7.1·critical·Component: ProtectWhat this control requires
Establish and maintain a documented vulnerability management process for enterprise assets. Review and update documentation annually, or when significant enterprise changes occur that could impact this Safeguard.
In plain English
Establish and maintain a documented vulnerability management process for enterprise assets. In practice, this means you can prove you establish and maintain vulnerability management process-level controls on a defined cadence.
Why it matters
The CIS Controls are an industry-vetted, prioritised defence: skipping a safeguard widens the attack surface that the safeguards above and below it assume is closed. Audit frameworks (FedRAMP, PCI DSS, HIPAA) all cite CIS as evidence of due care.
This control is rated critical in the source catalogue. Treat gaps here as production incidents in the risk register, not housekeeping.
What an auditor looks for
A CIS-aligned reviewer wants to see (a) which Implementation Group you are targeting, (b) a documented owner for the safeguard, and (c) a tooling or process artefact (config, scan output, ticket) that proves the safeguard runs on the cadence the control demands.
Within Protect, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Control 7.1) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.
How to implement
Policy Management
Docs. Keep each policy in version-controlled Markdown alongside the code that implements it; ship a signed PDF snapshot at each annual review and link the SHA into the SoA.
Vulnerability Management
Scanners. Pair an unauthenticated scanner (Nessus / Qualys / Tenable.io) for external surface with an authenticated agent for OS/library CVEs on every host.
SLA. Document remediation SLAs by CVSS / EPSS: critical 7 days, high 30 days, medium 90 days; report monthly trend to leadership.
Containers. Scan images in CI (Trivy / Grype / Snyk Container) AND at runtime; block deploys on critical findings without exception.
Operational checklist
- Establish And Maintain. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
- Protect. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
- Scope: vulnerability management process, enterprise.
Evidence to collect
- Policy Document. A signed and version-controlled policy / standard / procedure document.
- Infra Scan. Continuous infrastructure-posture telemetry — AWS Config, Azure Policy compliance, GCP Organisation Policy, Wiz / Prisma findings.
Signed policy or standard documents the safeguard. Focus: Establish and Maintain a Vulnerability Management Process.
Common pitfalls
- Policies that no engineer has read; the version in Confluence drifts from the version that's actually being enforced.
- Scans that hit only the perimeter; missing authenticated scans of OS, runtime libs and base images so most CVEs are invisible.
How it maps to other frameworks
Computed from shared tags, control component and key-operation subjects — handy when you are reconciling controls across an audit.
- NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 RA-5(2) — Update Vulnerabilities To Be Scanned
- ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.8.8 — Management of technical vulnerabilities
- SOC 2 (2017 TSC) CC3.1 — Objective Setting
- NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.12.1 — Security Assessment
- HIPAA (45 CFR Part 164) 164.308(a)(1)(ii)(B) — Security Management Process - Risk Management
Related controls in CIS Controls v8
- Control 16.6 — Establish and Maintain a Severity Rating System and Process for Application Vulnerabilities
- Control 3.5 — Securely Dispose of Data
- Control 7.5 — Perform Automated Vulnerability Scans of Internal Enterprise Assets
- Control 7.6 — Perform Automated Vulnerability Scans of Externally-Exposed Enterprise Assets
- Control 8.1 — Establish and Maintain an Audit Log Management Process
- Control 3.2 — Establish and Maintain a Data Inventory
References
- Center for Internet Security — CIS Controls v8
- Catalogue identifier:
Control 7.1
Topics: governance riskpolicy managementpatch managementvulnerability management