When Time Turns Against You: What a Negative TTE Means for Cyber Resilience
The speed at which bad actors exploit vulnerabilities means waiting for vendor patches is a losing strategy. Contemporary defense now centers on resilience, containment, rapid detection and response, and recovery.
The window between vulnerability disclosure and exploitation has reversed, with attackers now weaponizing flaws before patches exist.
In 2019, the common "safe window" for patching before threat actors began weaponizing disclosed vulnerabilities was approximately 63 days. However, according to a Mandiant analysis, 70% of exploited vulnerabilities in 2023 were zero-day exploits, with the average time to exploit (TTE) dropping sharply to about 5 days.
Attackers are now weaponizing flaws before patches even exist.
Author's summary: Cyber resilience is crucial as attackers exploit vulnerabilities quickly.