Vulnerable item age calculation and display
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Summary of Vulnerable item age calculation and display
The Vulnerability Response application in ServiceNow Yokohama release now displays the age of vulnerable items (VIs) in a detailed Days/Hours/Minutes format. This enhanced age display appears in the Age column on the Vulnerable Items list view and in the Age and Age closed fields on VI records. This precise age information helps vulnerability managers and remediation owners better track and manage VIs.
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Key Features
- Detailed Age Display: VI age is shown as Days/Hours/Minutes for active VIs, allowing more granular tracking of vulnerability lifecycles.
- Age Fields Behavior:
- Age is shown only for active VIs (not closed).
- When a VI is closed, the total active days are captured in the Age closed field as a whole number.
- If a VI is reopened, Age closed resets to 0 and the detailed Age field resumes display.
- Improved Performance: Age calculation is now performed on-demand rather than via scheduled jobs, reducing performance impact in instances with many VI records.
- Role-Based Access:
- Users with the vulnerabilityread permission or Vulnerability admin persona can view age values.
- IT remediation owners can view age on records assigned to them.
- Persona and granular roles help control visibility and actions on VIs.
- Automatic Upgrade Enhancements: The enhanced Age column is added automatically upon installing or upgrading the Vulnerability Response application.
Practical Benefits for Customers
- Precise Rule Configuration: Auto Delete Rules can target VIs based on exact age in Days/Hours/Minutes, enabling more accurate data retention and cleanup policies.
- Detailed Reporting and Filtering: Performance Analytics reports and list views can leverage detailed age data for better insights and targeted vulnerability management.
- Improved User Experience: More precise age data aids vulnerability managers in prioritizing and remediating items effectively.
Important Notes
- If the age is not displayed correctly after upgrade, the instance’s age column may be outdated; customers should refer to the KB0749231 article for resolution.
- Age and Age closed fields are read-only and cannot be edited manually.
- Further customization of Age and Age closed calculations is possible as described in KB1703270.
The age of vulnerable items (VIs) is displayed in the Vulnerability Response application with more detail.
- Configure rules in the Auto Delete Rules module to target and delete specific VI records by Days/Hours/Minutes. Removing records with more accuracy may increase your performance, especially if you have a large number of VI records in your instance.
- View reports with more specific details in the Performance Analytics for the Vulnerability Response application.
- Create filters that identify only the VIs you want.
- Prune list views to display only the VIs you want.
- Dot-walk more easily.
A scheduled job calculated age and updated all active VIs. In instances with large numbers of VI records, this process could be slow and negatively impact performance. VI age is calculated more efficiently on-demand and displayed with more significant digits with an enhanced Age column. The enhanced Age column is automatically added when you install or upgrade the Vulnerability Response application.
The age column and fields are not editable. A vulnerability manager with the sn_vul.vulnerability_read permission or the Vulnerability admin persona can view this value, and IT remediation owners with the sn_vul.remediation_owner role can view it on records assigned to them.
Persona and granular roles are available to help you manage what users and groups can see and do in the Vulnerability Response application. For an initial assignment of the persona roles in Setup Assistant, see Assign the Vulnerability Response persona roles using Setup Assistant. For more information about managing granular roles, see Manage persona and granular roles for Vulnerability Response.
VI age is displayed as shown in the following images.
Vulnerable items list
As shown in the following figure, on the Vulnerable Items list view, Age is displayed in the Age column in Days/Hours/Minutes (21 Days 17 Hours 17 minutes) only for active VIs. Active VIs are VIs in any states other than 'Closed'. This age value represents the number of days the VI has been active.
The age is not displayed for VIs in the ‘Closed’ state. For VIs previously in a ‘Closed’ state and then reopened, the value represents the number of days the VI has been active since the date it was last opened.
Age on VI records
On the VI records, the value of Age column in the list view is visible for active VIs in the Age field.
The value of the Age column is not displayed for VI records in the ‘Closed’ state.
Age on the Vulnerable items list and VI records when a VI is updated
When a VI is in the ‘Closed’ state, the Age field is not displayed. When the VI transitions to ‘Closed', the value in number of days from the Age column is displayed in the Aged closed field (9) as shown in the following figure. This value represents the number of days the VI was active before it transitioned to ‘Closed.’ For example, in the following image, this VI was active for 9 days, 18 hours, and 29 minutes, but only the number of days (9) is displayed on the closed record.
If this VI is reopened, when the VI state transitions back to ‘Open’, the Age closed field is reset to 0. Because the VI is active again, the age in Days/Hours/Minutes is displayed in the list view in the Age column and on the Age field on the VIT.
For more information on how to customize the Age and Age closed calculations, see the KB1703270 article.