Patch management

Description

Patch management is defined as a sub-practice of various disciplines including vulnerability management (part of security management), lifecycle management (with further possible sub-classification into application lifecycle management and release management), change management, and systems management. The practice is broadly concerned with the identification, acquisition, distribution, and installation of patches to systems. Some definitions of patch management are as a software-level practice,^[1] while others are as a systems-level process: software, drivers, and firmware.^[2]^[3]^[4]

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Cost–benefit analysis

While reserving time for patching takes up enterprise resources, there are balancing factors which can make proper patch management into a net productivity boost for an organization. Up-to-date systems often perform more efficiently, less costly, with less errors, less security risks, and better user workflow. Additionally, compliance with changing local and federal regulations are more likely to be satisfied.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

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Relation to security management

Patches can be used to defend against and eliminate potential vulnerabilities of a system, so that no threats may exploit them; therefore, patch management can be considered a sub-discipline of vulnerability management.^[4] Effective patch management is an essential element of a broader vulnerability management lifecycle, which involves continuous processes of identifying, evaluating, prioritizing, and remediating security weaknesses across systems and applications.^[5] Every patchable device in a system presents an attack surface that must be secured.^[4]

Challenges

There are a multitude of problems that can arise during patch management. A common issue is buggy patches, which either fail to fix their problem or introduce new issues. Another issue is deployment synchronization, since various subsystems may receive instructions to update at different times. Similarly, the difficulty of patch management across many devices may grow at an uncontrollable rate depending on organizational size.^[3]

One prominent demonstration of the challenges facing proper patch management was the buggy Falcon Sensor patch by CrowdStrike which caused one of the worst IT outages of all time.^[6]

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Implementations

A patch management tool (alternatively patch manager, patch management system, patch management software, or centralized patch management) help orchestrate all of the procedures involved in patch management. Tools can be in-house (applied locally by local administrators), or external, as with managed service providers (applied externally by a provider).