Zoom's Bug-Scoring System Prioritizes Riskiest Vulns for Cyber Teams

Videoconferencing company Zoom has rolled out a new vulnerability scoring system that promises to help cybersecurity teams prioritize resources against the most dangerous threats.

Still in its 1.0 version, the Vulnerability Impact Scoring System (VISS) is an open, free-to-use framework owned by Zoom. It's intended to complement traditional CVSS scoring to determine a given vulnerability's potential impact on an organization so its cybersecurity teams can patch and defend accordingly.

"VISS analyzes 13 different aspects of impact for each vulnerability, segmented into impact groups specific to the platform, infrastructure, and data," Zoom said in a statement. "The VISS calculation produces a score ranging from 0 to 100, which can then be modified by applying the compensating controls metric."

To test the effectiveness of the new scoring system, Zoom used the VISS calculator for its own bug bounty program run through HackerOne between March and December. The rise in the number of reported critical vulnerabilities rose by 28% and high-severity reports jumped by 12%, according to a statement from the project provided to Dark Reading. In addition, the bug bounty program experienced a 57% decrease in the number of medium severity vulnerabilities submitted over the same period.

"Developed over the past year, this project aims to enhance security measures for a safer digital landscape through our groundbreaking approach to vulnerability scoring," Zoom said in a statement. "VISS provides a user-friendly web-based UI and advanced algorithms that prioritize actual demonstrated impact over theoretical security impact possibilities."