Patch Management vs. Vulnerability Management: Key Differences

In the cybersecurity realm, icing the safety of projects and data is essential. The two most essential processes in this domain are- patch management and vulnerability management.

While both aim to reduce and eventually remove security risks, they serve independent purposes and have different methodologies for the same.

This article will show the key differences between patch management vs vulnerability management and also shed light on their unique roles in maintaining a secure environment. Moreover, understanding these differences is necessary for organizations to implement effective safety measures and secure their digital assets. Let’s dive in and learn more!

What is Patch management?

Patch management is necessary for maintaining the functionality and security of the software systems in a business. It includes the regular processes of acquiring, identifying, applying, and testing various software updates, aka patches. These updates include fixing security vulnerabilities, improvements in functionality, etc. Accurate patch management ensures that systems are secure, efficient, and updated.

The main focus of patch management is ensuring the security and providing optimal performance of software systems. Other focuses are:

Testing the whole software by dividing it into smaller patches
Identifying and solving vulnerabilities continuously by scanning the system to find outdated and vulnerable patches
It keeps track of different patch apps and ensures compliance with different security policies
It efficiently distributes and installs various patches across all affected software

The benefits of using Patch Management are:

Here are the advantages of effective patch management:

Better security- Regularly applying patches to reduce the exploitation risk by closing security vulnerabilities and gaps
Updates often have performance improvements and error solutions that improve the software functionalities
Specific industries have regulations that require regular patch updates, ensuring that the businesses are secure
With proactive patch management, one can prevent system failures and minimize downtime due to unpatched vulnerabilities
Addressing vulnerabilities through different patches can be more cost-effective than dealing with the outcomes of system failure and security loopholes

What is Vulnerability Management?

Vulnerability management is a regular process of identifying, evaluating, reporting on, maintaining, and repairing vulnerabilities across the system. Typically, a team of security experts will use a vulnerability management tool to search for vulnerabilities and use various processes to patch or rectify them.

A strong vulnerability management program uses threat knowledge and intelligence of IT and business operations to search for risks and solve them ASAP.

The primary aim of vulnerability management is to manage the whole lifecycle of vulnerabilities in an organization. Other key activities are:

Timely scanning of networks and systems to find and solve vulnerabilities
Evaluation of potential impact and severity of identified vulnerabilities
Ranking of vulnerabilities based on criticality, risk, and damage that they can cause to the system
Applying patches, fixes, and other mitigation techniques to address different vulnerabilities
Continuous tracking and reporting of vulnerabilities and gathering the status of their remediation progress

The benefits of using Vulnerability Management are:

Here are the advantages of effective vulnerability management:

Timely identification and removing vulnerabilities to mitigate the risk of cyberattacks and other information breaches
By addressing and prioritizing the critical vulnerabilities first, businesses can manage and minimize the overall risk effectively
Various regulatory frameworks need organizations to implement strong vulnerability management processes to safeguard private information
Proactively manage different vulnerabilities to prevent downtime and system disruptions caused by different security incidents
With continuous reporting and monitoring, you get a clear understanding of the security posture and patches that need improvement.
Patch Management vs. Vulnerability Management- Key differences

Here are the key differences between Patch Management and Vulnerability Management

Scope
- Patch management- It focuses on applying solutions to software systems to address vulnerabilities. It has processes like downloading, testing, and deploying various patches
- Vulnerability management- It encompasses the whole lifecycle of vulnerabilities such as identifying patches, classifying them, prioritization, rectification, and avoidance. It’s a bigger process that goes beyond just applying the patches.

Proactivity

In vulnerability management, the proactivity is more compared to patch management. It aims to identify vulnerabilities before attackers exploit them and gain unethical access to sensitive data. Through continuous monitoring, it uncovers potential security weaknesses.
Meanwhile, patch management is reactive. It deals with fixing the known vulnerabilities that are already identified through vulnerability management.

Automation

The patch management process can become highly automated. Automated systems can easily handle the distribution and app of patches across different systems, and reduce the requirement for manual intervention.
On the other hand, with vulnerability management, experts require manual analysis and human intervention in decision-making. However, some aspects are automated, like scanning, and primary assessment. Still, processes like prioritizing and searching for vulnerabilities need human judgement.

Process

In patch management, the primary activity is downloading different patches, testing them as per decided norms, and deploying them into production.
Meanwhile, in vulnerability management, the process includes identifying, assessing, prioritizing, and removing threats. Additionally, it also includes scanning for vulnerability, evaluation of severity, and deciding on the best course of action and implementation of remediation tactics.

Automation Potential

Patch Management is more automatable than vulnerability management. Tools automatically apply patches, process timely updates, and ensure that the system is always updated with up to zero human interference.
In vulnerability management, there are some automated components like vulnerability scanning, as it requires essential manual input for prioritization, analysis, and decision-making.

Tools

In patch management, deployment tools are used to manage the distribution and installation of patches across different systems. Some popular instances are- WSUS (Windows Server Update Service) and different third-party patch management systems
While in vulnerability management, it uses scanning and assessment tools made to identify and evaluate security breaches. For instance- Qualys, Nessus, and OpenVAS help with analysis and detection of different vulnerabilities

Software developers can effectively integrate both these processes, and leverage the benefits of each of them to maintain a strong security posture. While in patch management it addresses the error fixing immediately for the potential risks. And VM ensures a proactive approach to search for and mitigate those potential threats.

In the end…

After understanding the primary difference between patch management and vulnerability management it will become easier for you to know which one to implement first.

Moreover, we also examine the relationship between patch management and vulnerability management and how these two help you operationalize the security posture of your business. It brings more maturing and proactive refence against security threats by using technologies like automation, AI, etc.

For different organizations, to achieve success in upgrading their security posture is a must. Additionally, through this article, you might have recognized that vulnerability management and patch management have certain similarities, but they aren't the same. As per Livne-

“One cannot and does not supplement the other. They are two pieces to a whole process.”

So, adopt them together and keep your business project safe and secure against unauthorized data thefts, and security loopholes.