What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on 02 Patch applications (Essential)?

Application inventory showing installed versions against the latest vendor release for each, with lagging versions flagged; Application patch reports for browsers, Office, PDF viewers and Java showing extreme risk fixes within 48 hours; Software inventory flagging application versions no longer supported by the vendor; Vulnerability scan comparison before and after patch deployment for a recent critical advisory.

What is the most common gap auditors find on 02?

Third-party applications outside the main patch tool are never updated

ASD Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents · Preventing Malware Delivery and Execution

`02` Patch applications (Essential)

Patch/mitigate computers with extreme risk vulnerabilities within 48 hours. Use the latest version of applications.

Source: ASD Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents, 02. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open ASD Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents in the compliance library.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

moderate

to go live

Vulnerability scanner / patch tooling

where the evidence lives

teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

Application patch reports for browsers, Office, PDF viewers and Java showing extreme risk fixes within 48 hours · Vulnerability scanner / patch tooling

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

none for this control

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Application inventory showing installed versions against the latest vendor release for each, with lagging versions flagged · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Software inventory flagging application versions no longer supported by the vendor · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Vulnerability scan comparison before and after patch deployment for a recent critical advisory · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Start with the 1 of 4 artefacts that already live in a system (Vulnerability scanner / patch tooling); keep the periodic reviews but log each one as a dated record with a named reviewer.

Common gaps auditors find

Third-party applications outside the main patch tool are never updated
Extreme risk application vulnerabilities left open until the next routine release
Outdated application versions retained for compatibility without compensating controls

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

Build my evidence sheet

01 Application control (Essential) · 03 Configure Microsoft Office macro settings (Essential)