Vulnerability exposure

Use the Vulnerability exposure dashboard in Risk Monitor to get an overview of your organization's exposure to software vulnerabilities.

Description

Unfiltered, the dashboard shows the vulnerability status for the whole IT estate. The key figures and charts will quickly give you insights into, for example:

• If the number of vulnerable devices of a certain device type is larger than expected, in the Number of vulnerable devices chart.

• If a specific device type, such as one that is especially exposed to security breaches in your organization, has a large amount of high and critical vulnerabilities, in the Vulnerabilities by device type chart.

• If a majority of the vulnerabilities are severe or not, in the Vulnerabilities by base score chart.

Use the tables on the dashboard to look up information on vulnerabilities, for example, the CVE base score and description of a certain vulnerability, or the version of a vulnerable application installed on a specific device.

You can filter the data to focus on the vulnerability status for a certain parameter. All key figures, charts, and tables will adjust to show the results filtered by the selected parameter. Use the filters to focus on, for example:

• A specific application in your organization; if it contains any vulnerabilities, and if so, what devices are affected.

• A specific vulnerability; if it is present in your organization, and if so, what devices are affected.

• All vulnerabilities within a certain base score range.

  For example, if your organization’s security framework requires that all vulnerabilities with a base score above eight are eliminated, you can set the filter to show only vulnerabilities with a base score of nine or higher.

• All vulnerabilities within a specific department in the organization.

• All vulnerable applications that may contain personally identifiable information.

Related use cases

For information on related uses cases, see the following sections:

• Find out if the vulnerability connected to a certain CVE id is present in your IT estate

• Find links to security updates and patches for a vulnerability

Characteristics

You can refer to the tables below for descriptions of the key figures, filters, charts, and tables on the dashboard.

Key figures

The key figures give a quick overview of the status of your IT estate's exposure to software vulnerabilities.

Key figure	Description
Total vulnerabilities	The number of individual instances of vulnerabilities found in the devices in your IT estate.
Unique vulnerabilities	The number of unique vulnerabilities in your IT estate. Each CVE ID represents a unique vulnerability.
Vulnerable devices	The number of devices in your IT estate with at least one vulnerable application installed.
Vulnerable applications	The number of installed applications in your IT estate containing at least one vulnerability.

Filters

Use one or more filters to focus on specific aspects of your IT estate's exposure to software vulnerabilities. All the key figures, charts, and tables on the dashboard will adjust to show the results filtered by the selected parameter or parameters.

Filter	Description
Application name	Select an application from the list to see if it contains any known vulnerabilities. The table Vulnerability details by application will list details about vulnerabilities found in the application. The table Vulnerable devices will list all devices containing the vulnerable application. If the selected application does not contain any known vulnerabilities the dashboard will show blank results.
Organization	Select an organizational unit from the list to see the vulnerability exposure for that organizational unit.
CVE ID	Find out if a certain vulnerability is present in your organization by filtering on the CVE ID connected to the vulnerability. The table Vulnerability details by application will list details about the vulnerability. Tip: Right-click the description for the vulnerability in the Details column and select Drill through > Vulnerability reference to reach links to security updates and patches for the vulnerability. The table Vulnerable devices will list all devices containing the vulnerable application. If the vulnerability is not present in your organization the dashboard will show blank results.
PII risk	Select True to see the vulnerability exposure to applications in your organization that are designed to hold personally identifiable information. Note: This filtered view partly overlaps with the PII vulnerability exposure dashboard.
BaseScore	Select a range to see your organization's exposure to vulnerabilities with base scores within that range. You can, for example, select a range from 8 to 10 to focus on the most critical vulnerabilities.

Charts

Use the charts to get insights into different aspects of your IT estate's exposure to software vulnerabilities.

You can select a bar in a chart to focus on the vulnerability exposure status for that item, for example for a device type or a base score. All the key figures, charts, and tables on the dashboard will adjust to show the results filtered by the selected item.

Chart	Description
Number of vulnerable devices	Groups the number of vulnerable devices by device type.
Vulnerabilities by device type	Groups the total number of vulnerabilities by device type. For each device type, the vulnerabilities are divided by base severity category.
Vulnerabilities by base score	Groups the total number of vulnerabilities by base score. For each base score, the vulnerabilities are divided by base severity category.

Tables

Use the tables to look up details about vulnerabilities.

Select a column header to sort the table by that column.

Table	Description
Vulnerability details by application	Unfiltered, the table includes all vulnerabilities published in the NIST NVD. The following vulnerability details are shown in the table: CVEID: The CVE identifier number for the vulnerability. If the vulnerability is present in several applications, the CVE ID occurs in multiple rows, with one row for each application. Application name: The name of the application containing the vulnerability. If an application contains several vulnerabilities, the application name occurs in multiple rows, with one row for each vulnerability. BaseSeverity: The base severity for the vulnerability. BaseScore: The CVSS base score for the vulnerability. Details: The brief description connected to the CVE ID for the vulnerability. PublishedDate: The date the vulnerability was published. Known exploited: Shows if the vulnerability is listed or not (Yes/blank) in the Known Exploited Vulnerability (KEV) catalog maintained by CISA. Tip: Right-click the description for a vulnerability in the Details column and select Drill through > Vulnerability reference to reach links to security updates and patches for the vulnerability.
Vulnerable devices	Lists the following details about devices with vulnerable applications: Device name: The name of the device. If a device contains several vulnerable applications, the device name occurs in multiple rows, with one row for each vulnerable application. Application name: The name of the vulnerable application. If a vulnerable application is installed on several devices, the application name occurs in multiple rows, with one row for each device. Software version: The version of the application software containing the vulnerability. Unique vulnerabilities: The number of vulnerabilities in the application.