this, most programs rely on a combination of vulnerability scanners, asset management, patch management, continuous monitoring, and automation. We’ll break down how those pieces fit together as we walk through the vulnerability management lifecycle.

6 steps of the vulnerability management process

To keep up with emerging cyber threats and technologies, vulnerability management works best when it’s treated as a continuous cycle instead of a static checklist. The steps below reflect how most mature programs operate in practice, with insights from Secureframe VP of Cybersecurity and Compliance Marc Rubbinaccio and penetration testing expert Jenny Goldschmidt of Red Sentry.

Step 1: Inventory your assets and data flows

Before you can protect anything, you need to know what you actually have.

The first step in any vulnerability management process is identifying which data and systems matter most to your organization. For some teams, that might be protected health information (PHI). For others, it could be customer data, intellectual property, or sensitive operational systems.

Once you know what’s critical, the next step is understanding where that data lives and how it moves. Document how it’s stored, transmitted, and processed, and map out the systems, services, and people that interact with it. This gives you the foundation you need to understand your risk exposure and scope everything else correctly.

Step 2: Ensure secure configuration and baseline protections

Once you know what assets you’re responsible for, the next question becomes simple but important: are those systems set up securely from the start?

First, check whether configuration standards were implemented when these resources were spun up. Configuration standards are essentially a baseline set of security best practices for how servers, networks, databases, and cloud resources should be configured. Many vendors publish their own guidance, and industry best practices like CIS benchmarks provide widely accepted defaults that help reduce common misconfigurations.

Using configuration standards upfront helps prevent vulnerabilities before they ever show up in a scan. Instead of fixing issues after deployment, you’re building systems with security baked in. That’s why configuration standards are a core requirement across every major compliance framework Secureframe supports.

Baseline protections don’t stop at configuration, though. Ongoing patching, anti-malware protections, and centralized logging and monitoring all play a role in reducing exposure. Together, these controls create a foundation that makes the rest of the vulnerability management process far more effective.

Step 3: Perform vulnerability, DAST, and SAST scanning

Even well-configured systems change over time. New software gets deployed, patches get delayed, and new vulnerabilities are discovered daily. That’s why scanning needs to be continuous, not occasional.

Most organizations rely on a combination of infrastructure vulnerability scanning and application security testing to find and prioritize as many vulnerabilities as possible.

Vulnerability scanning

Infrastructure vulnerability scanning focuses on identifying known issues in operating systems, servers, networks, and cloud resources. These scans look for things like unpatched software, outdated operating systems, and publicly disclosed CVEs.

Compliance frameworks such as SOC 2, ISO 27001 and PCI DSS typically require both internal and external vulnerability scans on a recurring basis, often quarterly. Internal scans evaluate systems inside your environment, while external scans focus on internet-facing resources. Please note if you need to comply with PCI DSS, it does require this external infrastructure scanning to be performed by a PCI DSS council approved scanner or ASV.

Many teams use tools like Nessus or OpenVAS, or cloud-native services such as AWS Inspector or Microsoft Defender for Cloud. The goal isn’t just to generate reports, but to consistently surface issues that need attention as your environment evolves.

Scanning your underlying infrastructure is likely not enough to ensure you are discovering all critical vulnerabilities within your environment as a whole or to meet vulnerability scanning requirements for compliance frameworks.

DAST scanning

If your organization operates a public-facing application or API, infrastructure scans alone aren’t enough. Dynamic application security testing (DAST) tools such as SOOS or Netsparker interact with a running application from the outside, much like an attacker would. They crawl the application, identify all directories, input fields, functions, and endpoints, and test for common vulnerabilities such as injection flaws, broken access controls, and sensitive data exposure issues outlined in the OWASP Top Ten.

Because DAST testing reflects how applications behave in production, it plays an important role in identifying real-world risk.

SAST scanning

Static application security testing (SAST) focuses earlier in the development lifecycle. Instead of testing a live application, SAST tools analyze source code before changes are deployed.

By scanning code repositories during development or code review, teams can catch vulnerabilities before they ever reach production. Using SAST alongside DAST gives organizations much stronger coverage and helps prevent the introduction of new security issues as applications evolve.

Step 4: Conduct a risk assessment

While scanning tells you which vulnerabilities exist, a risk assessment helps stakeholders understand what they actually mean for your organization.

Most compliance frameworks require organizations to complete a formal risk assessment at least annually. But beyond compliance, risk assessments help stakeholders step back and evaluate how technical findings translate into business impact.

A risk assessment typically involves documenting security risks, assigning ownership, evaluating potential impact, and determining how those risks will be mitigated or accepted. Frameworks like NIST 800-37 provide structured guidance, or if you’re a Secureframe customer, you can use our AI-enhanced risk assessment workflows. But the core goal is always the same: prioritize your vulnerability management efforts where they matter most.

Risk assessment and management involves:

• Documenting and tracking security risks
• Determining who is responsible for risk management
• Determining the security impact these risks pose to your organization
• Having a plan to remediate or mitigate these risks

When vulnerability data feeds into a centralized risk register, it becomes much easier to track trends, avoid repeat issues, and demonstrate progress over time.

Step 5: Train employees on security awareness

Even the most technically mature environments are still vulnerable to human error.

Phishing, credential theft, and social engineering attacks remain some of the most common ways attackers gain access to systems. That’s why nearly every security and compliance framework includes security awareness training as a requirement.

Effective training goes beyond a single annual session. Employees should understand how attacks actually show up in their day-to-day work and what actions they’re expected to take. Some frameworks such as PCI DSS also require role-specific training, such as secure coding education for developers or targeted awareness for teams that handle sensitive data. Frameworks such as FedRAMP go even further and require a social engineering engagement, such as an email phishing campaign, as part of a penetration test, which we’ll discuss next.

Step 6: Perform regular penetration testing

While scanning and training uncover many issues, penetration testing helps validate whether your controls actually hold up under real-world conditions.

Penetration testing involves a qualified tester attempting to exploit vulnerabilities across your environment using attacker techniques. This includes evaluating configuration standards, vulnerability scanning effectiveness, access controls, and even employee awareness.

The scope of a penetration test is usually defined by compliance requirements and business risk. Commonly tested systems include those that store or process sensitive data, critical infrastructure, and systems connected to high-risk environments.

Penetration tests usually involve a combination of gray box and white box testing. Gray box means the tester has access to certain information such as a specific range of IP addresses, domains, or a list of personnel to target. These tests are kicked off externally with no granted access to systems or applications. The penetration tester will try to find vulnerabilities and perform exploits to gain access to systems from the internet or exfiltrate data.  

Once gray box testing is exhausted, the tester will then use granted credentials to perform testing from within networks and applications using a variety of access if there are different levels of privilege. Using this access, the tester will try and escalate privilege and discover vulnerabilities throughout the full environment.

The result is a detailed report outlining findings, evidence, and remediation guidance that can be fed back into your vulnerability management process.

Vulnerability management best practices

To ensure your vulnerability management program is set up for success, here are a few best practices to keep in mind:

• Use automation: Resourcing is one of the top challenges that organizations face when trying to effectively manage vulnerabilities. Automated vulnerability scanning tools can help make vulnerability management more effective and faster by automatically scanning for common vulnerabilities and exposures and monitoring the health of IT assets.
• Create consistent compliance and security training within your own organization: Often, data and security breaches happen through human error, so providing ongoing security awareness education can help lower the internal risk of a breach occurring. 
• Prioritize vulnerabilities based on risk: Not all vulnerabilities are equal. Use risk-based prioritization that considers CVSS scores, exploitability, asset criticality, and business impact to ensure high-risk issues are addressed first.
• Continuously monitor your environment: Vulnerability management isn’t a one-time activity. Use continuous monitoring to detect new vulnerabilities in real-time, especially in dynamic environments like cloud and containerized workloads.
• Integrate with ITSM and ticketing systems: Integration with IT service management tools ensures discovered vulnerabilities are automatically turned into actionable tasks and assigned to the right teams for remediation.
• Conduct regular penetration testing: In addition to automated scans, periodic manual testing by security professionals can uncover complex or business-logic vulnerabilities that scanners might miss.
• Test and validate patches: Before deploying patches to production systems, test them in a controlled environment to ensure they don’t disrupt operations or introduce new issues.
• Set up a vulnerability management policy: A vulnerability management policy defines your organization’s approach to vulnerability management. It is essential for maintaining a process and procedures for implementing a vulnerability management program.

Vulnerability management policy template

A vulnerability management policy is a foundational document that defines your organization’s approach for vulnerability management to reduce system risks and processes to incorporate security controls. It helps ensure a consistent, repeatable, and risk-based approach to vulnerability management, aligning your security efforts with compliance requirements and industry best practices.

Having a clearly documented policy is critical for several reasons:

• Establishes accountability: A policy outlines roles and responsibilities, making it clear who owns each part of the vulnerability management process—from scanning and risk assessment to remediation and reporting.
• Enables consistency: With defined procedures and timelines, teams across departments can follow the same steps when vulnerabilities are discovered, ensuring a coordinated and efficient response.
• Supports compliance: Many frameworks—including SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and FedRAMP—require formal documentation of vulnerability management activities. A policy demonstrates your commitment to security and helps meet audit requirements.
• Improves risk posture: By enforcing regular scanning, timely remediation, and proper risk evaluation, a policy ensures that your organization stays ahead of potential threats and reduces the window of exposure.

To help you get started, we’ve created a customizable vulnerability management policy template that covers the essential components—such as scope, roles, scanning frequency, risk evaluation criteria, remediation timelines, and documentation requirements. Instead of starting from scratch, this template gives you a structured framework you can tailor to your organization's size, structure, and compliance obligations.

Challenges of vulnerability management

Managing vulnerabilities is a critical but complex aspect of any cybersecurity program. As threats evolve and IT environments grow more dynamic, many organizations struggle to keep up. Below are some of the most common challenges teams face when implementing and maintaining an effective vulnerability management program:

• Keeping an accurate asset inventory: Modern organizations operate in hybrid environments with cloud services, remote devices, SaaS tools, and on-prem infrastructure. Without automation, it’s difficult to maintain a real-time, comprehensive inventory of all assets—let alone track which ones may be exposed to vulnerabilities.
• Manually collecting and organizing vulnerability data: Most security teams use multiple tools to scan their environments, each producing separate reports and alerting on different vulnerabilities. Manually consolidating, sorting, and prioritizing these findings across tools is time-consuming and prone to oversight.
• Lack of centralized risk tracking: Many organizations don’t have a structured or accessible risk register. As a result, it becomes difficult to track vulnerabilities over time, assess their impact on the business, or ensure that remediation efforts are being properly prioritized and followed through.
• Inconsistent testing and training cycles: Vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, and employee security training often fall behind schedule due to lack of visibility or ownership. Without automated reminders or recurring workflows, these tasks can easily be deprioritized, creating unnecessary risk.
• Limited visibility into security control effectiveness: Once security controls are implemented, monitoring them manually for effectiveness and compliance is resource-intensive. Without continuous oversight, gaps can emerge unnoticed, and controls can drift out of compliance with regulatory standards.

To address these challenges, many organizations turn to automation. Let's take a closer look at how you can automate vulnerability management below.

How to automate vulnerability management

Automating the vulnerability management process can help your organization save time and respond to threats faster.

Automation can be applied to several aspects of vulnerability management, including: 

• Asset inventory: An automation platform can create an inventory of all your assets based on the integrations you connect to the platform and ensure your personnel’s devices, company’s cloud assets, and version control repositories are all maintained. 
• Vulnerability scanning: Automation platforms pull CVE data from multiple connected integrations, organize vulnerabilities in one place, and automatically alert you when vulnerabilities are discovered.
• Risk management: With an automation platform, you can set up a risk register to track risks in a single place. This can be updated when your organization introduces new services, wants to incorporate findings from internal and external audits, or respond to changes in the business or technological environment. 
• Testing and training: An automation platform can allow you to set up notifications for required regular tasks throughout the year, including vulnerability scanning and penetration testing. You can also set up reminders for personnel to complete security awareness training.
• Continuous monitoring: An automation platform can continuously monitor your security controls and their compliance with regulatory and industry frameworks.

When looking for an automated vulnerability management product, look for one that offers an easy-to-use platform in addition to a team of security and compliance experts that can guide your organization through every step of the vulnerability management process.

How Secureframe can help companies manage vulnerabilities 

Secureframe provides a one stop shop for you to be able to manage and organize all of your compliance framework requirements in one place, including your vulnerability management program.

With Secureframe you can:

• Integrate your cloud platform and developer tools to see all of your vulnerabilities from services like AWS inspector and Github in one place. 
• Complete a risk questionnaire annually and establish your risk register where you can continuously manage your risks throughout the year.
• Receive in app guidance regarding security controls based on the specific resources you are utilizing within your environment. For example, if you set up an integration with AWS, you’ll receive tests related to security best practices against the resources you are using within your AWS account.
• Get guidance on Secureframe tests and answers to any questions you may have from compliance managers.
• Get access to a partner network of trusted auditors and pen testing firms

Learn more about how Secureframe can help you manage vulnerabilities by scheduling a personalized demo today.