What’s a zero-day vulnerability?
A zero-day vulnerability is a security flaw in software, hardware, or firmware that is unknown to the parties responsible for mitigating the issue. Coalition continuously monitors policyholders’ networks to help protect them from critical and emerging cyber threats, including zero-day vulnerabilities.
The term "zero-day" refers to the number of days the technology vendor had to patch or mitigate a vulnerability. When the number is zero, it typically means the vendor has learned of the vulnerability at the same time as the rest of the world.
Zero-day vulnerabilities have an elevated risk because attackers are able to exploit systems before vendors have the opportunity to create and distribute a patch or other mitigation. During this timeframe, businesses’ systems are at risk, as attackers can attempt to exfiltrate data, plant malware, or carry out other cyber attacks.
The discovery of a zero-day vulnerability triggers a race between attackers, who aim to exploit the vulnerability, and vendors, who need to develop and distribute a patch to protect users. There are often cases where knowledge of a vulnerability is discovered due to active exploitation by attackers, giving them a huge advantage over defenders. This makes responding to zero-day vulnerabilities a critical aspect of cybersecurity, emphasizing the need for vigilant security practices and rapid response to emerging threats.
Why did I receive a zero-day notification?
Coalition scans the external footprint of policyholders every month and sends alerts via Coalition Control™. At times, we perform additional scans to determine if policyholders are impacted by zero-day vulnerabilities. If we determine a policyholder is vulnerable to a zero-day, we send a notification.
We send notifications for vulnerabilities that put policyholders at an increased risk of experiencing a cyber attack. Our goal is to provide the necessary information about the impacted assets so policyholders can plan a remediation strategy to reduce the risk of experiencing a cyber incident.
Easily review and remediate security findings in Coalition Control
Coalition policyholders can review other non-critical security findings in Control, our integrated cyber risk management platform. Control users can also invite other team members to help manage and remediate security findings within the platform.