Software Vulnerability Management

This chapter describes how with the proliferation of internet users, internet-related security threats are also increasing rapidly because of the software vulnerabilities that arise in software. Basically, there are two terms: bug and vulnerability. No doubt, bug and vulnerability are due to programming errors but vulnerabilities are more dangerous than bugs. Software vulnerability is a kind of flaw that arises in software or is a hole in the security of the software that allows an attacker to exploit that flaw. Unlike bugs, software vulnerability can affect a whole network thereby allowing unauthorised access to the database itself. Integrity and confidentiality of the software product is compromised due to the software vulnerability. These flaws must be patched in order to minimalize the impact of software vulnerability on an organisation. This chapter familiarises the methods of managing software vulnerabilities and discusses mitigation of the risks of different vulnerabilities in a software.