What is Patch Management?

So what exactly is Patch Management?

At its core, Patch Management is defined as the processes and procedures used in the enterprise to keep computing devices current with the latest software updates and security patches available.

Why is Patch Management important?

The ability to manage patches successfully is critical to keeping devices and sensitive data protected from threats while keeping users productive and ensuring business continuity. Several key reasons why this is important are:

• Security: OS and application updates include mitigations to threats, like vulnerabilities, found in code.
• Continuity: Other issues, like bugs that impact business operations, are often identified and resolved.
• Productivity: New, time-saving features are made available to help users, such as enhanced compatibility for more efficient workflows.
• Simplicity: Managing endpoints is far easier when they have the same software versions, freeing IT to focus on creating more efficient workflows.
• Compliance: Standardizing endpoints allows organizations to develop baselines that align business needs with regulatory requirements.

How does Patch Management work?

Like a machine with multiple gears working together to accomplish a function, a patch management plan requires several crucial pieces to form together seamlessly to perform an ongoing patch management solution.

At a foundational level, a successful patch management solution for Apple in the enterprise requires the following:

• vendor/developer patches: Updates provided by the software developer and/or hardware vendors, like new OS versions, security fixes and firmware updates.
• endpoint security monitoring: Active monitoring of endpoints identifies when devices have fallen out of compliance(ex. missing patches) and triggers remediation workflows.
• Mobile Device Management (MDM): MDM deploys missing patches and enforces policy-based compliance enforcement.

Patch Management Lifecycle and Process

To better understand how patch management works, it’s best to review the Patch Management Lifecycle to better grasp what processes occur and where. Let’s take a closer look at the six-step Patch Management Lifecycle:

Plan

During this initial phase, IT/Security teams perform several functions that will directly ripple across other phases throughout the lifecycle. First up is creating inventories of hardware, software, business needs and compliance requirements. Other considerations that should be noted include remote endpoints, device ownership status (BYOD) and OS and device types that are supported. This information helps organizations establish a baseline for their patch management plan and guides them moving forward.

Monitor

Armed with the critical information gathered during the planning phase, IT/Security teams can track the patch levels of their device fleet, including staying on top of devices with missing patches. Also, they can identify new patches as they are made available.

Prioritize

While all patches perform the same basic function, not all patches demand the same level of attention. What is meant by this is that some patches are developed to address high-severity vulnerabilities that could easily lead to a data breach if not remediated right away, while others may correct a low-criticality issue.

To underscore this, in their recent 2023 Threat Landscape Year in Review report, Qualys found that 26,447 vulnerabilities were detected in 2023. However, at just over 2%, only 570 of those were deemed high-risk vulnerabilities. Though low-severity risks may be problematic for end users, they are often more annoying than dangerous, while high-severity-level risks can often impact business operations and continuity, regulatory compliance, and should be prioritized over low-severity risks.

Test

Patches are developed to correct known issues; the act of modifying code to incorporate said fix can inadvertently breaksomething else that was working perfectly fine in a prior version. Though patches are developed and tested by vendors for numerous stability and compatibility concerns — even the largest developers cannot account for every possible variable. Hence why it is imperative that IT/Security teams properly vet patches in a test environment (i.e., not using production devices) but rather one that can comes close to mirroring the production environment without actually putting production resources at risk.

Doing so allows them to detect any errant issues that may creep up during the testing phase while preventing new issues from being introduced to the production environment. Furthermore, testing gives IT/Security the time to develop solutions or workarounds to mitigate potential risks, not just from the patch itself, but relating to any flags that were raised during the testbed before rolling out new patches to production.

Deploy

The deployment phase takes place after all manner of planning, procuring, assessing and testing have occurred. During this phase, the patches are deployed to organizational devices on the production network.

Moreover, this phase also concerns itself with how deployments are performed. Many organizations do not simply “pushout” patches across the entire network, but rather adhere to patch cadences or windows to deploy updates in an organized manner. This alleviates the burden on the network itself, as well as keeps the impact on user productivity to a minimum. Often, a phased, tiered or grouped approach to patch deployment ensures a steady update process while offering IT/Security teams one last chance to spot any issues that may be introduced because of a new patch before it spreads across the organization.

Document

The final phase in the patch management lifecycle — as with most standardized IT functions — is documenting your results. This phase serves a few purposes — all of which ultimately benefit the organization overall.

1. Verify compliance in the event of a cybersecurity audit. Documenting the patching process may be a necessary step as part of complying with governance in regulated industries.
2. Note findings, including the patching process, test results and patch exceptions (ex. a mission-critical device that cannot be updated during the current patch window due to an ongoing project).
3. Highlighting issues encountered and process deficiencies serve as “lessons learned.” By working with stakeholders, IT/Security teams can develop more resilient patch management workflows that minimize shortcomings and maximize success.

Patch Management as a part of vulnerability management

As part of an overarching security plan to manage vulnerabilities, a mature Patch Management process provides IT/Security teams with the tooling and workflows necessary to ensure that devices used across the enterprise to access organizational resources are up-to-date. Doing so empowers users to implement the latest features into their productivity workflows while simultaneously securing devices, users and data against threats that might exploit known vulnerabilities.

Additionally, establishing a regular Patch Management cadence provides an organized structure for IT/Security to manage endpoints — both personally- and company-owned — with a set baseline of mitigation strategies that create a standard for protection across the device fleet, extending to any device, used by any user from any location without compromising device security or user privacy.

One more thing to note about the Patch Management lifecycle and its role in vulnerability management is that, just like many other lifecycles in technology, it is cyclical — not linear. The reasoning for this is simple: the loop design lends itself to its iterative nature. Each phase generates data that is directly informed by the preceding phase, as well as directly informs the subsequent phase in the lifecycle. Because of this cipher, when the sixth stage (Document) has been completed, the lifecycle restarts again from the first stage (Plan) to inform the planning phase with lessons learned to aid in the development of enhanced workflows.

Patch Management challenges

The problems with legacy Patch Management

The process is so tedious. In fact, some IT administrators simply slow down their update cadences or stop patching altogether. Whether they don’t have enough time or lack the appropriate skills to successfully identify, research, test, deploy and verify patches — the truth of the matter is that many IT admins are using outdated methods (such as manually patching software) to keep endpoints and apps updated.

Veteran IT/Security professionals will no doubt remember the days of Sneakernet to get patches deployed to multiple devices. Depending on factors such as fleet size, physical location and the robustness of the network connection, manually deploying patches can work for a while and is an infinitely better solution than not keeping up-to-date with patches. Historic patch management is a time-consuming endeavor that can lead many organizations to easily fall behind other critical management processes.

Modern patch management leans heavily into automation features to not only simplify the process but further galvanize its criticality by streamlining MDM workflows to overcome common challenges like:

• Inability to schedule downtime for hardware and software updates
• Lack of visibility into currently installed applications and devices
• Unavailability or access to resources, especially when IT admins are busy
• Physical distance limitations for remote and mobile workforces
• Complying with local, state, federal and/or regional regulations

There have been modern improvements to the process, such as App Installers in Jamf Pro, that make macOS Patch Management a breeze, allowing organizations to stay up-to-date with patches and app updates while helping to fortify the security of your Mac fleet, keep end users protected and safeguard sensitive data.

Better Patch Management

The king is dead…long live the king!

Introducing App Lifecycle Management from Jamf.

As mentioned previously, Patch Management is only one part of the larger solution that Jamf offers. Through App Lifecycle Management (or ALM for short), there are two ways to update patches and apps with Jamf Pro: Patch Policy Workflows and App Installers.

By blending the device management workflows with ALM, Mac admins can upgrade their change management processes, modernizing them to adapt to the modern threat landscape while effectively putting aside legacy patch management concerns, such as:

• Constantly pulling reports to identify which computers have what versions installed
• Conducting a scavenger hunt for available patches and application updates by macOS version
• Figuring out which computers are eligible for each patch and any dependencies required

Jamf does this, and more, for you. Reporting, notifications and policies are all an integral part of ALM. Jamf created a systematic approach to get users the patches they need without the headaches of the past.

Going along with good change management practices, this is also an iterative approach, as Jamf is focused on meeting the most common needs, making the solution as easy to use as possible while blending visibility, analysis, remediation and verification into the overall cyclical process.

What does ALM include?

As part of the App Lifecycle Management solution, there are three components that make up the overarching ALM solution, modernizing as it simplifies your organization’s change management workflows to maximize efficiency and minimize risk against known vulnerabilities.

Jamf App Catalog

A collection of information and services about software titles including a list of 1,000 (and growing) third-party macOS software titles supported in Jamf Pro.

Title Editor

A Jamf-hosted service that extends patch management by providing custom software titles, overriding existing patch definitions and the ability to create custom patch definitions.

App Installers

The curated collection of Jamf-managed, Jamf-provided installer packages that streamline deployment for cloud-based customers. In its effort to continue to revise processes for simplicity and efficacy, Jamf:

• Sources packages, validates, hosts and re-packages for easy, automated updating
• Builds and adds to the list of patch and app installers technology frequently
• Provides a robust, cloud-based console to deploy updates to any Mac, anywhere — helping IT “work smarter, not harder”

Benefits of an automated App Lifecycle Management workflow

As we pointed out previously, patching macOS software titles is important for organizations to run smoothly and securely. Keeping software up-to-date not only preserves the end-user experience Apple users have come to know and love but often improves it by gaining access to new productivity features that save them time while adding richness to the overall experience of using Mac.

Of course, there are obvious security implications to software, with many updates centering around code improvements, such as bug fixes or resolving security vulnerabilities.

Ultimately, the components that make up ALM within the larger Jamf Pro management solution serve to ease the burden of gathering and deploying patches and application updates across your Mac fleet. Regardless of which model Mac computers your organization relies on or where they’re physically being used — IT administrators can rest assured that:

• Endpoints are staying protected against the latest known security vulnerabilities
• Automated tools are deploying the patches and updates that each Mac requires — no matter which version of macOS they’re using or the model version
• Management policies ensure that endpoints remain in compliance with software requirements
• Patching levels can be easily monitored using custom Smart Groups, generating detailed reports to verify software compliance levels
• The Jamf App Catalog’s expanding list of apps simplifies the deployment of third-party software, while Jamf Pro also ties into the Mac App Store for the deployment of managed apps from Apple’s global catalog

We’re really excited for Jamf Pro users to incorporate App Lifecycle Management workflows into their existing change management process to take advantage of all it can do, as well as the additional functionality waiting in the wings. It’s not only a great tool that makes short work of patch and update cycles, but we’re thrilled we’re able to offer it to help keep your environments running smoothly and securely.

Summary

Gone are the days of treasure-hunting for software patches. Reclaim lost time with Jamf’s new patch management solution. In this blog, we discuss how App Lifecycle Management allows IT professionals to maintain their environments while keeping them secure confidently.

What do we mean when we say patch management? you may be thinking. Essentially, it’s keeping the software in your organization up-to-date. But given the changes to the modern threat landscape multiplied by hundreds, possibly even thousands or more devices, successfully implementing the process involves many steps and variables that can make it pretty complicated.

And the kicker is that you have to repeat the process for every patch. This becomes exponentially more difficult to keep up with when you are performing this process for several update cycles across dozens of titles each month.