Pentest report says fix within 30 days: are standard vulnerability remediation timelines actually realistic?

At least half of those medium findings are probably missing HTTP security headers, weak cipher suites, or server version disclosures. You can batch-fix all of them in half a day without touching any application code, just by tweaking simple config files on your server or reverse proxy.

Call the pentest firm right away. Tell them: "Due to our dev capacity we'll patch the criticals and highs first for re-testing and we need an extension for the mediums." They usually have no problem extending the contract window to 60 days.

Industry standard remediation SLAs are generally: 1) Critical vulnerabilities within 7 to 14 days, 2) High-risk vulnerabilities within 30 days, 3) Medium-risk vulnerabilities within 60 to 90 days, 4) Low-risk vulnerabilities within 180 days or during routine scheduled maintenance.

edit: fixed a few typos.

Testing firms push the "everything must be resolved in 30 days" line just to keep their own schedules on track and close the ticket quickly. No B2B client is going to cancel a contract over a medium-severity finding if you present a sensible roadmap; don't push buggy code out of panic.

dump 28 issues on a solo dev and main product delivery will stall, plus panicked patches just cause new security holes. just tell them to focus on the 3 criticals.

Two years ago we got a similar report and had our only developer go heads-down on pentest findings for three full weeks. As a result, client features scheduled for release were delayed by a month, hitting our cash flow hard. We later realized the 15 medium issues could have been easily mitigated with simple internal network restrictions. Your priority should always balance billable work with actual exploit risk.

Prepare a Security Remediation Plan to share with your client. Detailing target resolution dates for critical and high issues, along with compensating controls for medium findings, will satisfy standard enterprise compliance requirements.

Fix the three critical ones right away, give the client a three-month roadmap for the rest.

The answer above hits the nail on the head. If you don't write this down from the start, it leads to arguments later.

thansk a lot Ill try it today.

I'm curious too.

Thanks a lot I'll try it today. Everyone rushing into vulnerability remediation timelines gets stuck at the same point.

If the notification path is long, notifications don't arrive; missing notifications mean delayed incident detection. Correct me if I'm wrong.

If you're going this route sort this out first. honestly mistakes made on the vulnerability remediation timelines side are usually reversible but expensive.

There's also a measurement aspect to this. Start with a small trial; don't commit to everything at once.

If I were you, I'd go this route.

The opposite happened to me, that's why I'm writing. Most incidents start with a leaked password, not a vulnerability.

Taking notes for two weeks yields better results than a six-month estimate. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Saved.

We've heard this a lot, but it never happened like that for us. Solutions that work at a small scale collapse when you grow; I learned this late.

Taking measures without an inventory leaves doors you haven't seen open.

I'm writing this so you don't make the same mistake. honestly having backups accessible on the same network and with the same identity makes them part of the target.

That's all, sorry if I went on too long.