This lesson explains how to turn raw vulnerability intelligence (CVEs, NVD, vendor advisories, exploit sources) into prioritized, actionable remediation inside DevSecOps. It shows where intelligence sources fit into asset enumeration, practical querying and pipeline integration, and a rubric for prioritizing real risk over raw CVSS scores.
CVE, NVD, and Intelligence Sources — The Good, The Bad, and The Not-Yet-Patched "A CVE is not a vulnerability until it's on your asset inventory — and a vulnerability is not a risk until your org cares enough to patch it."
You're coming into this after learning about Vulnerability Types and Taxonomy and enumerating hybrid environments (yes, that includes the exciting world of Cloud IAM role discovery and Linux/Unix native enumeration). Now we glue together the raw intel (CVEs, NVD, vendor feeds, exploit repos) wit...
CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) : standardized identifiers for disclosed vulnerabilities (CVE-YYYY-NNNN). NVD (National Vulnerability Database) : an enriched database that adds CVSS scores, metadata, and CPE/CWE mappings to CVEs. Intelligence sources : vendor advisories, CERTs, exploi...
Why it matters: during enumeration (remember IAM roles, local user accounts, OS package lists) you discover what's on your systems . The next step is: which of those things are vulnerable, how bad is the risk, and what to do about it — fast. That's what this lesson delivers. Where the piec...
Intelligence sources — the practical cheat-sheet Source Strengths Weaknesses / Use-case notes CVE List (MITRE) Official IDs, consistent reference Minimal enrichment; must pair with NVD or vendor info NVD CVSS, CPE, CWE linkage Lag time, occasional score controversies Vendor ad...
Practical techniques: Querying and correlating (mini how-to) Use NVD APIs to fetch CVE details for assets matched by CPE or name. Code (curl example): curl -s 'https://services.nvd.nist.gov/rest/json/cves/1.0?cpeMatchString=cpe:2.3:a:openssl:openssl:*' \ -H 'User-Agent: my-scanner...
Integrating into DevSecOps: pipeline playbook CI: run SCA/OS package and container image scans (Trivy, Snyk, Dependabot). Block merges with high/critical unmitigated CVEs. Build: produce SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) — SPDX or CycloneDX — attach it to your artifact registry. Registry: run ...
Prioritization rubric (because CVEs show up like pigeons — everywhere) Consider creating a hybrid score combining: CVSS base score (NVD) Exploit availability (0/1/2 for PoC/full exploit) Asset exposure (internet-facing, internal-only) Business criticality of service Amplification via IAM...
Special notes for cloud and host enumeration linkages If enumeration finds an overly-permissive IAM role that can modify instances or install packages, an otherwise low-priority CVE becomes critical — attacker can pivot to exploit or weaponize updates. Linux/Unix enumeration that identifies olde...
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