The next frontier in AppSec: Context-aware risk scoring

What is application security risk scoring?

One constant that remains in app development, however, is the tug of war between development and security teams as they try to maintain the delicate balance between pushing out new software quickly and minimizing the “friction” that security can add to CI/CD pipelines. To maintain security posture and meet industry regulations while maintaining development velocity, it is essential for each organization to understand its unique business risk. This is determined by a variety of factors such as regulatory environment, data type and sensitivity level, app architecture and users (internal vs. external), IT environment (public cloud vs. on premises), and more. Based on their security posture, organizations can prioritize which vulnerabilities and flaws they need to address first, and which can wait.

Risk scoring is a structured way to prioritize vulnerabilities and exposures based on the potential impact to the business. Instead of treating all findings equally, it helps security and development teams focus their energy where it matters most.

Many organizations are familiar with the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) for rating vulnerabilities. But although CVSS provides a technical severity score, it can’t reflect business risk context, which is unique to every organization.

How risk scores are determined

Risk scores are a clear, standardized way to measure the overall security stance of an application. Represented as a number from 0 to 100, this score appears prominently in the application summary and reflects the combined impact of the results from security testing tools such as SAST and SCA. The application summary is a consolidated view of potential vulnerabilities, license compliance issues, and operational health concerns within an application, typically presented as a score or summary on the dashboard of the Black Duck Polaris platform.

The calculation begins with domain-level scoring, which considers both the severity and volume of the issues discovered by the AppSec testing tools, weighted according to organization-defined priorities. These scores are then rolled up into an aggregate risk score, which can be further influenced by optional factors like tier, phase, and distribution. Each of these attributes allows security teams to tailor the score to their unique risk model and apply up to a 10% penalty per setting. By customizing severity weights and enabling optional settings, organizations can align the risk score with their own security policies, making it a flexible yet powerful tool for assessing application risk at a glance.

Key dimensions of risk score

Technical severity

• Base vulnerability score (CVSS or vendor rating)
• Type of flaw (e.g., SQL injection vs. information disclosure)

Exploitability

• Availability of known exploits or proof-of-concept code
• Ease of exploitation (low skill vs. advanced attacker)

Business impact

• Application’s role in critical operations
• Sensitivity of the data processed (e.g., PII, financial records, IP)
• Potential regulatory consequences

Environmental context

• Exposure surface: Internet-facing or behind multiple layers of defense
• Usage frequency: Whether or not part of a heavily used workflow
• Compensating controls: Whether or not monitoring, WAF rules, or network restrictions are in place

By combining these dimensions, organizations can generate a risk score that better reflects reality than technical severity alone.

Why the risk score matters

The risk score isn’t just a number, it’s a decision-making tool. By condensing a wide range of security data into a single metric, it empowers development teams, security leaders, and executives to

• Compare applications across their portfolio to identify which pose the highest risk
• Prioritize remediation by focusing on the domains or severities contributing most to the score
• Communicate effectively with nontechnical stakeholders using a simple, standardized measure of security posture

Most importantly, because organizations can customize severity weights and other settings, the risk score adapts to business-specific priorities rather than forcing a one-size-fits-all approach.

Summary

In today’s age of AI, risk visibility and prioritization are essential. The risk score delivers both by turning diverse security findings into a clear, actionable measure of application risk. And because weightings and context-driven penalties can be customized, organizations have a flexible scoring model that reflects their unique risk tolerance, making it easier to protect critical applications while optimizing security resources.