Vulnerability Management & Attack Path Mapping with Tenable and Stellar Cyber

By
Edwin Alexander
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In 2025, effective vulnerability management is no longer just about scanning and patching — it’s about understanding how attackers move, where the risks converge, and which assets truly matter. Modern SOC teams are turning to tools like Tenable.io for deep vulnerability visibility and Stellar Cyber for real-time attack path mapping and threat correlation. Together, they offer a comprehensive solution that aligns closely with ISO 27001:2022 controls and operationalizes true risk reduction.

  1. Traditional CVSS-Based Approaches Fall Short

Legacy vulnerability management practices rely heavily on CVSS scores to prioritize remediation. However, high CVSS doesn’t always mean high risk. A critical vulnerability buried in an isolated subnet might pose less danger than a medium-severity flaw on an internet-facing server with direct access to sensitive data.
Solution: Tenable.io enhances prioritization using exploitability context, asset value, and threat intelligence — aligning with ISO 27001 control A.12.6.1 (Technical Vulnerability Management).

  1. Tenable.io: Continuous, Contextual Scanning

Tenable.io offers dynamic asset discovery, continuous scanning, and prioritization based on real-world exploitability. It supports cloud infrastructure, containers, OT assets, and traditional endpoints.

Key Capabilities:

  • Real-time vulnerability tracking
  • Asset criticality scoring
  • Integration with CMDB and ticketing systems
  • Exposure prediction using Predictive Prioritization
For ISO 27001-certified environments, this directly supports controls like:
  • A.8.1.1 – Inventory of assets
  • A.12.6.1 – Ongoing vulnerability management
  • A.18.2.3 – Technical compliance reviews

  1. Where Tenable Ends, Stellar Cyber Begins

While Tenable.io shows what’s vulnerable, it doesn’t map how an attacker might move through the environment to exploit that weakness. That’s where Stellar Cyber excels, using:
  • UEBA (User and Entity Behavior Analytics)
  • Real-time correlation from EDR (e.g., SentinelOne), firewalls, and network telemetry
  • Threat intelligence fusion
  • Attack path mapping
Example: A medium-risk CVE on an unpatched application server might be ignored — until Stellar Cyber shows it’s one hop away from your Active Directory server via an over-permissive firewall rule.

  1. Attack Path Mapping: A Game-Changer

Using visual graph modeling, Stellar Cyber’s platform helps identify:
  • Pivot points (e.g., compromised endpoints)
  • Credential reuse paths
  • Unnecessary trust relationships
  • Compounding misconfigurations
These mapped attack paths allow SOC teams to:
  • Patch more strategically
  • Harden critical junctions (firewalls, AD, VPNs)
  • Reduce Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Respond (MTTR)
ISO 27001 Implication: This supports controls like:
  • A.13.1.1 – Network controls
  • A.12.4.1 – Event logging and analysis
  • A.16.1.1 – Incident reporting

  1. Integration Workflow in a Modern SOC

Here’s how Tenable and Stellar Cyber can be used together:
Phase Tenable.io Role Stellar Cyber Role
Discover Identify assets and vulnerabilities Correlate assets with threat telemetry
Prioritize Rate vulnerabilities based on exploitability and asset value Map vulnerable assets in the attack path
Remediate Recommend targeted patches Highlight high-risk lateral movement scenarios
Monitor Track new vulnerabilities post-remediation Alert SOC to behavioral anomalies tied to known exposures

  1. Example: Real-World Use Case

An organization scans its infrastructure using Tenable.io and discovers:
  • CVE-2024-30321 on a Windows IIS server (CVSS: 7.4)
  • The server also hosts a misconfigured file-sharing service
Without Stellar Cyber: This may not be prioritized urgently.
With Stellar Cyber: Attack path mapping shows the IIS server has RDP access to a Tier 0 domain controller. The SOC team quickly isolates and patches the server — preventing a possible ransomware lateral movement scenario.

  1. Compliance and Risk Governance Benefits

By using both tools together, GRC teams can:
  • Generate audit-ready evidence for ISO 27001 internal and external audits
  • Automate reporting aligned with Annex A controls
  • Reduce manual validation time with centralized dashboards

Final Thoughts

In 2025, vulnerability management isn’t just about finding flaws — it’s about understanding how those flaws fit into the bigger picture of an attacker’s journey. Tenable.io delivers the deep visibility and prioritization needed to focus on what truly matters, while Stellar Cyber reveals the hidden pathways that turn “medium-risk” vulnerabilities into high-impact breaches.

By integrating these tools, SOC teams can shift from reactive patching to proactive risk reduction, directly aligning their operations with ISO 27001:2022 requirements. This approach strengthens both security posture and compliance readiness, ensuring that remediation efforts address not just the symptoms, but the root causes of potential compromise.

The combination of continuous scanning, contextual prioritization, and attack path mapping empowers organizations to act decisively — closing gaps before attackers can exploit them.

Don’t wait for an attacker to find the path you didn’t know existed.

👉 Start with Exabytes eSecure to see how we can help you operationalize risk-based vulnerability management and protect what matters most.

References

  • Tenable. (2025). Risk-Based Vulnerability Management Report. https://www.tenable.com
  • Stellar Cyber. (2025). Unified Security Operations Platform Whitepaper. https://www.stellarcyber.ai
  • ISACA. (2025). Mapping Risk-Based Vulnerability Management to ISO 27001. https://www.isaca.org
  • ISO/IEC. (2022). ISO/IEC 27001:2022 – Information Security Management Systems Requirements. Geneva: International Organization for Standardization.

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