Attack Surface Management (ASM): Prioritize Attack Surfaces Instead of Only Patching

The window between vulnerability disclosure and real-world exploitation is collapsing fast. According to Mandiant/Google, the average time-to-exploit in 2024 was −1 day. In 2021/22 it was still 32 days, dropped to 5 days in 2023 – and one year later flipped into negative territory.

−1 day means exploitation typically starts before a patch is released or widely deployed. A key driver is the high share of zero-days among actively exploited CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which are attacked before public disclosure.

And even when vulnerabilities are exploited after disclosure, defenders have little breathing room: a growing portion is weaponized within 24 hours. The structural problem for security teams is clear: patch windows are not only short – in many cases, they don’t exist.

Why exploitation is rising while time-to-exploit keeps shrinking

This dynamic isn’t accidental. Several trends reinforce each other. Every year, tens of thousands of new CVEs are registered, and the number keeps growing. The good news: not every CVE is exploited “in the wild.” But the small subset that is exploited is enough to serve as the starting point for roughly one in five breaches.

Key drivers behind more exploitation and faster weaponization include:

• Commercialization of the exploit chain: Proof-of-concepts, exploit brokers, initial-access marketplaces, and ransomware-as-a-service dramatically speed up distribution and scaling. Individual CVEs turn into mass-produced attack building blocks in record time.
• Expanding attack surface: Hybrid IT, remote work, SaaS sprawl, and OT/IoT increase the number of exposed assets. Internet-facing “edge” systems are particularly attractive entry points – and often difficult to patch quickly.
• More CVEs than patch capacity: Even large organizations can’t remediate every CVE immediately. Change windows, compatibility risks, and operational downtime impose hard limits.

The result: rising exploit activity combined with a shrinking time-to-exploit (TTE) makes vulnerability prioritization more critical than ever. Periodic patching alone no longer suffices – managing attack surfaces must become a continuous part of cyber hygiene.

What is Attack Surface Management (ASM)?

Patch management fixes vulnerabilities. ASM continuously shows where they exist and which ones matter first. It provides an ongoing view of real attack surfaces across the organization and answers two core questions:

1. What is actually exposed?
   ASM identifies weaknesses across the endpoint and network landscape and maintains continuous exposure visibility – for example: CVEs, outdated software versions, shadow IT, and unmanaged devices.
2. What of that exposure is critical?
   Not every vulnerability is equally dangerous. ASM prioritizes risk per asset based on exposure context (where/how the asset is used), exploitability (likelihood of exploitation), and correlation with real security events where available.

ASM therefore delivers a reliable decision basis, prioritizes remediation efforts, and tracks progress – enabling IT and security teams to focus on the most impactful fixes first.

This is especially valuable when the patch window is essentially gone. ASM shows immediately where affected software is running, reveals unknown/unmanaged assets, and helps prioritize the few exposures that are truly critical under extreme time pressure. Combined with EDR signals, it improves the precision of mitigation and incident response.

Conclusion: From “Patch Management” to “Exposure Management”

Attack Surface Management doesn’t replace patching. But it enables organizations to close the right attack surfaces first under real-world time constraints – and to eliminate blind spots permanently.

When the average exploit time is already negative, the classic “discover → patch” loop is no longer enough. Organizations need continuous exposure visibility, defensible prioritization, and the ability to react immediately where risk actually exists.

Webinar Invitation:

HarfangLab Guard feat. IKARUS live (in German): European EDR + EPP, including the new ASM extension for a complete exposure picture.

Registration: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/a87a8aa1-f446-4359-b882-f7fcbaa2fa7e@c900bb5a-01a0-41d4-98e7-289e0b45fc2e