DNS Posture Management
DNS Posture Management (DNSPM) is a cybersecurity approach that focuses on gaining comprehensive visibility and control over an organization's entire DNS infrastructure.
Here's a breakdown of what that means and why it's so important:
Why is DNS so critical for security?
DNS (Domain Name System) is the Internet's phonebook. It translates human-readable domain names (like google.com) into machine-readable IP addresses. This fundamental role makes it a prime target for cyberattacks. If an attacker compromises your DNS, they can:
Redirect traffic: Send your users to malicious websites instead of legitimate ones (DNS hijacking, cache poisoning).
Launch phishing attacks: Use lookalike domains to trick users into revealing credentials.
Exfiltrate data: Use DNS queries to send data out of your network secretly.
Create "shadow DNS": Set up unauthorized DNS servers or records that can be used for malicious purposes.
Exploit misconfigurations: Simple errors in DNS records can expose sensitive information or create vulnerabilities.
What does DNS Posture Management do?
DNSPM aims to address these risks by providing a unified, proactive approach to securing your DNS environment. Key aspects include:
Unified Visibility: Large organizations often use multiple DNS providers (e.g., AWS Route 53, Azure DNS, Google Cloud DNS, Cloudflare, Akamai, on-premise solutions). DNSPM brings all these into a single view, allowing security teams to see their entire DNS landscape.
Automated Asset Discovery: It automatically identifies all your authoritative DNS servers, internal DNS configurations, domains, subdomains, and records. This is crucial for discovering forgotten or inherited assets that might be vulnerable.
Real-time Misconfiguration Detection: DNSPM continuously scans DNS records (A, CNAME, MX, TXT, etc.) for errors and misconfigurations that could lead to security gaps, performance issues, or data exposure. It can alert teams in real time.
Drift Detection & Auditing: It tracks every change made to your DNS configurations, providing an audit trail that helps with accountability and compliance.
Certificate Posture Management: DNS and digital certificates are closely linked. DNSPM often includes features to monitor and assess digital certificates, identifying expired, misconfigured, or rogue certificates that could lead to website downtime or security risks.
Threat Monitoring & Remediation: Identifying lookalike domains and malicious activity helps detect and respond to DNS-based attacks like domain spoofing, DNS hijacking, and phishing attempts. It can also provide guided remediation steps to fix identified issues quickly.
Compliance Assurance: DNSPM helps organizations meet various regulatory requirements and industry frameworks (such as NIST, PCI DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR) by providing continuous compliance monitoring and automated policy enforcement.
In essence, DNS Posture Management helps organizations take a proactive stance on DNS security by giving them the tools to understand, monitor, and secure their entire DNS attack surface, reducing the risk of costly breaches and operational disruptions.
ThreatNG, an all-in-one external attack surface management, digital risk protection, and security ratings solution, offers comprehensive capabilities that directly address the principles of DNS Posture Management.
ThreatNG helps with DNS Posture Management through its:
External Discovery: ThreatNG performs purely external, unauthenticated discovery without needing connectors. This means it can map an organization's entire DNS infrastructure from an attacker's perspective, identifying all authoritative DNS servers, domains, and subdomains, including those that might be unknown to the organization. This helps uncover "shadow DNS" or forgotten assets that could pose security risks.
External Assessment: ThreatNG provides detailed assessment ratings that directly contribute to DNS Posture Management by highlighting DNS-related vulnerabilities and risks:
Web Application Hijack Susceptibility: This score is informed by Domain Intelligence, which analyzes the external aspects of web applications to find potential entry points for attackers. This involves scrutinizing DNS configurations that could be exploited for redirection.
Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility: ThreatNG evaluates this using external attack surface and digital risk intelligence, including Domain Intelligence. This involves comprehensively analyzing subdomains, DNS records, and SSL certificate statuses. For example, ThreatNG can identify dangling DNS records pointing to services deprovisioned, which an attacker could then claim to host malicious content.
BEC & Phishing Susceptibility: This is partly derived from Domain Intelligence, which includes DNS Intelligence capabilities such as analyzing domain name permutations (taken and available) and Web3 domains. This helps identify lookalike domains that could be used for phishing attacks, allowing an organization to register or monitor them proactively.
Brand Damage Susceptibility: Domain Intelligence, specifically domain name permutations and Web3 domains, contributes to this rating. This helps identify malicious domains that could impersonate the organization's brand through DNS.
Data Leak Susceptibility: Domain Intelligence, including DNS Intelligence capabilities (domain name permutations and Web3 domains), plays a role in this assessment. This can help identify DNS records that might inadvertently expose sensitive information.
Cyber Risk Exposure: This rating considers parameters covered by the Domain Intelligence module, such as certificates, subdomain headers, vulnerabilities, and sensitive ports. For instance, it can detect expired DNS-related certificates or misconfigured subdomain headers that increase cyber risk.
Breach & Ransomware Susceptibility: Domain Intelligence (exposed sensitive ports, exposed private IPs, and known vulnerabilities) contributes to this score. ThreatNG can identify publicly exposed DNS ports or DNS servers with known vulnerabilities that could be entry points for ransomware attacks.
Reporting: ThreatNG provides various reports, including Executive, Technical, Prioritized (High, Medium, Low, and Informational), Security Ratings, Inventory, and Ransomware Susceptibility reports. For DNS Posture Management, the Inventory reports would offer a detailed list of all discovered DNS assets. In contrast, Prioritized reports would highlight critical DNS misconfigurations or vulnerabilities, allowing security teams to focus their remediation efforts effectively.
Continuous Monitoring: ThreatNG constantly monitors all organizations' external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings. This is crucial for DNS Posture Management, as DNS configurations are dynamic. Continuous monitoring ensures that any new misconfigurations, unauthorized changes to DNS records, or emerging DNS-based threats are immediately detected and alerted. For example, if a new, unauthorized DNS record is created, ThreatNG would flag it.
Investigation Modules: ThreatNG provides powerful investigation modules that are essential for deep-diving into DNS-related issues:
Domain Intelligence: This module comprehensively views an organization's digital presence.
DNS Intelligence: This capability provides Domain Record Analysis (IP Identification, Vendors and Technology Identification), Domain Name Permutations (Taken and Available), and Web3 Domains (Taken and Available). For instance, if an organization wants to understand all IP addresses associated with its domains, ThreatNG can provide this detail, including identifying the hosting vendors. It can also show the permutations of available domain names, which could be used for defensive registrations to prevent typosquatting.
Email Intelligence: This covers Security Presence (DMARC, SPF, and DKIM records), Format Predictions, and Harvested Emails. This is vital for ensuring proper email authentication records, which rely on DNS, are configured. ThreatNG can identify missing or incorrect SPF, DKIM, or DMARC records, making an organization susceptible to email spoofing and phishing.
Subdomain Intelligence: This includes Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility. ThreatNG can analyze HTTP Responses, Header Analysis (Security Headers and Deprecated Headers), Server Headers, and Cloud Hosting details to identify potential subdomain takeovers. For example, it can detect if a CNAME record points to an inactive cloud service, allowing an attacker to claim that subdomain.
Certificate Intelligence: This provides information on TLS Certificates (Status, Issuers, Active, Certs without Subdomains, Subdomains without Certificates). ThreatNG can highlight expired or soon-to-expire certificates linked to domains and subdomains, preventing service outages and security warnings. It can also identify subdomains without certificates, which could indicate a lack of encryption.
Intelligence Repositories (DarCache): ThreatNG's continuously updated intelligence repositories provide valuable context for DNS Posture Management:
Dark Web (DarCache Dark Web), Compromised Credentials (DarCache Rupture), and Ransomware Groups and Activities (DarCache Ransomware): These repositories can help identify if an organization's DNS administrators or related credentials have been compromised, which could lead to DNS hijacking.
Vulnerabilities (DarCache Vulnerability) include NVD, EPSS, and KEV data. This is critical for identifying known vulnerabilities in DNS software or servers that could be exploited. For example, suppose a DNS server is running a version with a known CVE. In that case, ThreatNG can flag it and link to the relevant vulnerability data, including whether there's a verified Proof-of-Concept exploit.
Complementary Solutions and Synergies:
ThreatNG, while a comprehensive solution for external attack surface management, can work synergistically with other cybersecurity tools to further enhance DNS Posture Management:
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Systems: ThreatNG's continuous monitoring and reporting capabilities can feed alerts and intelligence directly into a SIEM. For instance, if ThreatNG detects an unauthorized change to a critical DNS record or a suspicious domain permutation, it can alert the SIEM. The SIEM can then correlate this information with internal logs (e.g., from DNS servers, Active Directory) to provide a more holistic view of the potential threat and trigger automated incident response workflows.
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIPs): ThreatNG's DarCache repositories (Dark Web, Ransomware, Vulnerabilities) provide rich threat intelligence. This intelligence can be shared with a TIP to enrich its data. For example, suppose ThreatNG identifies a new ransomware group activity in DarCache Ransomware. In that case, this information can be pushed to a TIP, which can then be distributed to other security controls (like firewalls or EDR) to block associated malicious DNS requests proactively.
DNS Firewalls/Security Gateways: ThreatNG identifies and assesses DNS-related risks. The insights gained, such as identified malicious domains from BEC & Phishing Susceptibility assessments or domain permutations from Domain Intelligence, can be used to configure and strengthen DNS firewalls or security gateways. These gateways can then block access to known malicious domains or prevent DNS queries to suspicious destinations, directly mitigating risks identified by ThreatNG. For example, if ThreatNG finds a lookalike domain being used for phishing, that domain can be added to the blocklist of a DNS firewall.
Vulnerability Management Platforms: ThreatNG's Vulnerability DarCache, with NVD, EPSS, and KEV data, provides context on external DNS-related vulnerabilities. This information can be integrated with a vulnerability management platform to prioritize remediation efforts for DNS servers or services with high-risk, externally facing vulnerabilities. For instance, if ThreatNG identifies a critical vulnerability in an organization's authoritative DNS server, the vulnerability management platform can be updated with this information to escalate its remediation priority.
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) Solutions: While ThreatNG covers Cloud and SaaS Exposure, a dedicated CSPM solution can provide deeper insights into the security configurations of cloud-hosted DNS services (like AWS Route 53 or Azure DNS). The external perspective from ThreatNG can complement the internal configuration checks of a CSPM, ensuring comprehensive coverage of DNS security in cloud environments. For example, ThreatNG might detect an open S3 bucket linked via a DNS record, while a CSPM would analyze the bucket's permissions configuration.
