External Contextual Attack Path Intelligence
External Contextual Attack Path Intelligence is the cybersecurity discipline of identifying, mapping, and analyzing the specific sequences of steps an adversary could take from the public internet to compromise an organization's critical assets. Unlike traditional vulnerability management, which lists isolated flaws (e.g., "Server A has CVE-2023-1234"), this intelligence focuses on the relationships between assets, establishing a narrative of how an attacker could chain together misconfigurations, exposed credentials, and shadow infrastructure to achieve a breach.
This approach applies an "adversarial lens" to the external attack surface, distinguishing between theoretical risks and practical, exploitable pathways. It answers the critical question: "Of the thousands of potential issues, which specific chain of events would allow an attacker to get in right now?"
Key Components of External Contextual Attack Path Intelligence
Entry Point Mapping: Identifying the initial "footholds" an attacker could use, such as a forgotten testing server, an exposed RDP port, or a typosquatted domain used for phishing.
Contextualization: Enriching these entry points with real-world data. This includes determining whether an asset is truly reachable, whether it hosts sensitive data, or whether it is connected to high-value internal networks.
Logic Chaining: connecting isolated findings to form a complete path. For example: Phishing Domain Registered -> Employee Credential Leaked -> VPN Portal Exposed -> Internal Network Access.
Prioritization by Reachability: Ranking risks based on whether they are actually accessible from the wild, rather than just their theoretical severity score.
Why is this Intelligence Critical?
Reduces Alert Fatigue Security teams are often overwhelmed by alerts. By focusing on paths rather than individual vulnerabilities, teams can deprioritize thousands of isolated issues that have no path to a critical asset, focusing only on the "Kill Chains" that are complete and viable.
Validates Security Controls It provides evidence-based validation of whether defenses (like firewalls or WAFs) are effectively breaking the attack paths they were designed to stop.
Accelerates Remediation Instead of trying to patch everything, teams can focus on "Choke Points"—specific assets where multiple attack paths converge. Securing one choke point can simultaneously disrupt dozens of potential attacks.
Common Questions About Attack Path Intelligence
How does this differ from Penetration Testing? Penetration testing is a point-in-time exercise often performed by humans. External Contextual Attack Path Intelligence is typically continuous and automated, providing a dynamic, real-time map of potential breach routes as the infrastructure changes.
Is this only for cloud environments? No. While highly effective for cloud infrastructure (where permissions can create complex paths), it applies equally to on-premise networks, hybrid environments, and supply chains.
Does it require agents to be installed? True external intelligence is agentless. It operates from the outside-in, seeing exactly what an attacker sees without requiring internal permissions or software installation.
Delivering External Contextual Attack Path Intelligence with ThreatNG
ThreatNG operationalizes External Contextual Attack Path Intelligence by automating the discovery and validation of external kill chains. It acts as the "Architect" of the external view, mapping connections among disparate digital assets to reveal the routes adversaries are most likely to follow. By identifying, mapping, and analyzing specific sequences of steps an adversary could take, ThreatNG shifts the focus from isolated vulnerabilities to actionable attack paths.
External Discovery
The first step in mapping an attack path is finding the nodes. ThreatNG’s External Discovery module ensures no node is missing from the map, preventing blind spots that attackers could exploit.
Uncovering Shadow Entry Points: ThreatNG scans the internet to find "Shadow IT"—assets like forgotten cloud buckets, legacy marketing sites, or unmanaged subdomains. These are often the "Path of Least Resistance" for attackers. By identifying a forgotten developer portal or a legacy VPN concentrator, ThreatNG reveals a hidden entry node that internal tools miss, effectively lighting up the first step of a potential attack path.
Supply Chain Node Mapping: The solution identifies third-party connections (vendors, partners, software dependencies). It maps how a vulnerability in a vendor's software could serve as a "Bridge Node," allowing an attacker to jump from the vendor's network into the organization's environment. This context is crucial for understanding indirect attack paths that bypass the organization's direct perimeter.
External Assessment
Once nodes are found, ThreatNG assesses them to determine if they are viable steps in an attack path. It distinguishes between a theoretical door and an unlocked door.
Validating Exploitability: ThreatNG does not just report an open port; it tests whether it contributes to a kill chain. Example: If it finds an open database port (e.g., MongoDB or Elasticsearch), it checks if the database requires authentication. If it discovers a "No Auth" configuration, it validates this as a viable "Step 1" in a data exfiltration path, confirming that an attacker could simply walk in and steal data.
Contextual Weakness Identification: It assesses assets for non-technical weaknesses that facilitate specific attack narratives. Example: It identifies a domain with missing DMARC records. This validates a "Social Engineering Path," confirming that an attacker could spoof the domain to bypass email filters and deliver a phishing lure to an employee's inbox, initiating a credential-harvesting attack.
Reporting
ThreatNG prioritizes remediation by visualizing the most dangerous paths, allowing security teams to focus on blocking routes rather than just patching bugs.
Path-Based Risk Reporting: Instead of a flat list of CVEs, reports highlight "Complete Attack Chains." For instance, a report might flag a "Ransomware Path" that combines Exposed RDP and Leaked Credentials, urging the immediate closure of that specific route because it provides a fully functional highway for attackers.
Executive Path Visualization: Dashboards present high-level views of "Critical Paths," allowing leadership to understand the practical reality of their risk. This helps them see that while they might have 500 vulnerabilities, only 3 are on a path that directly leads to customer data, justifying focused resource allocation.
Continuous Monitoring
Attack paths are dynamic; a firewall change or a new deployment can instantly open a new route. ThreatNG monitors for these shifts to ensure the map is always current.
Path Drift Detection: If a previously blocked path becomes open (e.g., a security group change exposes an SSH port to the public internet), ThreatNG detects this "Drift." It alerts the team that a "Dead End" has turned into an "Open Road," requiring immediate action to re-block the path.
New Node Alerting: When a new subdomain is registered or a new cloud instance is spun up, ThreatNG instantly adds it to the map. It evaluates if this new asset creates a shortcut for attackers to bypass existing perimeter controls, ensuring that agile development does not inadvertently create security loopholes.
Investigation Modules
ThreatNG’s investigation modules allow analysts to deep-dive into specific nodes to understand their role in the path and validate the narrative.
Domain Intelligence (The Infrastructure Node): This module assesses the reputation of domains associated with the organization. Example: If a corporate asset communicates with a domain hosted by a "Bulletproof" hosting provider known for ignoring abuse reports, the module flags it as a potential "Command and Control (C2) Node." This indicates an active backchannel through which data may be leaving the organization.
Sensitive Code Exposure (The Credential Node): This module scans for secrets that act as "Keys" to unlock paths. Example: Identifying a hardcoded API key or a cloud access token in a public script validates a "Privilege Escalation Path." It shows how an attacker could escalate from a low-level web visitor to a cloud administrator, effectively bypassing authentication controls.
Intelligence Repositories
ThreatNG uses intelligence repositories to validate the intent and feasibility of paths, adding the "Why" and "Who" to the "How."
Dark Web Intelligence (Validating Access): ThreatNG checks if credentials for a specific asset are for sale. Example: If ThreatNG finds valid VPN credentials for the organization on a dark web market, it confirms that the "Initial Access" step of the attack path is already complete. This elevates the risk to "Critical" because the attacker has already bought the key to the front door.
Ransomware Intelligence (Validating Impact): It correlates open paths with ransomware Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs). Example: If an open SMB port is detected, ThreatNG checks whether this vector is currently being used by major ransomware groups such as LockBit or Conti. If yes, it tags the path as a "High-Probability Ransomware Vector," signaling that this path is a preferred route for destructive attacks.
Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG acts as the "Pathfinder," feeding intelligence to other systems that can block or monitor the identified routes, creating a unified defense.
Complementary Solution (Vulnerability Management): ThreatNG guides Vulnerability Management (VM) teams by providing a "Target List" of external assets that are part of critical attack paths. This ensures the VM team prioritizes scanning these high-risk external assets over less critical, internal-only servers that are not reachable from the internet.
Complementary Solution (SIEM): ThreatNG feeds "Path Intelligence" into the SIEM. If ThreatNG identifies a specific server as the likely entry point for an attack path, the SIEM can increase logging levels and alert sensitivity for that asset. This ensures that any anomaly—even a minor one—associated with that critical node triggers an immediate investigation.
Complementary Solution (SOAR): ThreatNG triggers automated blocking via SOAR platforms. If a "High-Confidence" attack path is validated (e.g., an exposed database communicating with known malware traffic), the SOAR platform can automatically execute a playbook to update firewall rules, severing the path immediately without waiting for human intervention.
Examples of ThreatNG Helping
Helping Break a Ransomware Chain: ThreatNG identified a legacy RDP server (Entry Node) and correlated it with a dark web listing for "Admin Credentials" (Access Node) for that same server. Seeing this complete path, the client immediately disabled the server, breaking the chain before the ransomware actor could log in and deploy their payload.
Helping Secure a Cloud Migration: During a migration, ThreatNG detected that a developer had left a storage bucket with "Public Write" permissions (Misconfiguration Node) containing configuration files. The assessment validated that an attacker could modify these files to inject malicious code (Execution Node). The alert allowed the team to lock the bucket, closing the path before it could be exploited.
Helping Validate Supply Chain Risk: ThreatNG mapped a path where a third-party marketing vendor's compromised script (Vendor Node) was loading on the client's login page. By identifying the "Magecart Path," the client removed the vendor script, preventing credit card theft and securing the user session path.
