Page 51 - Cyber Defense eMagazine RSAC Special Edition 2025

To make real progress, organizations need a prioritization strategy that accounts for more than just
severity scores. One that reflects both technical and business realities – and keeps pace with a dynamic
threat landscape.

The Flawed Simplicity of CVSS-Only Approaches

For many organizations, vulnerability prioritization begins – and ends – with the Common Vulnerability
Scoring System (CVSS). It’s a convenient starting point: standardized, widely adopted, and built into most
scanning tools. But while CVSS helps categorize severity, it’s not a risk score.

CVSS ratings don’t consider whether a vulnerability is actually being exploited in the wild. They don’t
reflect how critical the affected asset is to business operations. And they don’t account for how difficult
remediation might be in a given environment. In short, CVSS provides a measure of theoretical impact
under idealized conditions, but that’s not a practical roadmap for action.

Relying solely on CVSS often leads to noisy queues filled with “critical” issues that aren’t exploitable,
while real threats slip through the cracks. It’s a one-size-fits-all approach in a world that demands nuance.

To prioritize effectively, security teams need to bring additional context into the equation.

Context Matters

To move beyond surface-level severity, many organizations are turning to contextual risk scoring. This
approach enriches vulnerability data with factors specific to the organization, such as asset criticality,
business function, exposure level, and internal connectivity.

A vulnerability on a test server might not warrant immediate attention. That same vulnerability on a
production-facing application tied to customer data? A very different story. Context transforms generic
findings into meaningful insights by aligning technical issues with operational impact.

This shift allows teams to prioritize vulnerabilities not just by how dangerous they are in theory, but by
how much risk they pose in practice. It also helps bridge the gap between security and the business by
tying remediation decisions to the protection of key assets and services.

In other words: CVSS provides a baseline; context gives it meaning.

The Role of Exploit Intelligence
While context sharpens the picture internally, threat intelligence adds a critical external dimension:
understanding which vulnerabilities are actively being exploited. Not all vulnerabilities are equal in the
eyes of attackers. Some are widely weaponized within hours of disclosure; others may never be targeted
at all.

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