---
title: Impact of the compensating controls on risk score and expiration date
description: As a Remediation Owner, you can request risk reduction for a host vulnerable item or remediation task. And the Vulnerability Manager or Analyst can approve these risk reduction requests.
locale: en-US
canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/security-management/vulnerability-manager-workspace/requesting-approving-risk-reduction.html
release: australia
product: Vulnerability Manager Workspace
classification: vulnerability-manager-workspace
topic_type: concept
last_updated: "2026-09-03"
reading_time_minutes: 5
breadcrumb: [Vulnerability Manager Workspace reference information, Vulnerability Manager Workspace, Vulnerability Response Workspaces, Unified Security Exposure Management, Security Operations]
---

# Impact of the compensating controls on risk score and expiration date

As a Remediation Owner, you can request risk reduction for a host vulnerable item or remediation task. And the Vulnerability Manager or Analyst can approve these risk reduction requests.

For more information on how to request risk reduction and approve risk reduction approval, see [Request a risk modification for a vulnerable item or remediation task](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/security-management/it-remediation-workspace/request-risk-reduction.md) and [Approve or reject requests in the Vulnerability Manager Workspace](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/security-management/vulnerability-manager-workspace/vr-ws-approve-requests.md) respectively.

When a risk reduction request is approved, the risk score is reduced according to the **Desired value** \(risk rating\) in the state change approval \(VCA\#\) record. The highest risk score of the desired risk rating is assigned to the record when your risk reduction request is approved. The following example shows how the Risk score and Original risk score are updated when compensating controls are applied. The default highest risk scores of the risk ratings are used in the following example.

|Scenario|Risk rating|Risk score|Original risk score \(Calculated risk score\)|
|--------|-----------|----------|---------------------------------------------|
|Data prior to v20.0|2 - High|80|The field is not available prior to v20.0.|
|After upgrading to v20.0|2 - High|80|Null|
|Calculated risk score changes to 90 during ingestion|1 - Critical|90|Null|
|When you apply compensating controls|3 - Medium|69|90|
|Calculated risk score changes to 70 during ingestion|3 - Medium|69|70|
|Calculated risk score changes to 50 during ingestion|3 - Medium|50|50|
|Calculated risk score changes to 80 during ingestion|3 - Medium|50|80|
|When compensating controls expire on **Until date for risk reduction**|2 - High|80|Null|

## Impact of compensating controls on a remediation task

When your request for risk reduction is approved for a remediation task, the impact of compensating controls on its vulnerable items is as follows:

-   The compensating controls applied on the remediation task are applied on its vulnerable items \(other than those in Closed state\) that have risk score greater than the risk score corresponding to the **Desired value** in the state change approval of a remediation task. And the risk score of these vulnerable items is reduced according to the **Desired value**.
-   When new vulnerable items are ingested and associated with a remediation task that already has an approved compensating control, the reduced risk rating is automatically inherited by the new vulnerable items. The risk score of the new vulnerable items is set to match the Desired value from the approved state change approval record, and the Original risk score field reflects the scanner-calculated value. This applies to all finding types across Vulnerability Response, Application Vulnerability Response, and Container Vulnerability Response.
-   The SLA for newly ingested vulnerable items that inherit a compensating control from the remediation task is calculated based on the reduced risk level, not the original scanner-severity level.
-   The **Until date for risk reduction** remains unchanged for the vulnerable items on which a compensating control is already applied. It is not updated with the **Until date for risk reduction** of the Remediation Task.
-   The **Until date for risk reduction** is rolled down to the vulnerable items only when a compensatory control is not applied on any vulnerable item previously. If you apply the compensatory controls on the remediation task again, the **Until date for risk reduction** is not rolled down to the vulnerable items as the existing **Until date for risk reduction** of the vulnerable items is given priority.
-   When a new vulnerable item is added to a remediation task on which compensatory controls are already applied, the compensating control is automatically applied to the new vulnerable item, and its risk score is reduced to match the Desired value from the approved state change approval record.

## Impact of a compensating control on a vulnerable item

When your request for risk reduction is approved for a vulnerable item:

-   Its new risk score displays in the **Risk score** field and the old risk score \(calculated risk score\) moves to the **Original risk score** field. This change holds till the date specified in the **Until date for risk reduction** field.
-   When a vulnerable item has compensating controls already applied, during ingestion:
    -   If the calculated risk score is greater than the risk score then risk score remains same and original risk score is updated with the calculated risk score.
    -   If the calculated risk score is less than the risk score then both risk score and original risk score are updated with the calculated risk score.
-   If a Configuration Item \(CI\) is changed for a vulnerable item on which a compensating control is already applied:
    -   The CI is updated for a vulnerable item by default as the **sn\_sec\_cmn.update\_on\_ci\_change** system property is set to true.

        The compensating control is still applicable for the vulnerable item.

    -   The vulnerable item is closed and a new vulnerable item is created if the **sn\_sec\_cmn.update\_on\_ci\_change** system property is set to false.

        The compensating control applied to the old vulnerable item is applied to the new vulnerable item and the **Until date for risk reduction**, **Original risk score** and **Risk score** remain the same.

-   When a vulnerable item is reopened by the scanner and compensating control is already applied on it, the same compensating control is applied after it is reopened.

**Related topics**  


[Understanding compensating controls for risk reduction](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/security-management/vulnerability-manager-workspace/compensating-controls-overview.md)

[Add a compensating control to the library](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/security-management/vulnerability-manager-workspace/create-compensatory-control.md)

[Restrict or enable risk change for a CVE or TPE](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/security-management/vulnerability-manager-workspace/disable-risk-reduction.md)

[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/security-management/vulnerability-manager-workspace/vr-ws-exceptions-split-VMGR-ws.md](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/security-management/vulnerability-manager-workspace/vr-ws-exceptions-split-VMGR-ws.md)