What is Application Security Posture Management?
Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) is an approach to managing and improving the security of applications throughout their lifecycle. It unifies application security practices across the software development lifecycle (SDLC), taking multiple silos like static application security testing (SAST), software composition analysis (SCA), secrets detection, and infrastructure as code (IAC), bringing them into a single management pane.
Application Security Posture Management is focused on maintaining a strong security posture through continuous monitoring, assessment, and vulnerability tracking across applications.
For AppSec defenders, APSM is a new approach, derived from Application Security Orchestration and Correlation (ASOC). It removes the historical silos between disparate application and vulnerability scanning tools, aggregates and correlates data from organizations’ source control, and results in deeper insights and context about applications and their environment. This unified approach to application security and application risk gives developers and AppSec teams the ability to more accurately prioritize, fix and track issues throughout the SDLC.
For example, using ASPM, AppSec teams can not only identify software libraries used in their code, but also see code flaws, dependencies and vulnerabilities. The ability to trace source code to all its sources – along with accompanying vulnerabilities — allows security teams to move beyond simple identification into holistic risk management — without any manual effort.
Gartner forecasts that, by 2026, more than 40% of organizations developing their own applications in house will adopt ASPM to rapidly identify and resolve security issues – up from just 5% in 2023.
ASPM defined
Gartner research defines Application Security Posture Management as an approach that: “Analyzes security signals across software development, deployment and operation to improve visibility, better manage vulnerabilities and enforce controls.”
What cybersecurity challenges does Application Security Posture Management solve?
Manage application security with ASPM
In a world where businesses as diverse as automotive and barbecue manufacturers are building and shipping applications, traditional reactive approaches to AppSec are no longer effective. Today’s applications are complex pieces of software, involving multiple components, third-party integrations and cloud services. What’s more, 54% of software engineering leaders are now directly responsible for ensuring the security of the applications their teams build. They need to manage application risk across the software development lifecycle. APSM addresses a critical need: the ability to balance accelerated, agile software development with proactive security, without tedious, time-consuming manual processes.
Application Security Posture Management provides organizations with the tools and processes they need to maintain a strong security posture in an increasingly complex, accelerated application development landscape in which applications have become prized targets for cyberattack.
Here are four AppSec challenges ASPM solves:
#1 ASPM mitigates tool
sprawl
On average, security teams monitor 129 applications and sixtyeight or more technologies. Managing multiple disparate tools can create coverage and visibility gaps, trigger excessive alerts, and increase workloads while impacting release times. ASPM mitigates these obstacles by unifying Application Security Testing (AST), software supply chain security and posture management tools into one management plane to provide end-to-end visibility and traceability from code to cloud.
#2 ASPM breaks the silos between AppSec and DevOps
A data fabric approach is at the heart of ASPM. ASPM collects, correlates and enriches data from multiple tools and sources, delivering a synthesized view of applications and their associated security state. Through this consolidated approach, AppSec and DevOps teams can stay on the same page, improve their communication and collaboration, and increase velocity.
#3 ASPM enables risk-based prioritization and management
With ASPM, AppSec and developer teams can evolve from chasing CVEs to risk-based vulnerability management: understanding and flagging libraries that are badly maintained, have poor hygiene, or are out of date. ASPM incorporates deep context that is frequently missing from traditional siloed application security testing tools tools and processes. ASPM incorporates advanced risk calculations based on applications’ reachability, exploitability and business impact, providing risk-based prioritization and the ability to meaningfully manage the application attack surface.
#4 ASPM supports DevSecOps
ASPM enables seamless integration of security into every step of the software development lifecycle , supporting a culture of shared responsibility for security. When ASPM solutions are integrated into DevOps processes, security teams can automate testing and compliance checks, detect security issues earlier in the process, and reduce friction between teams.
Five AppSec challenges ASPM solves:
- Gaps in tooling coverage.
- Complexity of application environments.
- Noise and technical debt.
- Manual security processes
- lert fatigue
What are the use cases for Application Security Posture Management?
Use cases for ASPM include:
Code to cloud observability and traceability:
ASPM allows organizations to map applications from code to cloud, identify security risks, consolidate findings, and enable informed decision making for proactive threat management. Application components — from microservices to APIs and third-party services — are part of this inventory and visibility process, helping AppSec teams and developers better understand architectures and dependencies. Defenders can use ASPM to build a Software Bill of Materials (SBoM) to track and manage components. Some ASPM platforms also enable attack path visualization, mitigation recommendations, and contextual analysis of potential threat impact.
Contextual vulnerability prioritization and triage:
ASPM gives AppSec teams the frame of reference they need to assess vulnerabilities in terms of severity, exploitability and relevance to their business environment. When teams understand which vulnerabilities could have the greatest impact on the business, they can prioritize accordingly.
Reduce manual AppSec via automation and integration:
Traditional application security programs often leave vulnerabilities undetected until late in the development cycle or even post-release, slowing down release times as security teams manually triage and resolve issues. Application Security Posture Management allows AppSec teams to integrate security checks directly into the software development workflow. This not only improves cross-team collaboration, but enables automated monitoring and consistent enforcement of security policies, driving earlier detection and remediation of vulnerabilities.
Continuous scanning and consolidation of security infrastructure:
In any security platform, tool consolidation streamlines security processes and reduces redundancies. ASPM enables AppSec teams to consolidate their toolsets, converging areas like Static Application Security Testing (SAST), Software Composition Analysis (SCA), Software Bill of Materials (SBoM), secrets scanning, CI/CD and Git posture.
How is ASPM different from other cybersecurity measures?
ASPM is different from traditional AppSec solutions
Compared to traditional application security approaches and solutions, Application Security Posture Management brings a more complete, contextualized and integrated approach. The capabilities that differentiate ASPM from traditional security platform solutions include:
1. A holistic, code-to-cloud view:
APSM gives AppSec teams a comprehensive view of the entire application security landscape. It integrates data from multiple, traditionally disparate toolsets, reducing manual effort and inconsistencies in data.
2. Context is everything:
Many traditional tools prioritize vulnerabilities based on severity alone. ASPM enables AppSec teams to adopt a risk-based approach that incorporates reachability, exploitability and potential business impact. Using this unified approach, AppSec and Dev teams are empowered to effectively manage application security risks at scale and across complex application environments.
3. Continuous monitoring:
Unlike many traditional AppSec solutions that only perform periodic, scheduled scans, ASPM provides continuous monitoring across the entire software development lifecycle.
4. Works with developers:
ASPM directly integrates with development pipelines and workflows, ensuring that developers don’t have to halt progress to make the necessary changes that impact risk. ASPM facilitates both AppDev and AppSec teams working under pressure to deliver more secure applications under accelerated release schedules
5. Automated analysis and correlation
As a unified security platform, APSM automatically normalizes, analyzes and correlates data from multiple sources. This gives AppSec teams insights into emerging or sophisticated threats, without the time-consuming manual processes of the past.
What are the key components of Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) platforms?
What to look for in an ASPM solution
Application Security Posture Management platforms should integrate application security toolsets, processes and data insights across the software development lifecycle (SDLC), giving AppSec teams end-to-end visibility and traceability, from code to cloud.
What are some of the key features to look for in an advanced ASPM platform?
Do some APSM solutions have significant gaps? What are they?
Application Security Posture Management solutions unify separate Application Security Testing (AST) tools, aggregating and correlating results to provide an all-encompassing view of applications’ security posture. Not all solutions can keep pace with rapidly changing AppSec environments, however. Common gaps in ASPM platforms include:
Inability to address the complexity of application environments:
Modern applications often operate in complex, dynamic environments, including cloud, on-premises, and hybrid. Managing security postures across diverse environments can be challenging for some ASPM tools.
Lack of integration with DevOps practices:
Integrating security into DevOps can be challenging. Security measures must align with accelerated development cycles, without negatively impacting continuous delivery.
Incomplete visibility into third-party components:
Modern applications rely on third-party components and libraries. Not all ASPM platforms provide the required visibility into the security of these external components, leaving gaps in posture.
Inadequate incident response and remediation:
ASPM must identify software vulnerabilities and facilitate quick and effective response. Many current ASPM platforms lack the detail required for effective mitigation and remediation, and don’t offer adequate automation to simplify processes. From automated alerting and ticketing to blocking risky merges and creating new PRs, ASPM should help Devs and AppSec teams better manage threats, in-platform
Top 5 benefits of Application Security Posture Management (ASPM)
- The top benefits of ASPM for any organization are:
- Comprehensive threat visibility and risk assessment.
- Continuous monitoring and compliance.
- Rapid incident response and mitigation.
- Streamlined vulnerability management
- Cross-functional collaboration between AppSec and Ops teams.
- Reduce tool sprawl through consolidation.
It started with a phish…how ASPM supports wider network security
Application vulnerabilities are a key entry point exploited by attackers seeking to gain network access. APIs and third-party components are a growing part of that attack surface – ASPM solutions that include the ability to monitor and secure APIs and third-party components indirectly contribute to wider network security, creating new opportunities for AppSec and network security teams to collaborate more effectively.
What’s the difference between Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) and Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)?
ASPM’s primary concern is with securing the application layer and code through the software development lifecycle (SDLC). Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) is focused on securing the underlying cloud infrastructure, managing the risks associated with configuration, visibility and the broader environment.
In short: CSPM makes sure the cloud environment is secure, ASPM takes care of securing the applications running in that environment. Each comes with a different scope:
ASPM:
Focuses on code vulnerabilities, third-party dependencies, API exposure.
CSPM:
Focuses on risky misconfigurations, compliance violations and end user errors or behaviors that create risk.
Why OX for Application Security Posture Management?
Eliminate the chaos of managing siloed data from disparate sources.
The OX Security Active ASPM platform unifies application security across the SDLC. Unlike the patchwork of features in other tools, OX delivers a tightly integrated set of capabilities that empower development and AppSec teams to deliver more secure applications at the scale and speed of today’s business environment.
The OX AppSec Data Fabric is the key to our platform and the reason OX excels against other ASPM, AST, and AppSec tools. Unlike other ASPM tools that stitch technologies together through connectors, OX was purpose-built for comprehensive AppSec posture management, combining 10 native scanning solutions with source data from 3rd-party integrations.
The OX Platform intertwines deep insights from SCA, AST, Secrets, IaC, CI/CD, SBOM, cloud, and posture to reduce AppSec alert noise by 90%, provide detailed insights about each application and its vulnerabilities, and offers step-by-step recommendations and auto remediation that lower AppSec risk.
The “secret” to OX’s efficacy is reliable, prioritized, and contextualized evidence-based data that incorporates reachability, exploitability, and business impact — specifically for your business.
- The OX AppSec Data Fabric delivers complete visibility and reduces manual AppSec.
- OX’s proprietary OSC&R framework helps practitioners understand the software supply chain and is focused on the attacker TTPs that pose the greatest risk.
- OX prioritizes remediation over problem identification by automatically enriching and contextualizing collected data to streamline remediation. AppSec efforts are focused on effective vulnerability management and targeted root cause analysis.
- OX offers no-code workflow automation to reduce resolution times, eliminate manual efforts, and accelerate release cycles.
