Role alignment
Vulnerability Management Analyst
Executive summary
Windows Server lab covering authenticated Tenable scanning, prioritized remediation, and verification, alongside simulated policy and stakeholder coordination.
Skills demonstrated
The vulnerability management project shows the ability to turn scan output into prioritized remediation, communicate risk clearly, and validate that fixes reduced exposure.
Full technical write-up available
This page summarizes the scope, approach, and findings. Follow the evidence links for the full technical write-up, queries, scripts, and supporting artifacts.
32 to 4
Lab Findings
100%
Critical Reduction
92%
High Reduction (Rounded)
88%
Medium Reduction (Rounded)
Problem
The simulated organization began without an established vulnerability management policy or operating process. The project needed to move from an unmanaged baseline to a repeatable program with governance, scanning permission, prioritized remediation, and verification.
Environment & tools
Lab project
Approach
- 1Drafted a vulnerability management policy that defined scope, responsibilities, remediation timelines, and a stakeholder review path.
- 2Simulated stakeholder and server-team meetings to secure buy-in, adjust remediation expectations, and authorize credentialed scanning.
- 3Provisioned an intentionally vulnerable Windows Server environment in Azure and performed authenticated vulnerability scans with Tenable Nessus.
- 4Prioritized remediation work by impact and ease of remediation, including third-party software removal, insecure protocol and cipher hardening, guest account group membership, Windows updates, WinVerifyTrust validation, and outdated software cleanup.
- 5Prepared remediation scripts and scan reports as part of the simulated team workflow, then checked progress through follow-up scans.
Evidence
- The repository documents policy drafting, mock stakeholder and CAB meetings, scanning permission, remediation communication, and seven scan cycles with reports or screenshots.
- The remediation workflow includes generating PowerShell scripts for Wireshark removal, insecure protocol and cipher remediation, guest account cleanup, Windows updates, WinVerifyTrust validation, and outdated software removal or updates.
- The supporting CVE remediation mapping repository connects findings to Tenable plugin IDs, CVEs, CVE descriptions, remediation method, and script locations.
- The scripts repository provides the remediation scripts referenced by the vulnerability-to-remediation mapping.
Evidence chain
- 1.Tenable authenticated scan identifies vulnerable findings
- 2.Finding is mapped to Tenable plugin ID and CVE details
- 3.CVE score and description support remediation context
- 4.Remediation method is identified as PowerShell or Bash
- 5.Mapping links to the specific remediation script
- 6.Follow-up scans validate remediation progress
- 7.Final trend data shows reduction from 32 to 4 findings
Result
The Windows Server lab finished with 4 findings, down from 32 across seven scans. Critical findings fell from 2 to 0, high from 12 to 1, and medium from 17 to 2. The high and medium reductions round to 92% and 88%; these are lab scan results, not production-wide risk measurements.
What I learned
- Vulnerability reduction depends as much on governance and stakeholder coordination as it does on technical scanning.
- Authenticated scanning and follow-up validation provide the evidence needed to show whether remediation actually worked.
- Prioritizing fixes by operational impact and remediation effort creates a practical path from baseline discovery to maintenance mode.