Change requests and the vulnerability workflow

If you are not familiar with the Vulnerability Response application, for more information see Understanding the Vulnerability Response application.

The following image illustrates the flow of information for Vulnerability Response, from integration (scanner) set up through automated triage and into investigation.

Change requests and change management are part of the remediation process (Assess/Fix state) in the Vulnerability Response workflow shown in the following figure. During this phase, you might use change requests to initiate and track the remediation of vulnerabilities. You can create and manage change requests directly from the vulnerability group and list investigation and remediation tasks that include solutions for impacted assets for the configuration items (CI) in your CMDB.

When to use change requests in vulnerability response

As an IT remediation owner, you might create change requests from a vulnerability group if a manual and controlled process of any kind is required for modification or removal of supported configuration items (CIs) in your CMDB. Creating and managing change requests directly from a vulnerability group record helps you investigate and resolve vulnerabilities quickly. The VIs of a resolved vulnerability group can be scanned and verified during the next scheduled scan in your Now Platform and returned to the automated triage of the Vulnerability Response workflow. Manual interventions that might require change requests include the following examples:

• A software patch, fix, or other task by IT that is required on vulnerable items prior to VG resolution.
• You determine a subset of the vulnerable items in a vulnerability group requires further investigation or reassignment to another department.
• You determine that a subset of vulnerable items in a VG with a large set of vulnerable items can be moved into a new vulnerability group.
• You might associate a vulnerability group to an existing change request to avoid duplication of remediation tasks.

Types of change requests for a VG

The Vulnerability Response application utilizes the three types of service changes supported by the ITSM Change Management product on your Now Platform® instance — standard, emergency, and normal. The type of change you select determines which state model is invoked and the change process that must be followed. Change requests record the detailed information about the change, such as the reason of the change, the priority, the risk, the type of change, and the change category. See Change types.

You can filter vulnerable items using values from any fields from a vulnerability group and apply the change request to only those items that match your filter criteria.

Compatibility and system requirements

Change management for the Vulnerability Response application is compatible with New York and Orlando v11.0, and the Paris family releases. The Vulnerability Response application is available on the ServiceNow Store.

To verify an application is installed and activated on your instance, follow these steps.

1. Navigate to Applications > System Applications > All Available ApplicationsAll.
2. Search for the application you want. If not installed, click Install to install it.