IR-ready patching and AI pentesting: What November’s product updates mean for responders

Help Net Security’s November 28 roundup highlighted two releases we should operationalize in IR: Action1’s Intune-integrated third-party patching with risk-based prioritization, and Synack’s agentic AI “Sara Pentest.” Used together, they tighten mean time to remediate across Windows/macOS/Linux and turn pentest output into triage signals you can act on during containment and eradication (Help Net Security, Nov 28, 2025).

Intrusion Flow

Unpatched third-party applications remain one of the most common footholds; CISA’s KEV catalog is the authoritative list of CVEs actively exploited in the wild and should drive emergency patching during an incident (CISA KEV overview). Typical flow we see:

• Exposure: An internet-facing or broadly deployed app is behind on patching; the weakness is listed in KEV, indicating live exploitation in the wild (CISA KEV overview).
• Initial access and execution: Threat actors leverage the vulnerable service or client app to drop a loader and achieve code execution-mapping to ATT&CK Initial Access/Execution tactics you can track for hypothesis-driven hunting (MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise).
• Privilege escalation and lateral movement: Post-exploitation continues with credential theft and remote execution against adjacent systems; the same ATT&CK matrix helps normalize findings with blue/red teams (MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise).

Key Artifacts to Pull

When the clock is ticking, pull artifacts that prove (a) patch state, (b) deployment attempts/results, and (c) exploitability evidence.

• Microsoft Intune (Windows endpoints)

  • Intune Management Extension (IME) client logs on each endpoint: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\IntuneManagementExtension\Logs (e.g., IntuneManagementExtension.log, AppWorkload.log) (Microsoft Learn).
  • DeviceManagement-Enterprise-Diagnostics-Provider (DM-EDP) event logs: Event Viewer → Applications and Services Logs → Microsoft → Windows → DeviceManagement-Enterprise-Diagnostic-Provider (Admin/Debug) (Microsoft Learn).
  • Portal-side “Collect diagnostics” zip(s) for affected devices to capture consistent troubleshooting bundles, including IME logs and related traces (Microsoft Learn).

• Action1 (patching and vulnerability remediation)

  • Endpoint agent logs under C:\Windows\Action1\logs\ during patch push/troubleshooting (Action1 Docs).
  • Audit Trail exports for who/what/when across patch, software, and policy actions; use the API for time-bounded pulls during IR (Action1 Docs; Action1 API).
  • Patch compliance and missing updates reports to validate remediation across groups, exported as CSV/HTML for evidence packets (Action1 Reporting).

• Synack Sara Pentest (exploitability validation)

  • Pentest findings and artifacts where results are AI-generated but human-validated before delivery-important for evidence credibility in IR write-ups (Synack platform; press release, Nov 17, 2025).

Detection Notes

• Prioritize with KEV: During triage, overlay affected software/versions against CISA KEV; prioritize immediate patching or compensating controls for listed CVEs (CISA KEV overview).
• Correlate patch status to host telemetry: On Windows, confirm app/version and IME deployment status; IME logs and DM-EDP events will show package applicability, detection rules, and install outcomes (Microsoft Learn; Microsoft Learn).
• Use Intune Windows Update for Business (WUfB) reporting views to confirm feature/quality update posture during containment windows (Microsoft Learn).
• Treat pentest output as prioritized hunts: Synack’s Sara agents scope, triage, and pentest, with findings reviewed by humans; map those to ATT&CK techniques and promote them to hunts/detections rapidly (Synack platform; MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise).

Response Guidance

• Close third-party patching gaps fast:

  • Action1 extends Intune with automated third-party patching, risk-based prioritization, and real-time visibility across Windows, macOS, and Linux. Use it to reduce drift while IR is in progress and to validate eradication with compliance reports (Help Net Security; Action1 announcement, Nov 11, 2025; Action1 + Intune details; Linux support expansion).
  • Keep WUfB policies intact for OS updates while you push third-party remediations; Intune policies instruct Windows Update while the IME handles Win32 app workflows and logs your evidence trail (Microsoft Learn; Microsoft Learn).

• Turn pentest results into containment moves:

  • Synack’s Sara Pentest accelerates coverage of hosts and web apps, with a human-in-the-loop validation step to reduce false positives. Use validated exploit paths to drive rapid hardening and targeted blocks during active IR (press release, Nov 17, 2025; Synack platform overview).
  • Where Sara or SRT reproduce exploitable chains, map to ATT&CK and convert to detection rules and compensating controls immediately (e.g., WAF rules, EDR preventions, GPO/Intune baselines) (MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise).

• Prove remediation with artifacts you can defend:

  • From endpoints, preserve IME logs and DM-EDP exports pre- and post-patch to demonstrate successful deployment and absence of repeated failures (Microsoft Learn; Microsoft Learn).
  • From Action1, export Audit Trail and patch compliance reports by scope (OU/group, tag, campaign) for your case record; include API pulls for reproducibility (Action1 Docs; Action1 API; Action1 Reporting).

Takeaways

• Treat KEV-listed third-party CVEs as incident-priority work and close them first; build your patch wave off KEV and business impact (CISA KEV overview).
• Use Action1 alongside Intune to automate third-party patching and verify results across Windows/macOS/Linux while your team triages and contains (Action1 + Intune; Linux expansion).
• Convert Synack’s human-validated AI pentest output into immediate hunts, blocks, and hardening changes mapped to ATT&CK to shrink dwell time (Synack platform; press release).
• Preserve IME, DM-EDP, Action1 agent/audit, and pentest artifacts as your defensible record of eradication and verification (Microsoft Learn; Microsoft Learn; Action1 Docs).