Vulnerability management

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Vulnerability management is the "cyclical practice of identifying, classifying, prioritizing, remediating, and mitigating" software vulnerabilities.^[1] Vulnerability management is integral to computer security and network security, and must not be confused with vulnerability assessment.^[2]

Vulnerabilities can be discovered with a vulnerability scanner, which analyzes a computer system in search of known vulnerabilities,^[3] such as open ports, insecure software configurations, and susceptibility to malware infections. They may also be identified by consulting public sources, such as NVD, vendor specific security updates or subscribing to a commercial vulnerability alerting service. Unknown vulnerabilities, such as a zero-day,^[3] may be found with fuzz testing. Fuzzy testing can identify certain kinds of vulnerabilities, such as a buffer overflow with relevant test cases. Such analysis can be facilitated by test automation. In addition, antivirus software capable of heuristic analysis may discover undocumented malware if it finds software behaving suspiciously (such as attempting to overwrite a system file).

Correcting vulnerabilities may variously involve the installation of a patch, a change in network security policy, reconfiguration of software, or educating users about social engineering.