How to Choose the Right Vulnerability Management Tool for Your Software Development Life Cycle

Vulnerability management tools help you identify, categorize, and prioritize vulnerabilities, as well as orchestrate their remediation or mitigation. Integrating these tools into your software development life cycle (SDLC) can strengthen your security posture and help create more resilient and secure software, although the principles of vulnerability management are applicable across various software types, including but not limited to web applications, mobile apps, etc.

These tools can be self-hosted or deployed in the cloud to create a continuous, proactive, and often automated process for identifying and reducing risks by addressing various vulnerabilities.

However, managing the large number of potential vulnerabilities with limited remediation resources can be challenging.

The goal of vulnerability management is to measure known and unknown risks, evaluate security configurations, communicate risk across vulnerabilities, and recommend patches for weaknesses in web applications and systems, with remediation as a key component.

Consequently, the core capabilities of vulnerability management tools should include the discovery, identification, and reporting of vulnerabilities — establishing a baseline for the web stack and systems to monitor for changes and potential new risks.

Vulnerability Management tools help integrate security with the software development lifecycle and automate processes to embed security across all stages. The goal is to help eliminate silos between development, operations, and security teams.

The implementation process typically involves incorporating best security practices, penetration testing, and other testing tools throughout all development stages.

In this blog, we will provide a step-by-step approach to help you make an informed decision.

Essential Vulnerability Discovery Methods for Web Applications

Development teams are often at a disadvantage with known vulnerabilities, so it's crucial to learn about the key approaches your team needs to strengthen your web security posture and reduce friction for service owners, including developers, administrators, and other stakeholders. Here are some key approaches that you should be aware of:

Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

DAST is the process of analyzing a running web application through the front-end, and DAST tools help to identify vulnerabilities like SQL injection and cross-site scripting, as well as other kinds of vulnerabilities such as business logic issues and access control problems, through simulated attacks.

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

Source code analysis tools, also known as Static Application Security Testing (SAST) Tools, analyze source code or compiled versions to find security flaws early in the development process, helping developers identify and fix issues before deployment.

Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST)

IAST is a security testing method that works inside the application — combining elements of static and dynamic analysis to provide real-time feedback on vulnerabilities while the application is running.

Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP)

RASP is a security solution that provides personalized protection by embedding tools within applications to monitor behavior in real-time, detect and block attacks, and identify runtime threats using insight into the application's internal data and state.

Web Application Firewalls (WAFs)

Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) sit between web applications and the internet, acting as a barrier to filter and monitor HTTP traffic, preventing attacks like cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection, and others before they reach the application.

Vulnerability Management: Prioritization and Remediation

Not all vulnerabilities pose the same level of risk. And so the core of vulnerability management lies not just in discovering vulnerabilities but in effectively managing them throughout their lifecycle. This involves:

• Prioritization: Vulnerability management involves assessing the severity and potential impact of each vulnerability to prioritize remediation efforts. Factors like exploitability, potential damage, and the affected assets play a critical role in this process.
• Remediation Tracking: It's very important to track the remediation process which includes assigning tasks, setting deadlines, and monitoring progress to ensure vulnerabilities are addressed timely.
• Metrics: Metrics like Mean Time to Remediate (MTTR), vulnerability density, and risk acceptance rate provide valuable insights into your security posture and help identify areas for improvement. 

Measuring the effectiveness of your vulnerability management program is exceedingly important. Vulnerability management platforms aggregate vulnerability data from various sources, assess each vulnerability's risk, provide guidance on remediation, and track the remediation process, enabling security teams to systematically address potential risks across networks, applications, and databases.

How to Choose the Vulnerability Management Tools for Web Security

Software engineering leaders need to extend security measures to protect their software supply chains and proactively mitigate the risks of delivery pipeline attacks.

But because the vulnerability management landscape is vast, it can be challenging to determine which solutions are best for your web stack.

When choosing vulnerability management tools for web security, consider your goals, current state, team involvement and the ownership costs.

• Align your goals: Ensure your web security objectives align with business goals and customer expectations, and define your desired outcomes, metrics, and success criteria for web security.
• Assess your current state: Evaluate existing security challenges, gaps, risks, and opportunities, including your current tooling, processes, and organizational culture.
• Engage your team: Involve all stakeholders, including service owners (developers, SysAdmins, etc.), engineering leaders, and decision-makers responsible for developing, securing, and operating the web application. The goal should be to foster a culture of collaboration, communication, learning, and accountability among all stakeholders.
• Consider your budget: You should factor in the costs associated with acquiring, implementing, maintaining, and updating vulnerability management tools. And also compare the benefits of using different types of vulnerability management tools to make informed decisions.

Key Considerations for Choosing Vulnerability Management Tools

There are many types of vulnerability management tools on the market, each with different offerings — features and functions. It might be good to consider these practical tips for choosing the right vulnerability management tool:

• Compatibility: Look for vulnerability management tools that support your programming languages, frameworks, platforms, standards, and regulations. Ensure they integrate with your existing tools.
• Scalability: Choose tools that can handle your current and future workloads. Ensure they can adapt to changing requirements or environments.
• Integration: The capabilities of a vulnerability management tool to integrate with other security tools, such as your SIEM, ticketing systems, etc., is very important for streamlining workflows, automating processes, and improving your overall security.
• Usability: You should look for tools that are easy to use and understand and that provide clear documentation and support.
• Reliability: You should look for vulnerability management tools that are reliable and secure, offering regular updates and patches.

Web Security with Siemba

Siemba enables organizations to establish mature web security faster by combining the expertise of skilled security researchers with an intuitive platform that streamlines workflows, testing programs, scoping, and reporting.

Siemba's PTaaS (Penetration Testing as a Service) platform proactively quantifies and mitigates risks across your internet-facing attack surface, providing greater visibility into your overall risk posture by continuously assessing vulnerabilities, assets, and asset groups exposed to the internet.

• Identify assets automatically: Continuously discover and categorize known and unknown assets exposed to the internet to help developers identify and address security risks earlier in the development lifecycle.

• Real-Time threat detection: Help prevent breaches and compliance failures by continuously detecting critical vulnerabilities and misconfigurations across your assets.

• Automated risk prioritization: Our platform automatically prioritizes the most critical vulnerabilities in your systems. We leverage AI-based custom vulnerability insights along with data from current real-world attack scenarios to quickly pinpoint the issues that need immediate attention.

You can also schedule penetration tests in advance. Our security engineers will conduct thorough tests to detect critical vulnerabilities. You'll receive detailed reports categorized by assets, tests, findings, and blockers, providing actionable insights to improve your security posture.

See additional resources on web security topics

We have authored in-depth guides on web security and highly recommend exploring other relevant topics by OWASP.

WebApp Pentesting Checklist
Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
Source Code Analysis Tools
Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST)
Web Application Firewalls (WAFs)
What is PenTesting as a Service (PTaaS)