ISO 27001:2022 Annex A 8.8 Management of technical vulnerabilities

In this guide, I will show you exactly how to implement ISO 27001 Annex A 8.8 and ensure you pass your audit. You will get a complete walkthrough of the control, practical implementation examples, and access to the ISO 27001 templates and toolkit that make compliance easy.

I am Stuart Barker, an ISO 27001 Lead Auditor with over 30 years of experience conducting hundreds of audits. I will cut through the jargon to show you exactly what changed in the 2022 update and provide you with plain-English advice to get you certified.

Key Takeaways: ISO 27001 Annex A 8.8 Management of Technical Vulnerabilities

ISO 27001 Annex A 8.8 is a fundamental control that requires organizations to identify, assess, and mitigate technical vulnerabilities in their IT systems. Commonly known as “Vulnerability Management” or “Patch Management,” this control ensures that you are aware of the security flaws in your software and hardware and that you take a proactive, risk-based approach to fixing them before they can be exploited.

Core requirements for compliance include:

• Continuous Identification: You must have a process for finding vulnerabilities. This includes subscribing to vendor alerts (like Microsoft or Cisco), using automated vulnerability scanners (e.g., Nessus or Qualys), and conducting regular penetration tests.
• Risk-Based Assessment: Not every vulnerability needs to be fixed immediately. You must assess found flaws using a standard system (like CVSS scores) and prioritize them based on the risk they pose to your specific business.
• Patch Management SLA: You need a documented schedule for remediation. For example, “Critical” patches must be applied within 48 hours, while “Medium” patches might have 30 days.
• The “Zero Day” Strategy: You must have a plan for how to handle emergency vulnerabilities that are actively being exploited and for which no patch is yet available.

Audit Focus: Auditors will look for The Remediation Gap:

1. The Scanner: “Show me the report from your last internal vulnerability scan.”
2. The Follow-Up: “Here is a Critical vulnerability from last month. Show me the Change Request that proves it was patched within your 48-hour SLA.”
3. The Exception: “If you didn’t patch a specific vulnerability, show me the risk assessment where you documented your decision to accept that risk.”

Recommended Remediation Timelines (Audit Cheat Sheet):

Severity (CVSS Score)	Example Vulnerability	Target Remediation
Critical (9.0 – 10)	Remote Code Execution (RCE)	48 Hours
High (7.0 – 8.9)	SQL Injection	7 Days
Medium (4.0 – 6.9)	Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)	30 Days
Low (0.1 – 3.9)	Information Disclosure	90 Days

What is ISO 27001 Annex A 8.8?

ISO 27001 Annex A 8.8 is about the management of technical vulnerabilities which means you need a process to identify and then manage any vulnerabilities. This usually means you should keep your systems patched and up to date.

ISO 27001 Annex A 8.8 Management of Technical Vulnerabilities is an ISO 27001 control that looks to make sure you understand what vulnerabilities exist in your technology and make informed decisions to manage them.

ISO 27001 Annex A 8.8 Purpose

The purpose of ISO 27001 Annex A 8.8 Management of Technical Vulnerabilities is to ensure information and other associated assets are protected from the exploitation of technical vulnerabilities.

ISO 27001 Annex A 8.8 Definition

The ISO 27001 standard defines ISO 27001 Annex A 8.8 as:

Information about technical vulnerabilities of information systems in use should be obtained, the organisations exposure to such vulnerabilities should be evaluated and appropriate measures should be taken.

ISO 27001:2022 Annex A 8.8 Management of Technical Vulnerabilities

ISO 27001 Annex A 8.8 Free Training Video

In the video ISO 27001 Management of Technical Vulnerabilities Explained – ISO27001:2022 Annex A 8.8 I show you how to implement it and how to pass the audit.

ISO 27001 Annex A 8.8 Explainer Video

In this beginner’s guide to ISO 27001 Annex A 8.8 Management of Technical Vulnerabilities, ISO 27001 Lead Auditor Stuart Barker and his team talk you through what it is, how to implement in and how to pass the audit. Free ISO 27001 training.

ISO 27001 Annex A 8.8 Podcast

In this episode: Lead Auditor Stuart Barker and team do a deep dive into the ISO 27001:2022 Annex A 8.8 Management of Technical Vulnerabilities. The podcast explores what it is, why it is important and the path to compliance.

How to implement ISO 27001 Annex A 8.8

With management of technical vulnerabilities there are a couple of things to consider and the complexity of the control will be based on what you do and how complex your environment is.

Let’s consider first what you do. If you create software or hardware then there is a chunk of extra stuff that you are going to have to do here ranging from how you manage releases, patches, updates and communications. Remembering that this is guidance, take a common sense approach to your releases. I am not going to delve too deeply into this as for the majority this use case won’t apply but suffice to say you will need a strong, documented process and consider things like:

• Vulnerability reporting – when people find them in your stuff how do they report them
• Vulnerability management – what you do when someone tells you they found something
• Vulnerability communication – what and how you tell people that there is a vulnerability in your stuff
• Vulnerability roles and responsibilities – who is doing what

In more general terms let us now look to the things that impact everyone.

Know what technology you have

We start at the beginning by knowing what we have. Why? Because we cannot protect what we do not know. You will need asset registers that record what you have and we have covered this elsewhere in

• ISO 27001 Annex A 5.9 Inventory of information and other associated assets 

The basic guide for this step is know what assets you have.

Configure your assets properly before use

Solid technical vulnerability management is part of the standard and links to this control by removing services that are not needed, blocking those not needed that cannot be removed and having solid configuration and technical management practices in place.

Know what vulnerabilities you have

When you implement your vulnerability management process you need to put in place the identification of those vulnerabilities. There are varying degrees of depth that you can go into here. Let us take a look at some ways we can identify vulnerabilities.

Vendor Alerts

Vendors as a rule will continually release patches and updates to address vulnerabilities that are found in their products. They will either alert you in the technology itself and / or send you communications such as emails or updates on their websites. Be sure you have included this in your process. It is a simple and quick win.

Specialist forums

It really depends here but for some technologies there are communities and forums that are set up. Some are official, some unofficial, but these can be great sources of information and early warnings and remediations.

Penetration Tests

Penetration tests are an old school way of identifying vulnerabilities. There are different approaches, from annual tests to on going or periodic tests. These usually address configuration vulnerabilities, ie the way you have set the technology up and are using it, but they are can on occasion find more fundamental flaws. Include these if they are appropriate to you.

Vulnerability Scanners

There are technologies that you can consider that will do continuous or periodic scanning of your environment for vulnerabilities. We are moving up the tiers of complexity and cost here, but based on risk this maybe something that you would want to implement.

Threat Intelligence

With the introduction of ISO 27001 clause 5.7 threat intelligence having access to bulletins, news letters and sources of information on emerging malware threats should be incorporated into processes and risk planning so that you can have a process of continual improvement and vulnerability management that will seek to mitigate those threats.

Assess Vulnerabilities

Once you know what vulnerabilities there are, your process should be to assess them. In assessing them we are doing a risk assessment to understand the risk the vulnerability poses. Once we know the risk of the vulnerability we can then prioritise it and plan our mitigation. Use good risk management practices. It maybe that you can accept the risk. The output of this step should be a risk score, prioritisation and risk decision.

Address the Vulnerability

Once you have made a decisions on what to do about the vulnerability then put in place a plan and action it. It maybe that you accept the risk, and therefore follow your risk management process for risk acceptance. Alternatively, it maybe that you need to address the vulnerability directly by implementing a patch or configuration change. Using your change management process you complete your remediation. There are things to consider here which are covered more in change management but we raise them for awareness being things like the timings, the need to test the change, the ability to back it out, the communication of it, the acceptance of it. This will be built into your processes but the point of this step is that once you have identified and assessed a vulnerability, you will address it.

Recommended Remediation Timelines (SLA)

Severity (CVSS Score)	Example	Remediation Target
Critical (9.0 – 10)	Remote Code Execution	48 Hours
High (7.0 – 8.9)	SQL Injection	7 Days
Medium (4.0 – 6.9)	XSS / Weak TLS	30 Days
Low (0.1 – 3.9)	Info Disclosure	90 Days (or next release)

How to pass an ISO 27001 Annex A 8.8 audit

Top 3 ISO 27001 Annex A 8.8 mistakes and how to avoid them

The top 3 mistakes people make for ISO 27001 Annex A 8.8 are

1. Penetration Testing

The act of a penetration test is not actually a mistake but conducting it annually is. A point in time audit once a year maybe the bare minimum you can get away with but it is not best practice and usually tests are conducted in test environments or controlled environments that do not reflect reality. Sure you want to do them but think carefully what you are trying to achieve with it. If it is to tick a client need then great but if you truly want it to add value to the vulnerability management process and protecting you then engage your supplier with THAT requirement and follow their guidance.

2. You never apply patches

Patches and patch management is the most simple and straightforward way to meet the control but not having it work or patches not applied is the biggest mistake we see that fails people come audit. Do not assume you have patched and it works before the audit happens, check it. You may be surprised.

3. Your document and version control is wrong

Keeping your document version control up to date, making sure that version numbers match where used, having a review evidenced in the last 12 months, having documents that have no comments in are all good practices.

Related ISO 27001 Controls

ISO 27001 Annex A 8.28 Secure Coding

ISO 27001 Annex A 8.29 Security Testing in Development and Acceptance

ISO 27001 Annex A 8.34 Protection of Information Systems During Audit Testing

Fast Track Compliance with the ISO 27001 Toolkit

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For ISO 27001 Annex A 8.8 (Management of technical vulnerabilities), the requirement is to obtain information about technical vulnerabilities, evaluate your exposure, and take appropriate measures (such as patching). While many SaaS compliance platforms attempt to sell you “vulnerability scanning integrations” or complex “remediation dashboards,” they often overcomplicate what is fundamentally a governance and risk-based decision process.

The High Table ISO 27001 Toolkit is the logical, time-saving solution because it provides the governance layer, the policies, remediation SLAs, and risk assessment frameworks, needed to satisfy auditors, allowing you to manage vulnerabilities effectively using your existing tools without a recurring subscription.

1. Ownership: You Own Your Vulnerability Management Policy Forever

SaaS platforms act as a middleman for your compliance evidence. If you define your remediation timelines and store your vulnerability assessments inside their proprietary system, you are essentially renting your own security standards.

• The Toolkit Advantage: You receive the Patch Management Policy and Vulnerability Remediation SLAs in fully editable Word/Excel formats. These are yours forever. You own the standards that define how quickly you patch critical vs. low-risk flaws, ensuring you are audit-ready without being held to a “subscription ransom.”

2. Simplicity: Governance for the Tools You Already Use

Annex A 8.8 is about the management of vulnerabilities. You don’t need a complex new software interface to manage what your existing scanners (like Nessus, Qualys, or AWS Inspector) or patching tools (like Intune or Ansible) already do.

• The Toolkit Advantage: Your technical team already understands how to find and fix flaws. What they need is the governance layer to prove to an auditor that these actions are prioritized by risk and executed within agreed timelines. The Toolkit provides pre-written templates that formalize your existing technical work into an auditor-ready framework, without forcing your team to learn a new software platform.

3. Cost: One-Off Fee vs. The “Asset Growth” Tax

Many compliance SaaS platforms charge more as you add more “assets” or “endpoints” to your vulnerability monitoring. For a control that touches every piece of technology in your organization, these monthly costs can scale aggressively.

• The Toolkit Advantage: You pay a single, one-off fee for the entire toolkit. Whether you are managing vulnerabilities for 10 servers or 1,000, the cost of the Vulnerability Management Documentation remains the same. You save your budget for the actual technical tools and security talent rather than an expensive compliance dashboard.

4. Freedom: No Vendor Lock-In for Your Security Stack

SaaS compliance tools often only integrate with specific “name-brand” scanners. If you use a specialized tool, a niche cloud provider, or change your security vendor, the SaaS tool can become a barrier to technical flexibility.

• The Toolkit Advantage: The High Table Toolkit is 100% technology-agnostic. You can edit the Remediation Procedures to match any technical environment, on-premise, cloud, or hybrid. You maintain total freedom to evolve your security stack without being constrained by the technical limitations of a rented SaaS platform.

Summary: For Annex A 8.8, an auditor wants to see that you have a policy for identifying vulnerabilities and a risk-based process for fixing them. The High Table ISO 27001 Toolkit provides the governance framework to satisfy this requirement immediately. It is the most direct, cost-effective way to achieve compliance using permanent documentation that you own and control.

Further Reading

ISO 27001 Patch Management Policy Template

ISO 27001 Patch Management Policy Beginner’s Guide

ISO 27001 Controls and Attribute Values

Control type	Information security properties	Cybersecurity concepts	Operational capabilities	Security domains
Preventive	Availability	Protect	Threat and vulnerability management	Protection
	Integrity	Identify		Defence
	Confidentiality			Governance and Ecosystem

About the author

Stuart Barker is a veteran practitioner with over 30 years of experience in systems security and risk management.

Holding an MSc in Software and Systems Security, Stuart combines academic rigor with extensive operational experience. His background includes over a decade leading Data Governance for General Electric (GE) across Europe, as well as founding and exiting a successful cyber security consultancy.

As a qualified ISO 27001 Lead Auditor and Lead Implementer, Stuart possesses distinct insight into the specific evidence standards required by certification bodies. He has successfully guided hundreds of organizations – from high-growth technology startups to enterprise financial institutions – through the audit lifecycle.

His toolkits represents the distillation of that field experience into a standardised framework. They move beyond theoretical compliance, providing a pragmatic, auditor-verified methodology designed to satisfy ISO/IEC 27001:2022 while minimising operational friction.