Predicting exploitability of software vulnerabilities and recommending alternate software packages

A computer system for identifying and evaluating exploitability of software vulnerabilities, the computer system comprising:

• a bus system;
• a storage device connected to the bus system, wherein the storage device stores program instructions;
• and
• a processor connected to the bus system, wherein the processor executes the program instructions to:
• identify a vulnerability and evaluating a level of exploitability of the vulnerability corresponding to a software package prior to installation of the software package on a data processing system based on data collected from a plurality of software vulnerability data sources;
• identify related alternative software packages corresponding to the software package to be installed on the data processing system based on a comparative analysis between alternative software packages and the software package;
• determine a confidence level for each respective related alternative software package for resolving the level of exploitability;
• rank the related alternative software packages from least to most vulnerable based on a calculated exploitability score corresponding to each respective related alternative software package;
• and
• generate, using natural language generation, insights based on determined confidence levels and rankings corresponding to calculated exploitability scores of the related alternative software packages.

A computer program product for identifying and evaluating exploitability of software vulnerabilities, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

• identifying, by the computer, a vulnerability and evaluating a level of exploitability of the vulnerability corresponding to a software package prior to installation of the software package on a data processing system based on data collected from a plurality of software vulnerability data sources;
• identifying, by the computer, related alternative software packages corresponding to the software package to be installed on the data processing system based on a comparative analysis between alternative software packages and the software package;
• determining, by the computer, a confidence level for each respective related alternative software package for resolving the level of exploitability;
• ranking, by the computer, the related alternative software packages from least to most vulnerable based on a calculated exploitability score corresponding to each respective related alternative software package;
• and
• generating, by the computer, using natural language generation, insights based on determined confidence levels and rankings corresponding to calculated exploitability scores of the related alternative software packages.