Standard : Time to Remediate Vulnerabilities

Description

Time to Remediate Vulnerabilities tracks the average time it takes from when a vulnerability is discovered to when it is fixed and deployed to production. It reflects the responsiveness of your engineering and security teams and your ability to minimise exposure windows.

Faster remediation lowers risk, improves trust, and demonstrates security accountability across teams.

How to Use

What to Measure

  • Time elapsed between vulnerability detection (e.g. via scan or report) and remediation (patch, config fix, or deployment).
  • Measure separately by severity (e.g. Critical, High, Medium, Low) and by source (e.g. SAST, DAST, third-party disclosure).

Formula

Time to Remediate = Remediation Timestamp – Detection Timestamp

Instrumentation Tips

  • Use security scanning tools (e.g. Snyk, Checkov, Nessus) with ticketing system integration.
  • Ensure all vulnerabilities are logged with timestamps, severity, and ownership.
  • Tag and track completion via PRs, commits, or deploy logs.

Why It Matters

  • Risk reduction: Shorter time to remediate reduces the window of exploitability.
  • Governance: Supports security SLAs and audit readiness.
  • Security culture: Encourages prompt triage and shared accountability.
  • Customer trust: Demonstrates proactive security management.

Best Practices

  • Define SLAs based on severity (e.g. fix Critical within 48 hours).
  • Automate issue creation from scan results with risk-based prioritisation.
  • Triage and review vulnerabilities regularly in security and platform forums.
  • Integrate remediation workflows into CI/CD for continuous delivery of fixes.
  • Track exceptions and justify deferred fixes in a risk register.

Common Pitfalls

  • Lack of clear ownership for remediation.
  • Fixes deployed but not tracked or documented.
  • Critical vulnerabilities left open due to resource constraints or awareness gaps.
  • SLAs not enforced or measured consistently across teams.

Signals of Success

  • High-severity issues are remediated within SLA targets.
  • Vulnerabilities are triaged and resolved without escalations.
  • Time to remediate is reviewed in security health checks.
  • Developers are empowered to fix security issues within normal workflows.
  • [[Percentage of Services Scanned]]
  • [[Compliance Coverage]]
  • [[Vulnerability Detection Rate]]
  • [[Secrets Exposure Rate]]
  • [[Policy-as-Code Adoption]]