Cloudflare
Cloudflare is a prominent web infrastructure and website security company that operates a vast global network designed to enhance online properties' performance, security, and reliability. At its core, Cloudflare acts as a reverse proxy, sitting between a website's server and its visitors.
In the context of cybersecurity, Cloudflare offers a multi-faceted defense:
DDoS Protection: One of its most well-known cybersecurity features is its robust Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack mitigation. By absorbing and filtering malicious traffic across its extensive network, Cloudflare protects websites from being overwhelmed and taken offline by large-scale attacks.
Web Application Firewall (WAF): Cloudflare provides a WAF that inspects incoming web traffic and filters out common web vulnerabilities and attacks, such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other OWASP Top 10 threats. This helps to protect web applications from exploitation without requiring changes to the application's code.
Bot Management: It helps to identify and block malicious bots while allowing legitimate bots (like search engine crawlers) to access a site. This protects against automated threats, including credential stuffing, content scraping, and spam.
SSL/TLS Encryption: Cloudflare offers free and easy-to-deploy SSL/TLS certificates, ensuring that data transmitted between a user's browser and the website is encrypted. This secures communication and helps maintain user privacy.
DNS Security: As a DNS provider, Cloudflare offers advanced DNS security features, including DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions), to prevent DNS spoofing and cache poisoning and ensure that users are directed to the legitimate website.
Edge Computing and Caching: While primarily a performance feature, caching content at the edge (closer to users) also contributes to security by reducing the load on origin servers, making them less susceptible to specific attacks.
Access Management (Zero Trust): Cloudflare also provides solutions like Cloudflare Access, which implements a Zero-Trust security model. This model allows organizations to control who can access internal applications and resources based on identity and context rather than network location.
Cloudflare provides a protective layer that shields websites and online applications from a wide range of cyber threats, improves their resilience, and enhances their performance by routing traffic through its secure global network.
ThreatNG provides a comprehensive solution for organizations using Cloudflare by offering profound external discovery, detailed assessment, continuous monitoring, and rich intelligence, which can be further enhanced by working with complementary cybersecurity tools.
ThreatNG performs purely external, unauthenticated discovery, meaning it doesn't require direct API connectors to find an organization's assets. This is crucial for organizations using Cloudflare, as ThreatNG can discover their entire external attack surface, including assets hidden behind Cloudflare, by analyzing publicly available information. For example, ThreatNG's DNS Intelligence capabilities within its Domain Intelligence module can uncover FQDNs, CNAMES, and resolved IP addresses, critical for tracking externally exposed assets, even if managed by Cloudflare. This can reveal subdomains or services that an organization might have forgotten about but are still publicly accessible through their Cloudflare setup.
ThreatNG provides a wide array of detailed assessment ratings that are highly relevant to organizations using Cloudflare:
Web Application Hijack Susceptibility: ThreatNG analyzes external web application components to identify potential entry points for attackers. For a Cloudflare-protected site, this would involve scrutinizing how the web application presents itself through Cloudflare, looking for misconfigurations or vulnerabilities in the application layer that Cloudflare might not directly address, such as specific web application frameworks.
Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility: ThreatNG assesses a website's subdomains, DNS records, and SSL certificate statuses. This is particularly important for Cloudflare users, as ThreatNG can identify vulnerable subdomains pointing to services that are no longer active but still managed within Cloudflare's DNS, presenting a risk of subdomain takeover. For instance, if an old CNAME record in Cloudflare points to a deprovisioned service, ThreatNG would flag this susceptibility.
BEC & Phishing Susceptibility: This rating is derived from Domain Intelligence, which includes DNS Intelligence, Domain Name Permutations, and Email Intelligence. ThreatNG can identify look-alike domains or common permutations that attackers might use for phishing, even if Cloudflare protects the primary domain. It also assesses email security presence (DMARC, SPF, DKIM records) to determine an organization's susceptibility to business email compromise.
Data Leak Susceptibility: ThreatNG assesses Cloud and SaaS Exposure and Dark Web Presence. For a Cloudflare user, this means identifying exposed cloud buckets (AWS, Azure, GCP) or misconfigured SaaS solutions that might contain sensitive data, regardless of whether traffic to these services is routed through Cloudflare. For example, an S3 bucket with public access that is not adequately secured could be identified.
Cyber Risk Exposure: ThreatNG considers parameters like certificates, subdomain headers, vulnerabilities, and sensitive ports. Even with Cloudflare providing SSL/TLS, ThreatNG can identify expired certificates on origin servers or misconfigured security headers that might be exposed. It also factors in Code Secret Exposure, which discovers sensitive data in code repositories that are often publicly accessible regardless of Cloudflare's presence.
Mobile App Exposure: ThreatNG discovers mobile apps in marketplaces and inspects their contents for exposed credentials (e.g., AWS Access Key ID, API keys) or platform-specific identifiers. This goes beyond network-level protection and directly assesses the security posture of mobile applications, which might interact with Cloudflare-protected APIs. For example, if a mobile app bundle contains a hardcoded API key for a backend service behind Cloudflare, ThreatNG would identify this sensitive information.
ThreatNG provides various reports, including Executive, Technical, Prioritized, Security Ratings, Inventory, Ransomware Susceptibility, and U.S. SEC Filings. These reports would offer organizations using Cloudflare a clear, actionable overview of their external attack surface, highlighting specific risks and vulnerabilities found. For instance, a report might detail all publicly exposed assets, including their associated Cloudflare DNS records, and rank them by criticality, allowing security teams to prioritize remediation efforts.
ThreatNG monitors an organization's external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings. This is crucial for Cloudflare users because it ensures that any new assets, changes to DNS records, or newly introduced vulnerabilities are immediately detected and flagged. If a developer accidentally exposes a new service or subdomain that uses Cloudflare, ThreatNG's continuous monitoring would quickly identify it.
ThreatNG's investigation modules provide deep insights:
Domain Intelligence: This includes DNS Intelligence (Domain Record Analysis, Domain Name Permutations, Web3 Domains). This would allow an organization using Cloudflare to thoroughly investigate all DNS records associated with their domains, identifying any potential misconfigurations or abandoned records that could lead to subdomain takeovers. For example, an analyst could use DNS Intelligence to see if a Cloudflare-managed domain has a CNAME record pointing to an expired service, a common subdomain takeover vector.
Sensitive Code Exposure: ThreatNG discovers public code repositories and uncovers digital risks like exposed API keys, access tokens, and cloud credentials. This is vital even with Cloudflare, as code repositories are often outside the direct protective scope of a CDN. ThreatNG could find a GitHub repository containing AWS access keys for a backend system that serves content through Cloudflare.
Mobile Application Discovery: ThreatNG finds mobile apps in marketplaces and checks for sensitive content like access or security credentials. This is critical for organizations whose mobile applications interact with Cloudflare-protected APIs or backend services. For example, ThreatNG might discover a mobile app on Google Play containing hardcoded API tokens that could compromise an organization's Cloudflare-protected infrastructure.
Cloud and SaaS Exposure: This module identifies sanctioned and unsanctioned cloud services, impersonations, and open exposed cloud buckets. It also identifies various SaaS implementations. For example, ThreatNG could detect an unsanctioned Shadow IT instance of a collaboration tool like Slack or Monday.com being used by employees, even if the primary corporate network traffic is routed through Cloudflare.
Intelligence Repositories (DarCache):
ThreatNG's DarCache repositories provide continuously updated intelligence:
Vulnerabilities (DarCache Vulnerability): This includes NVD, EPSS, KEV, and Verified Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Exploits. This intelligence helps organizations using Cloudflare understand the real-world exploitability of vulnerabilities found on their assets, even if those assets are behind Cloudflare. For instance, if ThreatNG identifies a web server vulnerability on an origin server, DarCache would provide context on its exploitability and known PoC exploits, enabling the organization to prioritize patching.
Dark Web (DarCache Dark Web) and Compromised Credentials (DarCache Rupture): These repositories track mentions of organizations and compromised credentials. Even with Cloudflare protecting the public-facing infrastructure, employee credentials could be compromised and found on the dark web. ThreatNG would alert the organization to these compromised credentials, which could then be used to bypass Cloudflare's protections if an attacker gains access to internal systems.
Complementary Solutions:
ThreatNG's capabilities can synergize effectively with other cybersecurity solutions:
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) / Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) Platforms: ThreatNG's continuous monitoring and detailed findings can feed directly into SIEM/SOAR platforms. For example, if ThreatNG identifies a newly exposed sensitive port on an asset (via its Subdomain Intelligence and Ports discovery ), a SIEM can ingest this alert. A SOAR playbook could then automatically initiate further investigation or trigger an action, such as blocking the port at a firewall level or generating a ticket for a security team to review.
Vulnerability Management (VM) Tools: While ThreatNG performs automated vulnerability testing, its detailed vulnerability intelligence from DarCache (including EPSS and KEV data ) can enrich dedicated VM solutions. ThreatNG identifies external vulnerabilities and their exploitability, complementing internal vulnerability scans. For example, ThreatNG might find a critical external vulnerability on a web server running behind Cloudflare, and this information, along with its exploitability context, could be imported into a VM tool for a more holistic view and prioritized remediation alongside internal findings.
Attack Surface Management (ASM) Tools (complementary to ThreatNG's complete offering for organizations that only use a subset of ThreatNG, or to provide additional data points for specific use cases): ThreatNG's purely external discovery approach can be combined with agent-based or internal network scanning ASM tools to give a complete picture of both external and internal assets. For instance, ThreatNG might identify a subdomain pointing to a specific IP address, and an internal ASM tool could conduct a deeper scan of that IP. At the same time, ThreatNG maintains continuous monitoring of its external exposure.
Incident Response (IR) Platforms: When ThreatNG identifies critical risks like compromised credentials on the dark web or ransomware gang activity associated with an organization, this real-time intelligence can be immediately fed into an IR platform. This enables faster detection, triage, and response to potential security incidents. For example, if DarCache Ransomware identifies that a specific ransomware gang has targeted a sector an organization belongs to, this information can be used to strengthen defenses proactively.
