When prioritizing vulnerabilities, analysts consider the CVSS score, whether the system is internet-facing, and if sensitive data is involved. The primary goal is to mitigate the most exploitable and impactful risks first.
Let's break down the key components:
* Attack Vector (AV): Whether the attack can be launched remotely (N = Network) or locally (L = Local).
* Attack Complexity (AC): The difficulty of executing the attack (L = Low, H = High).
* Privileges Required (PR): The level of access needed for exploitation (N = None, L = Low, H = High).
* User Interaction (UI): Whether user interaction is required for the attack (N = No, R = Required).
* Scope (S): Whether the attack affects other systems (C = Changed, U = Unchanged).
* Confidentiality (C), Integrity (I), Availability (A): The impact level (H = High, L = Low, N = None).
Evaluating Each System:
* System 1 (CVSS: AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:H)
* Internet-facing #
* No sensitive data #
* High confidentiality and availability impact #
* Moderate risk due to requiring low privileges
* System 2 (CVSS: AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:H)
* Not internet-facing #
* No sensitive data #
* Lower priority since it's local-only
* System 3 (CVSS: AV:P/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L)
* Internet-facing #
* Contains sensitive data #
* But very low likelihood of exploit (requires physical access, high privileges, user interaction)
* Lower priority due to high attack complexity
* System 4 (CVSS: AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:H)
* Internet-facing #
* No sensitive data #
* No privileges required for exploitation #
* High impact on confidentiality and availability #
* Most critical due to remote exploitability and system-wide scope
* System 5 (CVSS: AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N)
* Internet-facing #
* Contains sensitive data #
* But requires high privileges, high attack complexity, and user interaction
* Lower priority than System 4
* System 6 (CVSS: AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:H)
* Not internet-facing #
* No sensitive data #
* Same as System 2 (low priority due to being local-only)
Final Decision: Patch System 4 First
System 4 is the most critical because:
* It is internet-facing (higher exposure).
* It has a high CVSS score.
* It requires no privileges (easy to exploit).
* It has system-wide scope impact (can affect other systems).
Thus, it should be patched first to minimize security risks.