Updates and Patches
(OBJ .)
Patch management can be
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Manual
- Rare for fully manual patch management these days
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Automated
- More reliable and most often used
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Hackers can reverse engineer patches to find the underlying vulnerability
Hotfix
- A software patch that solves a security issue and should be applied immediately after being tested in a lab environment
Update
- Provides a system with additional functionality, but it doesn’t usually provide any patching of security related issues
- Often introduce new vulnerabilities
Service Pack
- Includes all the hotfixes and updates since the release of the operating system
Effective Patch Management involves
- Assigning a dedicated team to track vendor security patches
- Establishing automated system-wide patching for OS and applications
- Including cloud resources in patch management
- Categorizing patches as urgent, important, or non-critical for prioritization
- Create a test environment to verify critical patches before production deployment
- Maintaining comprehensive patching logs for program evaluation and monitoring
- Establishing a process for evaluating, testing, and deploying firmware updates
- Developing a technical process for deploying approved urgent patches to production
- Periodically assessing non-critical patches for combined rollout