Attack Surface
In the context of cybersecurity, an attack surface refers to the total number of potential points or methods where an unauthorized user (an attacker) could attempt to gain access to a system, network, application, or data. It represents the entire environment that is exposed to potential remote or local attacks.
Think of it like all the doors, windows, and even hidden openings in a house. The more of these there are, and the less secure they are, the larger the attack surface and the greater the opportunities for a break-in.
Here's a detailed breakdown of what constitutes an attack surface:
Components of an Attack Surface:
The attack surface can be broadly categorized into three main types:
Digital Attack Surface: This is often the most significant and most dynamic part of an organization's attack surface, encompassing all internet-connected assets and software. It includes:
Network Infrastructure: Exposed ports, services, firewalls, routers, switches, and wireless connections.
Applications: Web applications, mobile applications, APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), and internal software. Vulnerabilities can arise from insecure coding practices, misconfigurations, or the use of outdated libraries.
Cloud Environments: Misconfigured cloud instances, exposed storage buckets, and insecure access controls in IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS offerings.
Operating Systems and Software: Unpatched vulnerabilities in operating systems, third-party software, and firmware.
Databases: Exposed databases, weak credentials, or SQL injection vulnerabilities.
Devices: All connected devices, including servers, laptops, desktops, mobile devices, IoT (Internet of Things) devices, and operational technology (OT).
Credentials and Identities: Weak passwords, compromised accounts, or lack of multi-factor authentication.
Shadow IT: Unauthorized or unmanaged software, hardware, or cloud services used by employees, which can create unmonitored entry points.
Physical Attack Surface: This refers to physical assets that can be compromised to gain access to systems or data. Examples include:
Servers and Data Centers: Unauthorized physical access to server racks, cables, or storage devices.
Endpoint Devices: Stolen or lost laptops, smartphones, or USB drives that may contain sensitive data or provide access to the network.
Office Premises: Unauthorized entry to offices, where an attacker could plug in malicious devices, access unattended workstations, or steal physical documents.
Removable Media: Unsecured USB drives or other portable storage devices.
Social Engineering Attack Surface (Human Attack Surface): This category focuses on the human element and how individuals can be manipulated into compromising security. It includes:
Employees and Users: Individuals who can be tricked into revealing sensitive information, downloading malicious software, clicking on harmful links, or granting unauthorized access.
Phishing: Email, text, or voice messages designed to deceive recipients into providing credentials or taking damaging actions.
Pretexting: Creating a fabricated scenario to trick an individual into divulging information.
Baiting: Leaving infected physical media (like USB drives) in public places, hoping someone will pick it up and plug it into a system.
Insider Threats: Malicious or negligent employees, contractors, or partners who intentionally or unintentionally expose vulnerabilities or confidential information.
Attack Surface vs. Attack Vector:
It's important to differentiate between an attack surface and an attack vector:
An attack surface is the total area of potential entry points and vulnerabilities.
An attack vector is the specific method or pathway an attacker uses to exploit a vulnerability within that surface.
For example, suppose an unpatched web server is part of your digital attack surface. In that case, a common attack vector might be exploiting a known vulnerability in that web server's software to gain access. Another example: if your employees are part of your social engineering attack surface, a phishing email can serve as an attack vector.
Importance of Understanding and Managing the Attack Surface:
Understanding and actively managing an organization's attack surface is crucial for a strong cybersecurity posture for several reasons:
Risk Identification: It enables organizations to identify and understand all potential entry points and vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit.
Vulnerability Prioritization: By mapping the attack surface, security teams can prioritize which vulnerabilities pose the highest risk and require immediate attention.
Proactive Defense: It enables proactive measures to reduce the attack surface, making it more difficult for attackers to identify and exploit vulnerabilities.
Improved Compliance: A well-managed attack surface helps organizations meet regulatory compliance requirements.
Reduced Likelihood of Breach: By minimizing the number of accessible entry points and securing existing ones, the overall risk of a successful cyberattack is reduced.
Attack Surface Management (ASM) is a continuous process that involves discovering, inventorying, assessing, and reducing all potential entry points that an attacker could use to breach an organization's systems, data, and infrastructure. This typically involves using tools and processes to gain a hacker's view of the organization's exposed assets.
ThreatNG is an all-in-one solution designed to help organizations understand and manage "Your True External Attack Surface" and gain "The Attacker's View of Your Attack Surface." It achieves this through its robust capabilities in external discovery, external assessment, reporting, continuous monitoring, investigation modules, and intelligence repositories. ThreatNG performs purely external unauthenticated discovery, meaning it sees the true attack surface as an attacker would, without internal blind spots caused by connector limitations.
Here's a detailed explanation of how ThreatNG helps:
ThreatNG excels at performing purely external, unauthenticated discovery. This is crucial because it allows the solution to map out an organization's digital footprint from the outside in, precisely as an attacker would perceive it. It doesn't rely on internal connectors, which can limit the scope of discovery and create blind spots. This unauthenticated approach provides "Your True External Attack Surface" and "The Attacker's View of Your Attack Surface" by identifying all publicly exposed assets and potential entry points, including shadow IT or misconfigured resources that internal tools might miss.
ThreatNG provides comprehensive external assessment ratings, giving organizations a detailed understanding of their vulnerabilities from an attacker's perspective. This includes:
Web Application Hijack Susceptibility: This score is substantiated by analyzing the parts of a web application accessible from the outside world to identify potential entry points for attackers. For example, ThreatNG would analyze public-facing web applications for misconfigurations in server headers, exposed administrative interfaces, or outdated components that could be exploited for hijacking.
Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility: ThreatNG uses external attack surface and digital risk intelligence, incorporating Domain Intelligence, to evaluate this. This intelligence includes a comprehensive analysis of the website's subdomains, DNS records, and SSL certificate statuses. For instance, it would identify subdomains pointing to services that are no longer active, but whose DNS records still exist, making them susceptible to takeover.
BEC & Phishing Susceptibility: This is derived from Sentiment and Financial Findings, Domain Intelligence (including Domain Name Permutations and Web3 Domains), and Email Intelligence for security presence and format prediction, as well as dark web presence (Compromised Credentials). ThreatNG would, for example, identify if an organization's domain is commonly spoofed in phishing kits or if employees' email addresses have been found in compromised credential dumps on the dark web.
Brand Damage Susceptibility: This score comes from attack surface intelligence, digital risk intelligence, ESG Violations, Sentiment and Financials (such as lawsuits, SEC filings, and negative news), and Domain Intelligence (including Domain Name Permutations and Web3 Domains). ThreatNG can identify if negative news articles or lawsuits related to the organization are publicly available, which could contribute to potential brand damage, or if similar-sounding domains could be used for brand impersonation.
Data Leak Susceptibility: Derived from external attack surface and digital risk intelligence based on Cloud and SaaS Exposure, Dark Web Presence (Compromised Credentials), Domain Intelligence (DNS Intelligence, Domain Name Permutations, Web3 Domains, and Email Intelligence), and Sentiment and Financials (Lawsuits and SEC Form 8-Ks). An example would be identifying exposed cloud storage buckets with sensitive data or finding organizational credentials on the dark web that could lead to data exfiltration.
Cyber Risk Exposure: This considers parameters covered by the Domain Intelligence module, including certificates, subdomain headers, vulnerabilities, and sensitive ports. For example, ThreatNG might flag expired SSL certificates, insecure HTTP headers, or publicly accessible sensitive ports (like RDP or SSH) that increase cyber risk. Code Secret Exposure is also factored in, as it discovers code repositories and their exposure level, investigating their contents for sensitive data. This means it could find API keys or database credentials that have been accidentally committed to public code repositories. Cloud and SaaS Exposure evaluates cloud services and SaaS solutions. Additionally, compromised credentials on the dark web are considered, as they increase the risk of successful attacks.
ESG Exposure: ThreatNG rates the organization based on discovered environmental, social, and governance (ESG) violations through its external attack surface and digital risk intelligence findings. It analyzes areas such as Competition, Consumer, Employment, Environment, Financial, Government Contracting, Healthcare, and Safety-related offenses. For instance, it could identify public reports of environmental violations or labor disputes associated with the organization.
Supply Chain & Third Party Exposure: This is derived from Domain Intelligence (enumeration of vendor technologies from DNS and subdomains), Technology Stack, and Cloud and SaaS Exposure. ThreatNG would identify third-party services and technologies used by an organization and assess their associated risks.
Breach & Ransomware Susceptibility: This is calculated based on external attack surface and digital risk intelligence, including domain intelligence (exposed sensitive ports, private IPs, and known vulnerabilities), dark web presence (compromised credentials, ransomware events, and gang activity), and sentiment and financials (SEC Form 8-Ks). ThreatNG could identify if an organization has exposed private IP addresses that could lead to internal network mapping by attackers, or if their credentials have been observed in ransomware gang communications on the dark web.
Mobile App Exposure: ThreatNG evaluates how exposed an organization's mobile apps are through their discovery in marketplaces and by analyzing their contents for access credentials (e.g., AWS Access Key ID, API keys, Facebook Access Token), security credentials (e.g., PGP private keys, RSA Private Key), and platform-specific identifiers (e.g., Amazon AWS S3 Bucket, GitHub, Firebase). This means ThreatNG can detect if a publicly available mobile application in an app store contains hardcoded API keys or other sensitive information.
ThreatNG goes beyond just identifying vulnerabilities; it also highlights an organization's security strengths. It detects beneficial security controls and configurations, such as Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) or multi-factor authentication (MFA), and validates these positive measures from the perspective of an external attacker. This provides objective evidence of their effectiveness and offers a more balanced view of the organization's security posture. For example, ThreatNG might identify the presence and proper configuration of a WAF protecting a web application, indicating a strong defense against common web attacks.
ThreatNG offers various types of reports to help organizations understand and address their security posture. These include Executive, Technical, Prioritized (High, Medium, Low, and Informational), Security Ratings, Inventory, Ransomware Susceptibility, and U.S. SEC Filings reports. These reports would allow an executive to quickly grasp the overall security rating, while a technical team could drill down into prioritized vulnerabilities with detailed information on high-risk issues.
ThreatNG offers continuous monitoring of external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings for all organizations. This ensures that as an organization's digital footprint changes or new vulnerabilities emerge, ThreatNG can detect and report on them in real-time, providing an always up-to-date "Attacker's View of Your Attack Surface."
ThreatNG includes robust investigation modules that allow for deep dives into discovered information:
Domain Intelligence: Provides a comprehensive overview of digital presence, including Microsoft Entra Identification, Domain Enumeration, Bug Bounty Programs, and related SwaggerHub instances.
DNS Intelligence: Includes Domain Record Analysis (IP Identification, Vendors and Technology Identification), Domain Name Permutations (Taken and Available), and Web3 Domains. For example, an organization could use this to identify all associated IP addresses, the technologies used by their vendors, and potential typosquatting domains.
Email Intelligence: Offers security presence (DMARC, SPF, and DKIM records), format predictions, and harvested emails. This could help an organization verify the proper configuration of its email security protocols and identify any publicly available employee email addresses.
WHOIS Intelligence: Provides WHOIS Analysis and other domains owned. This helps identify the registered owner of a domain and potentially other domains they own, which could be part of the attack surface.
Subdomain Intelligence: Covers HTTP Responses, Header Analysis (Security Headers and Deprecated Headers), Server Headers (Technologies), Cloud Hosting providers, Website Builders, E-commerce Platforms, Content Management Systems, and various other technologies. It also includes Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility, Content Identification (e.g., Admin Pages, APIs, Development Environments, VPNs), and Ports (including IoT/OT, Industrial Control Systems, Databases, and Remote Access Services). For instance, ThreatNG could identify an exposed development environment on a subdomain or a publicly accessible database port, representing a significant risk.
IP Intelligence: Provides information on IPs, Shared IPs, ASNs, Country Locations, and Private IPs. This helps in understanding the network infrastructure and identifying any inadvertently exposed private IP addresses.
Certificate Intelligence: Focuses on TLS Certificates (Status, Issuers, Active, Certs without Subdomains, Subdomains without Certificates) and Associated Organizations. An organization can use this to identify expired SSL certificates or subdomains lacking proper certificate coverage, which may indicate potential man-in-the-middle attack opportunities.
Social Media: ThreatNG analyzes posts from the organization under investigation, breaking out content, hashtags, links, and tags. This could reveal sensitive information inadvertently shared on social media or identify attempts at brand impersonation.
Sensitive Code Exposure: Discovers public code repositories and uncovers digital risks like exposed access credentials (e.g., API keys, access tokens, generic credentials), cloud credentials (e.g., AWS Access Key ID, Secret Access Key), security credentials (e.g., cryptographic private keys, SSH private keys), configuration files (e.g., application configurations, system configurations, network configurations), database exposures (e.g., database files, database credentials), application data exposures (e.g., remote access files, encryption keys, Java keystores, git-credential-store files), activity records (e.g., command history, logs, network traffic captures), communication platform configurations (e.g., chat client configs, email client configs), development environment configurations, security testing tools data, cloud service configurations (e.g., AWS CLI credentials), remote access credentials, system utilities, personal data (e.g., journal files), and user activity (e.g., social media client configs). For example, ThreatNG could discover a publicly accessible GitHub repository containing an organization's AWS secret access key, which represents a critical security flaw.
Mobile Application Discovery: Discovers mobile apps in marketplaces (e.g., Amazon Appstore, Google Play, Apple App Store) and analyzes their contents for access credentials, security credentials, and platform-specific identifiers. This allows organizations to identify if their publicly available mobile applications are leaking sensitive information.
Website Control Files: Discovers robots.txt and security.txt files, identifying secure directories, user directories, email directories, and contact information.
Search Engine Attack Surface: Helps investigate an organization’s susceptibility to exposing errors, sensitive information, privileged folders, public passwords, susceptible files, and user data via search engines. For instance, it could identify if search engines are indexing sensitive internal documents due to misconfigured robots.txt files.
Cloud and SaaS Exposure: Identifies sanctioned and unsanctioned cloud services, cloud service impersonations, and open exposed cloud buckets across AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. It also identifies SaaS implementations, such as Looker, Salesforce, Slack, Splunk, and Zoom. An example would be placing an unlisted AWS S3 bucket with public read and write access.
Online Sharing Exposure: Detects the presence of organizational entities within online code-sharing platforms, including Pastebin, GitHub Gist, and Scribd. This module could reveal if sensitive internal code snippets or documents have been inadvertently posted on public forums.
Sentiment and Financials: Identifies organizational lawsuits, layoff chatter, SEC filings (especially risk and oversight disclosures), SEC Form 8-Ks, and ESG Violations. This helps in understanding the broader financial and reputational risks associated with the organization.
Archived Web Pages: Identifies archived versions of various files (e.g., HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PDF, Excel), directories, subdomains, user names, and admin pages on the organization’s online presence. This could uncover historical data leaks or forgotten, vulnerable assets.
Dark Web Presence: Detects organizational mentions of related individuals, locations, or entities, as well as associated ransomware events and compromised credentials. This module would alert an organization if its brand or employee credentials are being discussed or sold on dark web forums.
Technology Stack: Identifies all technologies used by the organization, including Accounting Tools, Analytics, API Management, Databases, Developer Platforms, E-commerce, Security, and Web Servers. This provides a comprehensive overview of the software and infrastructure components that contribute to the attack surface.
Intelligence Repositories (DarCache)
ThreatNG maintains continuously updated intelligence repositories, branded as DarCache, which are crucial for "The Attacker's View of Your Attack Surface":
Dark Web (DarCache Dark Web): Provides insights into compromised credentials, ransomware groups, and activities.
Compromised Credentials (DarCache Rupture): Contains a database of compromised credentials.
Ransomware Groups and Activities (DarCache Ransomware): Tracks over 70 ransomware gangs.
Vulnerabilities (DarCache Vulnerability): Offers a holistic and proactive approach to managing external risks and vulnerabilities by understanding their real-world exploitability, likelihood of exploitation, and potential impact. It includes:
NVD (DarCache NVD): Provides information on Attack Complexity, Attack Interaction, Attack Vector, Impact scores (Availability, Confidentiality, Integrity), CVSS Score, and Severity.
EPSS (DarCache EPSS): Provides a probabilistic estimate of the likelihood that a vulnerability will be exploited soon. Combining the EPSS score and Percentile with other vulnerability data enables a more forward-looking approach to prioritization, addressing vulnerabilities that are not only severe but also likely to be weaponized.
KEV (DarCache KEV): Lists vulnerabilities actively being exploited in the wild, providing critical context for prioritizing remediation efforts.
Verified Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Exploits (DarCache eXploit): Provides direct links to PoC exploits on platforms like GitHub, referenced by CVE, which accelerates the understanding of how a vulnerability can be exploited and helps security teams reproduce and assess its impact.
ESG Violations (DarCache ESG): Covers Competition, Consumer, Employment, Environment, Financial, Government Contracting, Healthcare, and Safety-related offenses.
Bug Bounty Programs (DarCach Bug Bounty): Lists in-scope and out-of-scope assets for bug bounty programs.
SEC Form 8-Ks (DarCache 8-K): Provides access to SEC Form 8-Ks.
Bank Identification Numbers (DarCache BIN)
Mobile Apps (DarCache Mobile): Indicates the presence of access credentials, security credentials, and platform-specific identifiers within mobile apps.
Synergy with Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG's focus on "Your True External Attack Surface" and "The Attacker's View of Your Attack Surface" can be significantly enhanced when working with complementary solutions:
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) Systems: ThreatNG's continuous monitoring and detailed external assessment findings can be integrated into SIEM/SOAR platforms. This allows for centralized logging, correlation of external attack surface data with internal network events, and automated response playbooks. For instance, if ThreatNG identifies a newly exposed sensitive port, a SOAR system could automatically trigger a review of a firewall rule or send an alert to the network security team.
Vulnerability Management (VM) Solutions: While ThreatNG identifies external vulnerabilities, VM solutions often focus on internal network scans and patching workflows. The synergy lies in ThreatNG identifying critical external-facing vulnerabilities (like exposed sensitive ports or unpatched web applications from an attacker's perspective) that can then be fed into a VM solution's prioritization engine for remediation. This ensures that the most impactful external threats are addressed promptly alongside internal vulnerabilities.
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIPs): ThreatNG's DarCache provides rich threat intelligence, particularly on compromised credentials, ransomware activity, and actively exploited vulnerabilities (KEV). This data can be ingested by a TIP to enrich an organization's overall threat intelligence picture, enabling better proactive defense and incident response. For example, if DarCache Ransomware identifies a new ransomware gang targeting a specific industry, a TIP can disseminate this information to relevant security tools and teams.
Identity and Access Management (IAM) Solutions: ThreatNG's findings on compromised credentials from the Dark Web (DarCache Rupture) can directly inform IAM solutions. If ThreatNG discovers employee credentials on the dark web, the IAM system can immediately force password resets or elevate authentication requirements for those users, mitigating a significant external risk.
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP):ThreatNG's Cloud and SaaS Exposure module identifies misconfigurations and exposed services in cloud environments. This external view can complement CSPM tools that continuously monitor cloud configurations and CWPPs that protect cloud workloads. For example, if ThreatNG identifies an open S3 bucket, a CSPM tool can then provide remediation guidance and continuous monitoring for that specific cloud resource.
Digital Risk Protection (DRP) Platforms: While ThreatNG is an all-in-one DRP solution, for organizations with existing DRP tools, ThreatNG's specific strengths in external attack surface management, mobile app exposure, and detailed intelligence repositories (like DarCache Dark Web and Sentiment and Financials) can augment their current capabilities, offering a more granular "Attacker's View of Your Attack Surface" of external threats.
Brand Protection Solutions: ThreatNG's Brand Damage Susceptibility and Domain Intelligence (Domain Name Permutations) can identify brand impersonation attempts or potential typosquatting domains. This information can be shared with dedicated brand protection solutions to initiate takedown procedures or closer monitoring of suspicious online activities.
