Page 397 - Kaleidoscope Academic Conference Proceedings 2024

CONVERGING VULNERABILITY INSIGHTS: UNIFYING VULNERABILITY
INTELLIGENCE FOR ENHANCED APPLICATION SECURITY WITH COLLABORATION

Aparna, Khare
1
1 National Informatics Centre

ABSTRACT that appropriate measures can be taken against cyber security
threats. They are foundational in providing the necessary
The cyber threat landscape is ever evolving, and as intelligence to organizations for proactive vulnerability
technologies advance and grow, so do the vulnerabilities in management, which is of critical importance in the realm of
software technologies, programming languages and cyber security. This is because the vulnerabilities within
software development frameworks. There is an imperative software and systems, if they are left unaddressed, can
need to be able to preemptively counter emerging threats in expose the organizations and online services to a plethora of
software and applications, standalone or otherwise. There risks such as data breaches and service disruptions that can
are several vulnerability intelligence tools and services severely impact the confidentiality, integrity, and availability
available in the market, however they suffer from a single of the assets involved [1].
common drawback. The vulnerability intelligence they
present depends on selective and even proprietary feeds of While several organizations maintain their own proprietary
information. With software technology that is largely driven vulnerability repositories for intelligence, when required to
by community efforts, a much better solution is to present the be availed by other organizations, they may impose a
vulnerability intelligence from the community driven financial burden in terms of licenses and may also very well
vulnerability databases itself. Furthermore, vulnerability be inaccurate in terms of delay in updation with respect to
intelligence can also be utilized in the field of cyber forensics. continually discovered vulnerabilities. Community driven
Forensic investigators require a sound foundational open-source vulnerability databases that are backed by
knowledge of vulnerability insights and attack vectors to organizations/communities solely focused on maintaining
understand how an attack or an incident might have the database, are often regularly updated depending on the
occurred. This paper presents a web-based vulnerability ecosystem of contributors. These continuously updated
intelligence platform that can effectively leverage the OSV databases, if they can be converged under a common
database, NVD, CAPEC and CWE to present a more standardized format and a common access platform, can
comprehensive, community driven vulnerability intelligence prove to be extremely fruitful when considering the holistic
that can not only help organizations in their vulnerability picture for enhancing security. Further, active options of
management efforts but also help cyber forensic analysts in collaborations would ensure that the converged system stays
getting relevant information about known attack methods in updated and of use to the community.
real time.
2. KEY TERMS
Keywords –Cyber Security, Open-Source Vulnerability
Databases, Software Vulnerability Intelligence, The key terms used in this paper are described as below:
Vulnerability Data Aggregation, Vulnerability Database
Standardization, Vulnerability Intelligence Collaboration, 2.1 Vulnerability
Vulnerability Intelligence Platform, Vulnerability
Prioritization In the context of cyber security, a vulnerability, also referred
to as a security vulnerability, is a flaw or weakness present
1. INTRODUCTION in an information system, security procedures, internal
controls, or implementation which can be exploited or
A vulnerability database, sometimes also referred to as a triggered by a potential threat source [2].
vulnerability database repository, is a structured collection of
information about newly discovered and known 2.2 Vulnerability intelligence
vulnerabilities present within system software, application
software, and other computing systems. Vulnerability Vulnerability intelligence involves the systematic
databases enable organizations and security professionals to acquisition and comprehension of potential weaknesses in
identify, prioritize, and address vulnerabilities efficiently so computer systems and software.

978-92-61-39091-4/CFP2268P @ITU 2024 – 353 – Kaleidoscope