Exposure Remediation Orchestration

Exposure Remediation Orchestration is the operational discipline within the Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) framework that manages and automates the flow of security findings from validation to final resolution. It is the connective layer that ensures prioritized security intelligence is efficiently translated into tracked and executed actions by the right teams.

It is distinct from simply fixing a vulnerability; it's about managing the entire fix workflow across different organizational silos.

Key Principles and Components

1. Automated Workflow Integration:

   • Purpose: To bridge the gap between security analysis tools (which find the problems) and IT/Development tools (which fix them).

   • Function: Automatically generates work items (tickets) in complementary enterprise systems like IT Service Management (ITSM) systems (e.g., ServiceNow) or Development Operations (DevOps) platforms (e.g., Jira, GitHub). This eliminates manual data entry and ticket handling.

2. Contextual Hand-off and Guidance:

   • Purpose: To reduce the friction and investigation time for the team responsible for remediation.

   • Function: Ensures every generated ticket is enriched with all the necessary context from the CTEM program, including:

     • Prioritization Rationale: The final risk score and why it's urgent (e.g., "KEV status confirmed").

     • Validation Evidence: Links or attachments proving the exploitability (e.g., a screenshot of the exposed sensitive port or a leaked code snippet).

     • Prescriptive Remediation Steps: Clear, unambiguous instructions for implementing the fix (e.g., "Update dependency X to version Y and restart service Z").

3. Accountability and SLA Tracking:

   • Purpose: To enforce timelines and measure the effectiveness of the remediation process.

   • Function: Automatically assigns the ticket to the correct owner (e.g., Cloud Security team, specific DevOps squad, IT Operations) based on asset classification. It then tracks the Service Level Agreement (SLA) adherence for that ticket (e.g., "Critical" tickets must be closed within 72 hours) and escalates the ticket if the SLA is missed.

4. Verification and Feedback Loop:

   • Purpose: To ensure the fix was successful and to close the CTEM loop.

   • Function: Automatically triggers a re-scan or re-validation of the specific asset as soon as the remediation team closes the ticket. If the exposure persists, the ticket is automatically reopened and escalated, ensuring it is fully mitigated.

In essence, Remediation Orchestration standardizes, accelerates, and enforces the process of reducing exposure by ensuring that the proper fix is done by the right team at the right time.

Remediation Orchestration is the CTEM phase that manages and automates the flow of security intelligence into executed actions. ThreatNG excels in this role by providing the validated evidence and critical priority context needed to generate effective, well-justified remediation tickets, thereby accelerating the fix process and ensuring accountability.

1. Reporting (Driving Workflow and Accountability)

ThreatNG’s Reporting capabilities provide the structured output necessary for Remediation Orchestration by clearly communicating validated risk and justifying action to the teams responsible for the fix.

• Example of ThreatNG Helping (Accountability): The Security Ratings report provides an objective grade (e.g., C-grade) for a specific business unit. When an exposure is prioritized, the ticket can be escalated to that business unit’s leadership with the report attached, providing immediate justification to mobilize resources to address their low rating.

• Example of ThreatNG Helping (Justification): The External GRC Assessment Mappings report indicates that an exposed Sensitive Port or misconfiguration constitutes a direct violation of PCI DSS. The compliance violation is used to justify pushing the remediation ticket to the top of the IT operations queue, ensuring the fix is mobilized ahead of lower-priority technical debt.

2. External Assessment and Investigation Modules (Contextual Hand-off)

The most crucial aspect of orchestration is providing the fix team with the "how" and "where." ThreatNG’s validation data provides this prescriptive context and evidence for the ticket.

• Example of ThreatNG Helping (Evidence): The Investigation Modules provide the specific proof. When a ticket is generated to remove a database password, it includes the particular path and file name where the Database Credential was found via the Sensitive Code Exposure module. This eliminates investigation time for the remediation team, allowing them to proceed directly to the fix.

• Example of ThreatNG Helping (Guidance): The External Assessment identifies a high level of Web Application Hijack Susceptibility on a specific subdomain. The ticket is enriched with this context, immediately telling the DevOps team that the solution is not a patch, but likely a particular DNS record removal, guiding the remediation accurately.

3. Intelligence Repositories (Prioritization Rationale)

The Intelligence Repositories provide the risk rationale that dictates the ticket's urgency and priority within the overall orchestration workflow.

• Example of ThreatNG Helping: An exposure is found on an organization's server. ThreatNG uses the DarCache Vulnerability intelligence to confirm the CVE is being actively exploited in the wild (KEV status). When the ticket is generated, this KEV status is included as the primary rationale, enforcing an emergency SLA (e.g., 24-hour fix window) within the orchestration platform.

4. Continuous Monitoring (Verification and Feedback Loop)

Continuous Monitoring automatically handles the final step of orchestration: verifying the fix was successful and closing the loop.

• Example of ThreatNG Helping: After the IT team marks a ticket as resolved (e.g., patching a server to address an exposed vulnerability flagged by External Assessment), Continuous Monitoring automatically re-scans that specific asset within a short period. If the vulnerability persists, the ticket is reopened and escalated immediately to prevent a false-positive remediation and ensure accountability.

Cooperation with Complementary Solutions

ThreatNG specializes in identifying and prioritizing external exposure, providing the intelligence needed to support complementary solutions that execute the orchestration process.

• ThreatNG and an IT Service Management (ITSM) Solution:

  • Cooperation: ThreatNG automates the hand-off of validated, prioritized findings into the ITSM tool's workflow.

  • Example: When ThreatNG's priority engine flags a finding of Compromised Credentials from Dark Web Presence as a "Critical" external risk, it automatically generates a high-priority ticket in the ITSM system. The ITSM system uses the asset's Domain Intelligence to automatically route the ticket to the specific Identity and Access Management (IAM) team for credential reset, fully orchestrating the initial step of the fix.

• ThreatNG and a Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) Platform:

  • Cooperation: ThreatNG provides the high-fidelity alert trigger and necessary context for the SOAR platform to execute automated playbooks.

  • Example: The SOAR platform uses a "Critical" priority alert from ThreatNG, triggered by a Sensitive Code Exposure finding (e.g., an exposed API key), to automatically kick off a remediation playbook. This playbook might instantly block the exposed key at the firewall and then generate a ticket for the DevOps team to hard-delete the key from the code repository, orchestrating both the quick mitigation and the long-term fix.