What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on 7.7 Remediate Detected Vulnerabilities?

Remediation tickets linked to scan findings with closure dates; Trend of open vulnerabilities by severity month on month; Rescan evidence confirming fixes.

CIS Controls v8.1 · CIS Control 7: Continuous Vulnerability Management

`7.7` Remediate Detected Vulnerabilities

Fix discovered software vulnerabilities through processes and tools at least monthly, in line with the remediation process. Implementation Groups: IG2 and IG3 (not in the IG1 baseline; applies from IG2 upward). Asset type: Software. Security function: Respond.

Source: CIS Controls v8.1, 7.7. 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 CIS Controls v8.1 in the compliance library.

Scope: Implementation Groups: IG2, IG3. Security function: Respond; asset type: Software.

Each safeguard shows its Implementation Groups. IG1 is the essential baseline for every enterprise, IG2 adds to it, IG3 is all 153. Version 8.1 adds the Govern security function and asks for more processes to be documented; numbering is unchanged from v8.

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

Remediation tickets linked to scan findings with closure dates · Vulnerability scanner / patch tooling

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Rescan evidence confirming fixes · Vulnerability scanner / patch tooling

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Trend of open vulnerabilities by severity month on month · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Start with the 1 of 3 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

Findings closed without rescan
Critical items open past target dates
Remediation tracked outside any system

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

7.6 Perform Automated Vulnerability Scans of Externally-Exposed Enterprise Assets · 8.1 Establish and Maintain an Audit Log Management Process