Step 3 - Prioritize

You’ve ingested your data. You’ve explored it. Now it’s time to act, but smartly.

In vulnerability management, what you fix matters just as much as how you fix it. Nucleus helps you avoid alert fatigue by showing not just what’s “high severity,” but what’s actually high risk in your environment.

This step helps teams move beyond raw CVSS scores toward context-driven prioritization using live threat intel, business context, and automation-ready workflows.

Choose Your Prioritization Strategy

Nucleus supports two complementary prioritization strategies:

Incident-Driven Prioritization (Live-Fire Mode)

Use this when:

• A new ransomware campaign is in the news

• Your red team or MSSP uncovers a critical exposure

• Threat intel confirms weaponized activity in your stack

How to use it:

• Navigate to the Active Vulnerabilities Page

• Filter by:

  • nucleus_exploited = true

  • nucleus_risk_score >= 700

  • cisa_kev = true

• Add context: asset criticality, internet exposure, last seen

• Create a Saved Search or generate a report to share with stakeholders

• Use the Automation Engine to tag, escalate, or assign based on risk score or exploitability

This mode is ideal for fast-moving response scenarios where speed + accuracy are critical.

Security Hygiene Prioritization (Long-Term Risk Reduction)

Use this when:

• You want to drive down total vulnerability volume

• You’re looking to reduce mean time to remediate (MTTR)

• You’re building a roadmap for sustainable remediation

How to use it:

• Go to the Fixes Page in Nucleus

• Grouped by:

  • Patch (same remediation applied to many findings)

  • Asset Group or Tag (e.g., "Windows 2016 Servers")

• Look for “High ROI” patches: a single fix that remediates dozens or hundreds of findings

• Sort by affected_instance_count to find impactful fix bundles

• Export a patch list or assign the Fix Group to a ticketing workflow

This method helps teams improve long-term posture without burning cycles on low-value work.

Why This Matters

Quick Links

• 🔗 Nucleus Risk Score Overview

• 🔗 How to Use the Fixes Page

What’s Next?

In Step 4, you’ll start routing vulnerabilities to the right people automatically: by ownership, severity, or business unit. It’s where prioritization meets action.

Need a hand? Let us know. We're happy to assist.

— The Nucleus Team ([email protected])