ISO Position Paper
Position Title: Emergency Vulnerability Patching
Position Audience: Princeton IT Professionals
Contact: Information Security Office: [email protected]
Position Release Date: November 15, 2016
Problem Statement
Security vulnerabilities for information systems and applications are announced on a regular
basis by vendors and third parties. The University successfully mitigates many vulnerabilities
through regularly scheduled, non-emergency measures. However, there are occasions where
the severity of a published vulnerability, coupled with a broad exposure to potential exploits of
that vulnerability, warrants immediate action at the direction of the ISO.
ISO Position
The ISO will review published vulnerability information on its own and in collaboration with
University colleagues on a regular, ongoing basis. When it is determined that a published
vulnerability presents an immediate risk to University information categorized as Restricted or
Confidential1, the ISO will inform the University technical community (e.g., IT managers and
SCAD/DCS) of the necessity to apply a vendor provided patch or to employ some other suitable
risk mitigation as appropriate within one (1) week of the communication from the ISO regarding
the vulnerability. Due to current policy, architectural and design constraints, the ISO will
consider the general population of systems on campus as potentially having or enabling access
to Restricted and Confidential data thus requiring patching broadly across the environment.
Appropriate channels will be used to alert the University technical community to the necessary
actions, and follow-up scanning for mitigation will be conducted by the ISO Security Engineer(s).
Additional Information
Vulnerability management should be done on all systems and applications on an appropriately
routine basis. The ISO recommends at least a quarterly patch cycle for University resources. A
monthly patch cycle is strongly encouraged in the case of Restricted and Confidential data.
All systems and application should be managed for vulnerabilities on a routine basis.
Data classification: Public