How to create a Enterprise Patch Management Strategy

Mastering Enterprise Patch Management: Insights from NIST Guidelines

In today's rapidly evolving technological landscape, the security of Linux systems is vital for organizations of all sizes. However, ensuring the continuous protection of Linux systems through timely updates and fixes can be a daunting challenge for IT teams. Failure to stay on top of these updates not only exposes vulnerabilities but also risks falling out of compliance with basic security requirements in the datacenter. Therefore, employing a comprehensive enterprise patch management is essential for the longevity of your organization. 

Enterprise patch management is the process of identifying, prioritizing, acquiring, installing, and verifying the installation of patches, updates, and upgrades throughout an organization

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides valuable guidance on enterprise patch management in their special publication titled "Guide to Enterprise Patch Management Planning: Preventive Maintenance for Technology." This comprehensive document serves as a guide for IT leaders in their cybersecurity journey. It offers details and recommendations on how to create an enterprise strategy to efficiently patch enterprise systems on a continuous basis to mitigate security risks

At the heart of NIST's recommendations lies a crucial understanding of the software vulnerability lifecycle, particularly concerning patching. By embracing these foundational guidelines, organizations can establish a proactive strategy for Enterprise Patch Management, ensuring the ongoing health and security of their critical systems.

In this blog post, we'll delve into the three best practices of Enterprise Patch Management from NIST's publication. Whether you're just beginning to formulate a patching strategy or seeking to enhance your existing practices, these best practices help you to obtain ...

Three best practices of Enterprise Patch Management

1. Monitor new vulnerabilities

Keep track of new vulnerabilities which are emerging and when these affect your organization’s assets. Furthermore, maintain an inventory of the applications, operating systems and firmware as well as the version levels.

2. Plan the risk reponse

Plan the risk response by identifying the type of risk and executing appropriate responses. For this step, your team can evaluate whether the identified vulnerability is actively exploited in real-world scenarios. This proactive approach allows for upgrading the needed vulnerable software or implementing the necessary best practices to mitigate potential threats effectively

3. Execute the risk reponse

In order to execute the risk response properly, there are five main activities that need to be carried out by your IT team. Keep in mind that the risk response will vary depending on the nature of the selected risk. The following five main activities are: 

• Acquire, validate and test patches for the vulnerable software
• Deploying additional security controls to safeguard the vulnerable software; or acquiring a replacement for a legacy asset that cannot be patched
• Schedule the risk response and coordinate deployment plans with enterprise change management and business units
• Confirm that the patch is installed and has taken effect. For deploying additional security controls, ensure they are functioning as intended
• Continuously monitor the risk response. Make sure that no one uninstalls or makes unnecessary changes.  

Risk Response execution guidelines

Prepare to deploy the patch

When your IT team is preparing to deploy the patch, consider these steps: 

• Prioritize the patch: Assign a higher priority to the one with most impact because when deployed, it would reduce a cybersecurity risk, versus a patch that addresses a low-risk vulnerability, would be deployed with less priority.

• Schedule patch deployment: The IT team would have to determine which process to follow. This could be to schedule patch deployments as part of their enterprise change management activities.
  
  
• Acquire the patch: Understand the security level from where the patches may be downloaded from, these could be built internally by developers or system administrators, or provided through removable media.
  
  
• Test the patch: A patch should be tested before deployment. This is intended to reduce operational risk by identifying problems with a patch before placing it into production. Testing may be performed manually or through automated methods. 

Deploy the patch (to firmware, operating system or application)

These can be running on a specific type of device (e.g. IT, OT, IoT, mobile, cloud, virtual machine [VM], containers) or as managed/ unmanaged asset, on-premises or cloud, virtualized/ not virtualized and containerized. Consider the following steps:

• Distribute the patch: Manually, automatically or get it delivered from the cloud vendor
  
  
• Validate the patch: Check for the patch's authenticity before installation, preferably through automated means
  
  
• Install the patch: This can be executed automatically or manually

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