PRACTICAL FRAMEWORK FOR END-OF-LIFE SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT IN CYBERSECURITY: FROM VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT TO AUTOMATED LIFECYCLE TRACKING

Software End-of-Life (EoL) management represents a critical yet often overlooked aspect of cybersecurity operations, particularly in open-source ecosystems where decentralized development models create unique lifecycle management challenges.The absence of standardized approaches for tracking and managing software lifecycle transitions exposes organizations to cascading security, compliance, and operational sustainability risks.Empirical evidence from large-scale ecosystem analysis demonstrates that 42% of actively deployed open-source projects exhibit clear signs of lifecycle decline without formal EoL declarations, leaving organizations unable to distinguish between temporarily inactive projects and permanently abandoned software components.This systematic gap between security policy requirements and operational capabilities creates significant vulnerabilities in modern software supply chains.This paper presents a comprehensive practical framework that integrates vulnerability-driven identification methodologies with machine-readable lifecycle protocols, specifically addressing the operational challenges faced by cybersecurity professionals in multi-vendor environments.The research introduces enhanced security response metrics (Time to Security Response, Security Disclosure Infrastructure, Vulnerability Patch Rate, and Fork Succession Clarity) that demonstrably improve EoL identification accuracy beyond traditional activity-based measurements.The framework provides actionable implementation patterns for three critical integration domains: CSAF (Common Security Advisory Framework) advisory integration enabling context-aware vulnerability prioritization, SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) enrichment supporting proactive dependency management in CI/CD pipelines, and asset inventory automation facilitating enterprise-wide lifecycle tracking and compliance reporting.Quantified benefits from real-world deployments include 60-75% reduction in lifecycle tracking overhead through automation, 40-60% decrease in vulnerability management false positives, 50-70% reduction in compliance reporting effort, and № 13(54) 2025 1628 30-50% acceleration in security incident triage and response times.The research validates that implementation of standardized EoL management transforms organizational security posture from reactive crisis response to proactive risk mitigation, establishing lifecycle management as an operational imperative for modern cybersecurity programs.Policy frameworks and organizational guidelines provided enable immediate adoption, bridging the critical gap between theoretical research and operational security practice.