Content Distribution Platforms
Content Distribution Platforms (CDPs) are systems and services that store and deliver digital content to users online. These platforms handle various types of content, including:
Websites and web applications
Streaming video and audio
Software and updates
Images and files
CDPs aim to improve content delivery's speed, reliability, and efficiency. They often achieve this through techniques like:
Caching: Storing copies of content on servers closer to users.
Load balancing: Distributing user traffic across multiple servers.
Geographic distribution: Delivering content from servers in different locations.
However, CDPs also introduce several cybersecurity concerns:
Data Breaches: CDPs store and process vast amounts of data, making them attractive targets for attackers seeking to steal sensitive information.
Malware Distribution: Attackers can use CDPs to distribute malware by hosting malicious files or injecting malicious code into legitimate content.
Denial-of-Service (DoS) Attacks: CDPs can be targeted for DoS attacks, which disrupt content delivery and make websites or services unavailable.
Account Hijacking: Attackers can compromise user accounts on CDPs to gain unauthorized access to content or distribute malicious material.
Content Poisoning: Attackers can modify or replace legitimate content with malicious or misleading content, potentially harming users or spreading misinformation.
Insecure APIs: CDPs often provide APIs for accessing and managing content. If these APIs are not adequately secured, attackers can exploit them to gain unauthorized access.
Vulnerabilities in CDN Infrastructure: If the Content Delivery Network (CDN) that a CDP relies on has vulnerabilities, all sites and services using that CDN can be affected.
ThreatNG offers a comprehensive approach to securing Content Distribution Platforms (CDPs) by addressing cybersecurity risks through its external discovery, assessment, monitoring, investigation, and intelligence capabilities.
External Discovery: ThreatNG performs purely external, unauthenticated discovery without needing connectors. This is crucial for CDPs as it allows ThreatNG to identify publicly exposed instances of these platforms, or related assets, that might be inadvertently accessible or misconfigured. For example, ThreatNG could discover an organization's content served through an improperly secured CDN endpoint, or an exposed storage bucket used by a CDP that contains sensitive data.
External Assessment: ThreatNG offers various assessment ratings that directly apply to the risks of CDPs:
Web Application Hijack Susceptibility: ThreatNG analyzes external attack surfaces and digital risk intelligence, including Domain Intelligence, to identify potential entry points for attackers. For CDPs, this could involve assessing the susceptibility of the platform's administrative interface or content management system to hijacking attempts, such as through vulnerable login pages or exposed configuration panels.
Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility: To evaluate this, ThreatNG uses external attack surface and digital risk intelligence that incorporates Domain Intelligence, including a comprehensive analysis of the website's subdomains, DNS records, and SSL certificate statuses. If a CDP uses subdomains for content delivery (e.g., cdn.yourcompany.com), ThreatNG could identify if a de-provisioned subdomain is vulnerable to takeover, allowing an attacker to distribute malicious content under a trusted domain.
BEC & Phishing Susceptibility: This score is derived from Sentiment and Financials Findings, Domain Intelligence (DNS Intelligence capabilities like Domain Name Permutations and Web3 Domains, and Email Intelligence for email security presence and format prediction), and Dark Web Presence (Compromised Credentials). This is vital for CDPs as compromised employee accounts can lead to content poisoning or malware distribution. ThreatNG could identify if an employee's email domain associated with CDP management is susceptible to spoofing or if their credentials for the CDP have appeared on the dark web.
Brand Damage Susceptibility: This is derived from attack surface intelligence, digital risk intelligence, ESG Violations, Sentiment and Financials (Lawsuits, SEC filings, SEC Form 8-Ks, and Negative News), and Domain Intelligence (Domain Name Permutations and Web3 Domains). If a CDP is compromised, leading to malware distribution or content poisoning, ThreatNG would flag the potential for brand damage by monitoring for negative news or legal filings related to such incidents.
Data Leak Susceptibility: This is derived from external attack surface and digital risk intelligence based on Cloud and SaaS Exposure, Dark Web Presence (Compromised Credentials), Domain Intelligence (DNS Intelligence and Email Intelligence), and Sentiment and Financials (Lawsuits and SEC Form 8-Ks). ThreatNG can identify if sensitive data stored within a CDP, such as user information or proprietary content, has leaked to the dark web or insecure cloud storage, helping to assess the overall data leak risk.
Cyber Risk Exposure: This considers parameters ThreatNG’s Domain Intelligence module covers, including certificates, subdomain headers, vulnerabilities, and sensitive ports. For CDPs, ThreatNG would identify misconfigured SSL certificates on content delivery endpoints, exposed sensitive ports on content storage servers, or known vulnerabilities in the CDP's underlying infrastructure or associated APIs. Code Secret Exposure is also factored in, as it discovers code repositories and their exposure level and investigates the contents for the presence of sensitive data.
Code Secret Exposure: ThreatNG discovers code repositories and investigates their contents for sensitive data. If an organization's CDP configuration includes API keys, access tokens, or other sensitive credentials stored in exposed code repositories, ThreatNG would identify these exposures.
Cloud and SaaS Exposure: ThreatNG evaluates cloud services and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions. This includes assessing the organization's compromised credentials on the dark web. If an organization uses a cloud-based CDP or integrates it with various SaaS solutions, ThreatNG assesses its exposure level, including misconfigurations or exposed storage buckets.
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. This is crucial for CDPs as they often rely on third-party CDN providers or integrate with other services. ThreatNG could reveal if a third-party CDN provider used by an organization has known vulnerabilities or if services within the CDP's supply chain have security weaknesses.
Breach & Ransomware Susceptibility: This is calculated based on external attack surface and digital risk intelligence, including domain intelligence (exposed sensitive ports, exposed private IPs, and known vulnerabilities), dark web presence (compromised credentials and ransomware events and gang activity), and sentiment and financials (SEC Form 8-Ks). ThreatNG can assess if a CDP's infrastructure has exposed sensitive ports or private IPs, or if there's evidence of compromised credentials or ransomware activity targeting the organization, increasing its susceptibility to breaches and ransomware attacks.
Mobile App Exposure: ThreatNG evaluates how exposed an organization’s mobile apps are through discovery in marketplaces and for the following contents: Access Credentials, Security Credentials, and Platform Specific Identifiers. If an organization’s mobile app delivers content through a CDP and contains sensitive credentials or configuration that ThreatNG can discover, it would contribute to this exposure score.
Reporting: ThreatNG provides various reports, including Executive, Technical, Prioritized (High, Medium, Low, and Informational), Security Ratings, Inventory, Ransomware Susceptibility, and U.S. SEC Filings. For CDPs, these reports would provide:
Prioritized reports: Highlighting critical vulnerabilities in CDP configurations or exposed content allows teams to focus on the most critical risks.
Security Ratings reports: Offering an overall security posture score for the organization's use of CDPs.
Inventory reports: Listing all discovered CDP-related assets and content endpoints.
Ransomware Susceptibility reports: Indicating the likelihood of ransomware attacks impacting content delivery infrastructure.
Continuous Monitoring: ThreatNG constantly monitors the external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings for all organizations. This is vital for CDPs because configurations can change, new vulnerabilities can emerge, or accidental content exposures can occur at any time. ThreatNG would continuously scan for newly exposed content, misconfigured CDN endpoints, or changes in DNS records pointing to sensitive CDP infrastructure.
Investigation Modules: ThreatNG's investigation modules provide detailed insights:
Domain Intelligence:
Domain Overview: Includes Digital Presence Word Cloud, Microsoft Entra Identification and Domain Enumeration, Bug Bounty Programs, and related SwaggerHub instances, which include API documentation and specifications. This helps understand publicly accessible API documentation, which might expose APIs used to manage content on CDPs.
DNS Intelligence: Analyzes Domain Record Analysis (IP Identification, Vendors and Technology Identification), Domain Name Permutations (Taken and Available), and Web3 Domains (Taken and Available). This would help identify if CDP content is delivered from unusual or suspicious domains, or if misconfigured DNS records could lead to subdomain takeovers.
Email Intelligence: Provides Security Presence (DMARC, SPF, and DKIM records) Format Predictions, and Harvested Emails. This is useful for identifying potential phishing vectors targeting employees with administrative access to CDPs.
WHOIS Intelligence: Provides WHOIS Analysis and Other Domains Owned. This can help link domains used for content distribution to an organization.
Subdomain Intelligence: Examines HTTP Responses, Header Analysis (Security Headers and Deprecated Headers), Server Headers (Technologies), Cloud Hosting (AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform), Website Builders, E-commerce Platforms, Content Management Systems, and various other technologies. It also identifies Ports (IoT / OT, Industrial Control Systems, Databases, Remote Access Services), and Known Vulnerabilities. For example, ThreatNG could identify a subdomain used by a CDP (images.company.com) that has insecure server headers, is hosted on a vulnerable cloud service, or exposes sensitive ports. It can also identify admin pages or development environments within these subdomains related to CDP management.
IP Intelligence: Identifies IPs, Shared IPs, ASNs, Country Locations, and Private IPs. This helps map CDPs' network infrastructure and identify any exposed private IPs.
Certificate Intelligence: Analyzes TLS Certificates (Status, Issuers, Active, Certs without Subdomains, Subdomains without Certificates), and Associated Organizations (Domains, Certificates, and Emails). This helps ensure that CDP content is delivered over secure connections with valid certificates.
Social Media: Monitors Posts from the organization, breaking out content copy, hashtags, links, and tags. This can help detect mentions of content tampering or security incidents related to CDPs on social media.
Sensitive Code Exposure:
Code Repository Exposure: Discovers public code repositories and uncovers digital risks including various Access Credentials (API Keys, Access Tokens, Generic Credentials), Cloud Credentials, Security Credentials (Cryptographic Keys), other Secrets, various Configuration Files (Application, System, Network), Database Exposures (Files and Credentials), Application Data Exposures (Remote Access, Encryption Keys, Encrypted Data, Java Keystores, Code Repository Data), Activity Records (Command History, Logs, Network Traffic), Communication Platform Configurations, Development Environment Configurations, Security Testing Tools, Cloud Service Configurations, Remote Access Credentials, System Utilities, Personal Data, and User Activity. If an organization's CDP configurations, deployment scripts, or content management APIs are exposed in public code repositories, ThreatNG would detect these. For instance, it could find an exposed API key for a content delivery service in a GitHub repository.
Mobile Application Discovery: ThreatNG discovers mobile apps related to the organization in marketplaces and identifies the presence of Access Credentials, Security Credentials, and Platform-Specific Identifiers within them. If a mobile application uses embedded credentials to access content from a CDP and those credentials are exposed within the app, ThreatNG can detect them.
Search Engine Exploitation:
Website Control Files: Discovers the presence of robots.txt and security.txt files, identifying secure directories, user directories, email directories, and API directories. ThreatNG would identify if robots.txt is inadvertently exposing sensitive directories on a CDP, or if security.txt contains crucial security contact information.
Search Engine Attack Surface: Helps users investigate an organization’s susceptibility to exposing various information via search engines, including Errors, General Advisories, IoT Entities, Persistent Exploitation, Potential Sensitive Information, Privileged Folders, Public Passwords, Susceptible Files, Susceptible Servers, User Data, and Web Servers. ThreatNG could reveal if search engines have indexed sensitive content files or configuration details related to CDPs, making them publicly discoverable.
Cloud and SaaS Exposure: Identifies Sanctioned Cloud Services, Unsanctioned Cloud Services, Cloud Service Impersonations, and Open Exposed Cloud Buckets of AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. It also identifies various SaaS implementations associated with the organization. This is crucial for organizations using cloud-hosted CDPs or integrating them with various SaaS tools. ThreatNG could detect an unsanctioned cloud storage bucket where content for the CDP is stored without proper security, or an exposed Box instance used for content collaboration.
Online Sharing Exposure: Identifies Organizational Entity Presence within online Code-Sharing Platforms like Pastebin, GitHub Gist, Scribd, Slideshare, Prezi, and GitHub Code. ThreatNG would find instances where sensitive CDP configuration snippets or deployment details have been shared publicly on these sites.
Sentiment and Financials: ThreatNG monitors Organizational-Related Lawsuits, Layoff Chatter, and SEC Filings of Publicly Traded US Companies, especially their Risk and Oversight Disclosures, SEC Form 8-Ks, and ESG Violations. If a data breach or incident on a CDP leads to legal action or negative financial impacts, ThreatNG would identify these signals.
Archived Web Pages: Identifies various archived files and directories archived on the organization’s online presence, including APIs, Document Files, Emails, Login Pages, and User Names. This can reveal historical exposures of sensitive content or credentials on web pages related to CDPs.
Dark Web Presence: Monitors Organizational mentions of Related or Defined People, Places, or Things, Associated Ransomware Events, and Associated Compromised Credentials. This is critical for detecting if employee credentials with CDP access or information about CDP vulnerabilities have been compromised and are being traded on the dark web.
Technology Stack: Identifies various technologies being used by the organization, including Web Servers, Databases, and Security solutions. This helps understand the underlying infrastructure supporting CDPs and identify potential vulnerabilities in those technologies.
Intelligence Repositories (DarCache): ThreatNG's intelligence repositories provide continuously updated threat intelligence:
Dark Web (DarCache Dark Web): Provides insight into general dark web activity related to the organization.
Compromised Credentials (DarCache Rupture): Continuously tracks Compromised Credentials. This is highly relevant as stolen administrator or developer credentials are a primary vector for attacks on CDPs. ThreatNG would alert if credentials for accessing CDP management interfaces are compromised.
Ransomware Groups and Activities (DarCache Ransomware): Tracks Over 70 Ransomware Gangs. This helps assess the risk of ransomware attacks impacting content delivery infrastructure.
Vulnerabilities (DarCache Vulnerability): Provides a holistic and proactive approach to managing external risks and vulnerabilities by understanding their real-world exploitability, the likelihood of exploitation, and the potential impact. This includes:
NVD (DarCache NVD): Offers detailed information on vulnerabilities, including Attack Complexity, Attack Interaction, Attack Vector, Impact scores (Availability, Confidentiality, Integrity), CVSS Score and Severity. ThreatNG would identify known vulnerabilities in the CDP software itself, or in associated CDN infrastructure, and assess their severity.
EPSS (DarCache EPSS): Data offers a probabilistic estimate of the likelihood of a vulnerability being exploited shortly. This helps prioritize remediation efforts for vulnerabilities in CDPs that are severe and likely to be weaponized.
KEV (DarCache KEV): Focuses on Vulnerabilities that are actively exploited in the wild. ThreatNG would flag if a zero-day exploit targeting a CDP or its underlying CDN infrastructure is known and being actively used by attackers.
Verified Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Exploits (DarCache eXploit): Provides Direct links to Proof-of-Concept (PoC) exploits on platforms like GitHub, referenced by CVE. It is highly valuable for security teams to understand how a vulnerability in their CDP can be exploited, assess its impact, and develop effective mitigation strategies.
ESG Violations (DarCache ESG): Tracks Competition, Consumer, Employment, Environment, Financial, Government Contracting, Healthcare, and Safety-related offenses.
Bug Bounty Programs (DarCach Bug Bounty): Indicates In-Scope and Out-of-Scope items. This could help identify whether a bug bounty program is in place for an organization's CDP, indicating a proactive security stance.
Mobile Apps (DarCache Mobile): Indicates if Access Credentials, Security Credentials, and Platform Specific Identifiers are present within Mobile Apps.
Complementary Solutions:
Web Application Firewalls (WAFs): ThreatNG's ability to identify Web Application Hijack Susceptibility and discover WAFs (WAFs) and their vendor types can synergize with WAFs. ThreatNG identifies potential vulnerabilities and exposed entry points in the CDP's web interface, while a WAF actively blocks malicious traffic targeting those vulnerabilities. For example, if ThreatNG identifies a potential XSS vulnerability in a CDP's content management system, a WAF can block requests exploiting that vulnerability.
DDoS Mitigation Services: ThreatNG's continuous monitoring of the external attack surface can help detect potential indicators of a looming Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack, such as unusual traffic patterns or exposed infrastructure. A DDoS mitigation service can then use this information to proactively prepare for or react to an attack. For instance, if ThreatNG observes a sudden surge in traffic to a CDP's IP address that matches known DDoS attack signatures, it can alert the DDoS mitigation service to activate protection measures.
Vulnerability Scanners (Internal/Authenticated): ThreatNG excels at external, unauthenticated discovery and assessment. Internal or authenticated vulnerability scanners can complement this, which provide deeper insights into the CDP's infrastructure once access is gained. ThreatNG can identify the publicly exposed components and initial attack vectors. At the same time, an internal scanner can then perform a more granular scan of the internal network and servers that comprise the CDP. For example, ThreatNG might identify an outdated version of a web server hosting CDP content; an authenticated vulnerability scanner could then provide a detailed report on all vulnerabilities specific to that version on the internal network.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Systems: ThreatNG's continuous monitoring capabilities and various assessment ratings can feed valuable security intelligence into a SIEM. The SIEM can ingest alerts from ThreatNG regarding new content exposures, subdomain takeover susceptibility, or detected ransomware activity targeting CDPs, allowing security teams to correlate these external threats with internal logs and events, providing a holistic view of the security posture. For example, suppose ThreatNG identifies a sensitive API key exposed in a publicly accessible CDP configuration file. This information can be sent to the SIEM, which can cross-reference it with internal access logs to determine if the key has been used maliciously.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Solutions: ThreatNG's ability to identify Sensitive Code Exposure and Online Sharing Exposure can work with DLP solutions. ThreatNG identifies if sensitive data has been exposed externally through CDPs, while DLP solutions can prevent that data from leaving the organization's controlled environment in the first place. For example, ThreatNG might detect an organization's proprietary content being hosted on an unsanctioned, public CDP; a DLP solution could have prevented this content from being uploaded to the unsanctioned platform.
