Healthcare Provider Vulnerability Management

Client Overview

A regional healthcare provider needed continuous vulnerability scanning across patient-facing systems, internal networks, and medical devices to maintain a HIPAA-aligned security posture and pass an upcoming security audit.

Industry: Healthcare
Challenge: Reduce critical CVEs and demonstrate due diligence for auditors
Engagement: 4 weeks initial scan + remediation support; ongoing monthly scans

Scoping & Requirements

Scope: EHR and patient portal applications, internal LAN segments, selected medical device VLANs (read-only), and internet-facing systems.

Success criteria: Zero critical vulnerabilities in systems handling ePHI; high-severity items remediated or risk-accepted with documentation. Compliance: HIPAA Security Rule alignment.

Rules of engagement: Scanning during maintenance windows; no active exploitation; credentials provided for authenticated scans where approved.

Methodology & Test Cases

We used credentialed vulnerability scanning (network and host-based), CVE correlation, and risk prioritization by asset criticality and exploitability. Test cases included:

Category	Test Cases Performed
Network	Port/service discovery, CVE checks for identified services, SSL/TLS assessment
Host	Missing patches, weak configurations, default credentials, unnecessary services
Application	Known vulnerable components (e.g. outdated frameworks), misconfigurations

Tools: OpenVAS, Nessus, internal asset inventory. Standards: NIST CSF, HIPAA.

Findings & Vulnerabilities

Initial summary: 62 findings (12 critical, 20 high, 22 medium, 8 low). Critical items included:

Critical: RCE in outdated Apache Struts on patient portal; CVE-2023-xxxxx; CVSS 9.8.

High: Unpatched Windows SMB on internal file server; multiple high CVEs.

Remediation support included patch guidance, compensating controls where patching was delayed, and retest scheduling.

Remediation Support

We provided a prioritized remediation roadmap, patch references, and implementation guidance. For systems that could not be patched immediately, we documented compensating controls and risk acceptance. Retesting was performed after each wave of fixes.

Results & Impact

            Critical vulnerabilities reduced from 12 to 0; high from 20 to 2 (both risk-accepted with controls).
Overall risk reduction: 91%.
Security audit passed with no critical/high findings in scope for ePHI systems.
Mean time to remediate critical: 7 days.

        

"Their remediation guidance was clear and actionable. We passed our security audit."

— CISO, Healthcare Provider

Key Takeaways

Mapping assets to ePHI flow helped prioritize remediation. Continuous scanning caught new CVEs post-engagement. For similar organizations: align scope with HIPAA technical safeguards; plan for recurring scans; document risk acceptance where remediation is delayed.