Vulnerability Management

Vulnerability management is the continuous process of identifying, evaluating, prioritizing, and remediating security weaknesses in systems, applications, and infrastructure. SOC 2 audits expect a documented program covering vulnerability scanning cadence, patch management timelines, exception handling for unpatched issues, and integration with change management for remediation deployments. Standard scan cadences include weekly automated scans of production infrastructure, daily dependency vulnerability checks in CI pipelines, and quarterly authenticated scans of endpoints and internal networks. Severity-based remediation SLAs typically require critical vulnerabilities to be patched within seven to fifteen days and high-severity within thirty days. Penetration testing performed at least annually supplements automated scanning by identifying issues tools miss. Auditors test the program by reviewing scanner configurations, sampling remediation tickets to confirm patches were deployed within SLA, examining exceptions for documented business justification, and confirming penetration test findings were tracked through resolution. Mature programs feed vulnerability data into the risk register and treat it as a primary input to security backlog prioritization.