Vulnerability Management: First Unified Platform to Detect & Remediate on Mac

With attackers exploiting vulnerabilities three times more frequently than last year, managing vulnerabilities across a Mac fleet requires comprehensive visibility and timely action. Today, the Kandji team is excited to announce Kandji Vulnerability Management, which helps IT and security teams identify and remediate vulnerabilities through a unified workflow.

Existing tools for vulnerability management often create unnecessary overhead for lean IT teams to maintain. The tooling available today is largely reliant on legacy scanning and was built for programs that require the discovery of endpoints across a corporate network, followed by a myriad of configuration options for vulnerability scanning—mostly irrelevant to Mac computers. This translates to difficult deployments and more time spent maintaining and managing tools.

Once vulnerabilities are identified, tickets are created for IT to handle remediation. This gap leads to critical delays and incomplete remediation. According to Verizon's 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report, even well-equipped organizations take around 55 days to remediate 50% of critical vulnerabilities once patches are available.

Threat actors strategically target vulnerabilities, knowing organizations often focus exclusively on critical patches while leaving other vulnerabilities unaddressed. The challenge of effective vulnerability management has led many organizations to focus primarily on threat detection and response—sacrificing proactive security for reactive response to threats. A better approach to vulnerability management is needed, one that gives IT teams leverage to quickly identify and patch vulnerabilities across severity levels.

Kandji Vulnerability Management transforms this process through a unified platform that connects vulnerability detection with remediation, enabling organizations to significantly reduce their exposure window and maintain consistent security across their Mac fleet.

What Makes Kandji’s Vulnerability Management Different? 

Zero Performance Impact for Mac Users

Unlike traditional solutions that treat Mac as a secondary platform, Kandji's Vulnerability Management is purpose-built for macOS and Mac apps, delivering comprehensive vulnerability coverage with over 99% accuracy and updates to app inventory data every 15 minutes. The Kandji Agent leverages the integration with Apple's Endpoint Security framework used by MDM and EDR, providing fresh insights with zero performance impact.

Traditional vulnerability scanning tools can significantly impact system performance, with resource-intensive scans affecting battery life and device responsiveness. In contrast, the Kandji Agent intelligently prioritizes user work and does not rely on periodic scans.

Unified Platform Delivers Instant Deployment

Most vulnerability management tools operate in isolation. They rely on integrations with MDM and patch management systems. When patch management is available within competitor platforms, its implementation is unreliable on Mac computers.

Kandji eliminates these silos by combining vulnerability detection, assessment, and remediation in a single platform. When vulnerabilities are detected, administrators can immediately take action through deploying an Auto App, Managed OS, App Blocking, or Custom App Library Items, without switching contexts or coordinating between multiple teams.

This unified approach delivers key organizational benefits:

• Get compliant with SOC 2 and ISO 27001 with minimal effort
• Lower the vulnerability management program’s total cost of ownership
• Relieve stress on key team members through intuitive workflows that require no training
• Keep Mac users productive by removing legacy scanners which impact performance
• Improve employee experience with thoughtful prompts before a patch is enforced

Managing Vulnerabilities in Kandji

Detect Vulnerabilities and App Inventory Changes

The Vulnerabilities view shows you all the CVEs affecting the apps installed on your Mac computers. Risk scores help you understand which vulnerabilities pose the greatest risk and require immediate attention. At launch, Kandji will detect vulnerable applications installed on Mac computers. Shortly after launch, support for macOS vulnerabilities will be added.

The Kandji Agent automatically identifies software changes without waiting for scheduled scans. All applications on the device are matched against the most recent vulnerability intelligence from the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) and assigned a risk category based on its Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) severity score.

Assess Vulnerabilities and Their Risk 

Selecting a vulnerability opens a sidebar with detailed information about affected devices and applications. This helps you make informed decisions about when and how to remediate it.

Take Immediate Action

The Remediations tab within the Vulnerabilities view shows a list of vulnerable applications and, shortly after launch, will offer options for one-click remediation whenever possible. Admins can also use Kandji’s app and OS patch management tools to address vulnerabilities. The actions include: 

• Automate OS updates via Managed OS
• Automate updates for 200+ apps through Auto Apps
• Block vulnerable applications with the App Blocking Library Item
• Install app updates manually via the Custom App Library Item
• Programmatically update apps via API using Kandji Packages and KAPPA
• Choose to accept the risk when appropriate

Unlike solutions that require separate tools for remediation, Kandji provides built-in patching capabilities that can be automated or manually triggered as needed. This integrated approach significantly reduces the time between vulnerability detection and resolution.

Getting Started

Vulnerability Management is available for purchase now. It’s already integrated into Kandji's platform for Apple endpoint security and management. It’s a seamless transition for Kandji to turn on and for you to start using Vulnerability Management after you purchase the additional SKU. To learn more about how Kandji's Vulnerability Management can help your organization reduce security risks while streamlining operations, contact our team or start a free trial today.