While Windows and its associated products may be perfect for your business, installing third-party software and applications extends its functionality. Project management tools, customer relationship managers, and communication tools like Slack have specialized functions that Windows doesn't offer.
These add-ons are no different than any other part of your system. But like native apps, third-party tools need regular updates to address vulnerabilities, avoid software conflicts, and remain stable as your operating system evolves.
Because these add-ons come from outside vendors, Microsoft won’t send you updates. Your IT team is responsible for patching, updating, and managing these third-party vendors outside Patch Tuesday. Monitoring, testing, and installing all of your third-party applications requires a detailed patch management process to ensure every application remains safe and up to date.
What Is Third-Party Patch Management?
Third-party patch management is updating all the “extra” software applications on your system, basically anything that wasn’t made by the company that developed the operating system or hardware. Updates could include anything from bug fixes to crucial security patches to adding new functionalities to the application.
Leaving third-party applications unpatched is a significant risk to your business. Not only is it more likely that a third-party app becomes incompatible with your operating system or creates an instability that causes something to crash, it also increases your attack surface, leaving you open to data breaches and attacks. For example, a company that uses Dropbox might leave customer data at risk if a critical update isn’t installed immediately.
An analysis by SecurityScorecard found that at least 29% of all breaches in 2023 started with a third-party attack vector, with SecurityScorecard saying their estimate was likely “conservative.” A whopping 75% of these breaches came from “technical relationships,” including file transfer software (26%), miscellaneous software and technology (11%), and cloud services or software (7%).
Benefits of Third-Party Patch Management
Third-party application patching and management play a critical role in keeping your business safe. It protects your company from potential breaches, safeguards sensitive data and client information, and ensures your endpoints run smoothly and efficiently.
Compliance
Regular third-party application patching and management ensures endpoints comply with industry and government regulations. Some patch management software can also enforce configuration to ensure all endpoints are up-to-date and compliant with your current security policies.
What’s more, many third-party patch managers create a paper trail that demonstrates the company is complying with industry standards and regulations. Many tools have timestamped logs that show patch status by device and severity level, which auditors often look for.
Close Security Vulnerabilities
Many third-party updates include critical security updates. Failing to deploy these patches as quickly as possible leaves your system open to third-party attacks and exploits. For example, if Zoom issues a critical security update, a robust patch management solution ensures the patch is deployed quickly to close the security gap and reduce your attack surface.
Reduces Downtime
Patches are also regularly issued to enhance the performance and stability of third-party apps. Installing these apps improves how well your network and endpoints perform, extending their service life and reducing the risk of a single endpoint or your entire system crashing, leaving customers and employees no way to access the network.
Ensures Compatibility
Updates and enhancements to your operating system require third-party applications to adapt and perform with the new settings. Third-party patch management ensures these applications are compatible with your system, and many patch management tools allow the team to test third-party patches for compatibility before deploying them.
Saves Money
The average global cost of any data breach was $4.88 million in the U.S. in 2024, and unpatched third-party applications are common ways hackers get into your system. A third-party patch management program ensures your team closes security gaps before they’re exploited, helping your company avoid costly breaches, legal penalties, and a loss of productivity due to downtime.
Best Practices for Third-Party Patch Management
Your third-party patch management process should ensure every third-party application is updated regularly to reduce the risk that security threats or software vulnerabilities are exploited. No matter what your company’s process looks like, certain best practices will help ensure no endpoint or third-party application is overlooked.
Use a Centralized System
Relying on end users to follow the patching process and regularly install updates can lead to a system where every endpoint has a different version that could leave endpoints vulnerable to attack. Using a single platform with centralized patch management tools allows teams to monitor the testing, deployment, and installation of all third-party patches.
Inventory and Monitor
Regular inventorying and monitoring all third-party applications across all endpoints and devices helps the team track which applications need a patch and which ones are up to date. It also allows the team to monitor third-party vendor releases and move quickly when critical security vulnerabilities need patching.
Test Before Patch Deployment
The third-party patching process should include time to test third-party patches and updates to ensure compatibility with your configurations. It should also include a way to roll back any updates that create problems when the patch is deployed and ongoing monitoring to identify and remediate any conflicts caused by a third-party patch in the future.
Third-Party Patch Management Challenges
Third-party patch management can be complex, especially when your company uses multiple operating systems and third-party applications. Though a third-party patch management process can improve the patch management process, it comes with some challenges.
High Quantity
Businesses often use a large number of third-party apps. Each third-party application may come from a vendor with different patch release schedules. While some vendors may follow a predictable schedule, others may release patches and updates “whenever.”
Tracking every release for every application is difficult, which can lead to endpoints missing critical patches and updates.
Prioritization
Critical third-party patches should be deployed and installed as quickly as possible. But when multiple vendors release critical patches for their third-party applications at the same time, it becomes difficult to prioritize which patches should be deployed first.
While there are ways to rank the importance of a critical patch (exploitability, business impact), without a clear, risk-based framework or automated patching, bottlenecks may occur, which could slow the patch deployment process down.
Compatibility and Stability
Like any patch or update, the team should test each third-party patch for stability and compatibility with your configurations before deployment. Even if all of your third-party applications follow a predictable patch release schedule, the frequency and volume of all releases across all applications can make it difficult to test every update before patch deployment.
What’s more, it’s possible that while third-party applications work well with your endpoint configurations, they conflict with each other, forcing the team to choose which applications receive the patch and which ones have to wait.
Automated Patch Management Solutions
While third-party application patching is necessary, it can be complex and time-consuming. Utilizing patch management tools that automate the patching process and streamline patch testing, deployment, and installation allows your team to move with speed and efficiency.
More Efficient
Manually testing and deploying patches and updates is resource-intensive. Staff have to spend time downloading, testing, and installing the update on every endpoint, usually during business hours. An automated patch management solution frees staff up to focus on other tasks, and many deploy and install updates during non-peak hours, allowing your company to continue working without downtime or interruptions.
Automated patch management tools can streamline the process, monitoring vendor releases, downloading and testing new patches, then deploying those updates across every endpoint, reducing patching cycles from days to hours.
Faster and More Secure
The sooner the team can patch third-party applications, the less likely your system is breached. Manual processes have inherent delays, like waiting for a notification that there’s an update and finding a time to deploy the updates that doesn’t interfere with business.
Automated solutions reduce or eliminate the delay by monitoring vendor feeds, validating the patches, and pushing the updates according to your schedule, closing vulnerabilities quickly and reducing your attack surface, all without the need for manual oversight from IT.
Better Tracking and Reporting
Most patching tools have comprehensive reporting features that automatically create an inventory and report of every third-party app on your endpoints. These reports often include critical details, like patch status, version history, and timestamps, giving IT real-time visibility into the company’s security posture. What’s more, these reports simplify audits and provide a paper trail for compliance audits.
Adpativa’s Automated Patching Solution
Patching every third-party app your company uses is complex and necessary. It improves your security posture, ensures your system remains stable, and provides patch compliance to ensure you align with regulatory standards. Creating an effective third-party patch management policy requires an automated patching solution that adapts to your needs.
Adaptiva’s platform helps companies create a comprehensive third-party patching program that aligns with your security and configuration policies, ensures compliance across endpoints, and lets your IT team automate and accelerate patch deployment. Contact us today and learn how Adaptiva can help your company patch and protect your systems.
