Automated vulnerability grouping

1. A vulnerability response system comprising:

a non-transitory memory comprising a vulnerability grouping rule, wherein the vulnerability grouping rule comprises an electronic indication of a group by field, wherein the group by field corresponds to a criteria used to assign each vulnerability item of a set of vulnerability items to one or more vulnerability groups, and wherein the vulnerability grouping rule does not comprise an electronic indication of values stored in the group by field; and

one or more hardware processors configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more hardware processors, cause the one or more hardware processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving a plurality of vulnerability items from a vulnerability response tool configured to compare indications of known vulnerabilities with indications of software, hardware, or both used in respective configuration items to identify a subset of configuration items configured to use hardware, software, or both that comprise an identified vulnerability as the plurality of vulnerability items;

accessing the vulnerability grouping rule;

for each of the plurality of vulnerability items:

searching a configuration database to identify a value stored in a column identified to be grouped as indicated by the group by field indicated in the vulnerability grouping rule;

generating a key based at least in part on the value stored in the column identified to be grouped by the group by field indicated in the vulnerability grouping rule;

identifying whether any pre-existing vulnerability groups correspond to the key;

when a pre-existing vulnerability group corresponds to the key, grouping the vulnerability item with the pre-existing vulnerability group; and

otherwise, when none of the pre-existing vulnerability groups correspond to the key:

generating a vulnerability group associated with the key and

associating the vulnerability item to the vulnerability group; and

setting a priority for at least one of the vulnerability groups, wherein the priority is presented on a graphical user interface and used to define a sequence in which vulnerabilities of the configuration items are addressed.

2. The vulnerability response system of claim 1 , wherein the operations comprise:

generating the key at least in part by providing punctuation between the value of the group by field and an additional value.

3. The vulnerability response system of claim 2 , wherein the operations comprise:

providing an identifier of the vulnerability grouping rule as the additional value.

4. The vulnerability response system of claim 3 , wherein the operations comprise:

providing a class type value as the value.

5. The vulnerability response system of claim 1 , wherein the operations comprise:

determining that auto-grouping is enabled via a user-defined setting of the graphical user interface; and

automatically grouping the plurality of vulnerability items in response to determining that the auto-grouping is enabled.

6. The vulnerability response system of claim 1 , wherein the operations comprise:

performing a control operation, a reporting operation, or both, based upon at least one of the vulnerability groups.

7. The vulnerability response system of claim 6 , wherein the operations for performing the control operation comprise generating a patch plan, generating a change assignment, or any combination thereof.

8. The vulnerability response system of claim 6 , wherein the operations for performing the reporting operation comprise providing statistics regarding the vulnerability group, providing an electronic notification regarding the vulnerability group, or both.

9. The vulnerability response system of claim 1 , wherein the indications of known vulnerabilities are pulled from an internal source, an external source, or both.

10. The vulnerability response system of claim 1 , wherein the indications of known vulnerabilities are accessed from a database, a dictionary, an output from a vulnerability scanner, or any combination thereof.

11. The vulnerability response system of claim 1 , wherein the vulnerabilities of the configuration items are addressed with a same remediation when the configuration items correspond to a same vulnerability group.

12. The vulnerability response system of claim 1 , the operations comprising:

setting a state for the vulnerability group as new; and

after remediating the vulnerability item of the vulnerability group, setting the state as fixed to indicate that the vulnerability group has been resolved.

13. A tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable medium, comprising machine-readable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving a plurality of vulnerability items from a vulnerability response tool configured to compare indications of known vulnerabilities with indications of software, hardware, or both used in respective configuration items to identify a subset of configuration items configured to use hardware, software, or both that comprise an identified vulnerability as the plurality of vulnerability items;

accessing a vulnerability grouping rule, wherein the vulnerability grouping rule comprises an electronic indication of a group by field, wherein the group by field corresponds to a criteria used to assign each vulnerability item of the plurality of vulnerability items to one or more vulnerability groups, and wherein the vulnerability grouping rule does not comprise an electronic indication of values stored in the group by field;

for each of the plurality of vulnerability items:

searching a configuration database to identify a value stored in a column identified to be grouped as indicated by the group by field indicated in the vulnerability grouping rule;

generating a key based at least in part on the value stored in the column identified to be grouped by the group by field indicated in the vulnerability grouping rule;

identifying whether any pre-existing vulnerability groups correspond to the key;

when a pre-existing vulnerability group corresponds to the key, group the vulnerability item with the pre-existing vulnerability group; and

otherwise, when none of the pre-existing vulnerability groups correspond to the key:

generating a vulnerability group associated with the key; and

associating the vulnerability item to the vulnerability group; and

setting a priority for at least one of the vulnerability groups, wherein the priority is rendered on a graphical user interface and used to define a sequence in which vulnerabilities of the configuration items are addressed.

14. The machine-readable medium of claim 13 , the operations comprising generating the key as comprising an identifier of the vulnerability grouping rule, the value, or both.

15. The machine-readable medium of claim 13 , the operations comprising associating the vulnerability group with the key, such that the vulnerability group can be subsequently searched as one of the pre-existing vulnerability groups using a subsequent key.

16. The machine-readable medium of claim 13 , the operations comprising:

determining that an auto-grouping setting is enabled; and

in response to determining that the auto-grouping setting is enabled, receiving the plurality of vulnerability items.

17. A method, comprising:

receiving a plurality of vulnerability items from a vulnerability response tool configured to compare indications of known vulnerabilities with indications of software, hardware, or both used in respective configuration items to identify a subset of configuration items configured to use hardware, software, or both that comprise an identified vulnerability as the plurality of vulnerability items;

accessing a vulnerability grouping rule, wherein the vulnerability grouping rule comprises an electronic indication of a group by field, and wherein the group by field corresponds to a criteria used to assign each vulnerability item of the plurality of vulnerability items to one or more vulnerability groups, wherein the electronic indication of the group by field is independent of an electronic indication of values stored in group by fields;

for each of the plurality of vulnerability items:

searching a configuration database to identify a value stored in a column identified to be grouped as indicated by the group by field indicated in the vulnerability grouping rule;

generating a key based at least in part on the value stored in the column identified to be grouped by the group by field indicated in the vulnerability grouping rule;

identifying whether any pre-existing vulnerability groups correspond to the key;

when a pre-existing vulnerability group corresponds to the key, grouping the vulnerability item with the pre-existing vulnerability group; and

otherwise, when none of the pre-existing vulnerability groups correspond to the key:

generating a vulnerability group associated with the key; and

associating the vulnerability item to the vulnerability group; and

setting a priority for at least one of the vulnerability groups, wherein the priority is rendered on a graphical user interface and used to define a sequence in which the at least one of the vulnerability groups is remedied relative to an additional vulnerability group.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein generating the key comprises:

generating the key as comprising an identifier of the vulnerability grouping rule, the value, or both.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein generating the key comprises:

associating the vulnerability group with the key, such that the vulnerability group can subsequently be searched as one of the pre-existing vulnerability groups using a subsequent key.

20. The method of claim 17 , wherein the vulnerability response tool is configured to perform a scan of a distributed computing system to identify the vulnerability items based at least in part on a known vulnerability, and wherein the scan is proactively performed to prevent an attack via system vulnerabilities of the distributed computing system.