Pivot
In the context of cybersecurity and attack path intelligence, a Pivot (or pivoting) is a sophisticated technique where a threat actor uses a compromised system as a launchpad to access other parts of a network that are otherwise unreachable from the outside.
Essentially, a pivot point turns a single initial breach into a strategic foothold, allowing the adversary to bypass perimeter defenses like firewalls by "tunneling" traffic through a trusted internal machine.
What is a Pivot Point?
A pivot point is the specific instance—often called a "plant" or "foothold"—that serves as the base of operations for an attacker. Once an adversary compromises a machine (such as a public-facing web server), they "pivot" through it to explore the internal landscape.
While a vulnerability is a flaw, a pivot is a strategic maneuver. It allows the attacker to transform a compromised host into a "pseudo-legitimate" user, enabling them to blend in with regular network traffic and navigate deeper into restricted zones, such as database segments or domain controllers.
The Difference Between Pivoting and Lateral Movement
While these terms are often used interchangeably, they represent distinct stages in an attack narrative:
Pivoting: Routing traffic through a compromised host to reach new network segments. It is the "gateway" move that overcomes a network boundary or firewall.
Lateral Movement: This involves moving across systems within the same network segment or trust zone. It is the process of exploring the environment, harvesting credentials, and escalating privileges once the new segment has been reached.
Think of pivoting as breaking into a house and finding the key to a locked internal basement, while lateral movement is the act of searching through every room once you have unlocked that door.
Common Pivoting Techniques and Tools
Adversaries use a specific "tech stack" to establish and maintain pivot points:
SSH Tunneling: One of the most common methods, where an attacker uses an existing SSH connection to "forward" ports from their local machine to the internal network.
Proxy Pivoting: Attackers use tools such as Proxychains or Chisel to route their malicious traffic through a SOCKS proxy running on the compromised host.
VPN Pivoting: Advanced actors may create an encrypted tunnel directly into the compromised system, granting them full network access as if they were physically behind the firewall.
Living off the Land (LotL): Adversaries often use built-in administrative tools like PowerShell Remoting, WMI, or RDP to move between systems without deploying detectable malware.
Why Pivot Point Intelligence is Vital for Risk Management
Understanding how an attacker moves from an initial entry point to a pivot point is critical for disrupting the "Mean Path to Impact."
Identifying Choke Points: Attack path analysis identifies critical assets that serve as common pivot points for multiple threat models. Securing these Choke Points disrupts numerous potential attack scenarios simultaneously.
Network Segmentation: Effective pivoting intelligence proves the necessity of strict network segmentation. By isolating public-facing servers from sensitive internal data, organizations can ensure that even if a server is compromised, it cannot be used as a pivot.
Monitoring East-West Traffic: Most perimeter defenses focus on "North-South" traffic (entering/leaving the network). Pivoting intelligence emphasizes the need to monitor "East-West" traffic (between internal systems) to detect unauthorized tunnels in real time.
Common Questions About Pivoting
How does an attacker choose a pivot point?
Attackers look for the path of least resistance. A server with a known vulnerability and "trust relationships" or administrative access to other internal systems is a high-priority pivot target.
Can a pivot happen through a third-party vendor?
Yes. A famous example is the 2013 Target breach, where attackers compromised a third-party HVAC vendor and used that connection as a pivot point to penetrate the retailer's leading internal network.
What is "Island Bouncing"?
"Island Bouncing" is another name for pivoting. It refers to the process of hopping from one compromised "island" (system) to another to reach a final destination.
Why is MFA important for preventing pivots?
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is a critical "circuit breaker." Even if an attacker uses a pivot point to reach a new login portal, they are blocked from moving further without the second factor, effectively ending the exploit path.
In the context of cybersecurity and attack path intelligence, a Pivot occurs when a threat actor uses a compromised external asset as a gateway to access restricted internal environments or move deeper into an organization's infrastructure. While many tools focus on internal lateral movement, ThreatNG provides the critical "outside-in" intelligence needed to identify the external exposures that serve as these initial pivot points.
ThreatNG identifies and disrupts these paths by using its DarChain (Digital Attack Risk Contextual Hyper-Analysis Insights Narrative) engine, which transforms fragmented technical findings into a predictive story of adversarial movement.
External Discovery of Pivot Entry Points
ThreatNG identifies the starting nodes for a potential pivot through purely external, unauthenticated discovery. This maps the internet-facing assets that an adversary would target to gain their first foothold.
Shadow IT and Unmanaged Assets: ThreatNG uncovers forgotten subdomains, temporary staging environments, and unmanaged cloud instances. These assets often lack corporate oversight, making them ideal for attackers to use as initial pivot points.
VPN and Remote Access Infrastructure: The platform identifies VPN endpoints and remote access portals. If these are misconfigured or use weak authentication, they become direct gateways for an attacker to pivot into the internal network.
Cloud Bucket and Metadata Exposure: ThreatNG finds internal IP addresses and configuration files leaked in public cloud buckets. These leaks provide the technical "map" an attacker needs to pivot from the public cloud to private infrastructure.
External Assessment and DarChain Pivot Narratives
The core of ThreatNG’s pivot intelligence is DarChain, which performs "Digital Risk Hyper-Analysis" to chain technical, social, and regulatory findings into a structured threat model. This reveals the Chained Relationships where one exposure facilitates a pivot to another.
Detailed Examples of DarChain Pivot Scenarios
The PHP-to-Internal Network Pivot: ThreatNG identifies an asset running an outdated version of PHP. DarChain labels this as the "Remote Code Execution via PHP Vulnerability" path. The narrative explains that a compromised PHP asset acts as a pivot point into private infrastructure. By chaining this with "Private IPs Found" in archived documentation, the attacker gains the internal addressing needed to move laterally once the initial RCE is achieved.
The Shared IP Cross-Tenant Pivot: ThreatNG identifies an organization's application on a shared hosting environment. DarChain illustrates a "Cross-Tenant Attack on Shared IP Hosting" scenario. It shows how an exploitable service in a co-tenant's application can serve as a pivot point for attacking other applications sharing that same IP address.
The SwaggerHub Information Disclosure: ThreatNG finds public Swagger documentation for internal APIs. DarChain chains this with "APIs on Subdomains" to create a "Data Exfiltration and Pivoting" narrative. The description explains how identifying weakly secured endpoints in public documentation allows an attacker to pivot from a public API request to internal data extraction.
Investigation Modules for Granular Pivot Context
ThreatNG includes specialized investigation modules that allow analysts to pivot from a high-level alert to a deep-dive investigation of specific "Step Actions."
Detailed Examples of Investigation Modules
Sensitive Code Exposure: This module scans public repositories, such as GitHub, for leaked "Non-Human Identities" (NHIs), including AWS Secret Access Keys and VPN configuration files. Finding a leaked VPN config provides a validated step for a "Credential Abuse and Network Pivot" narrative, allowing an attacker to bypass the perimeter entirely.
Dark Web Presence (DarCache Rupture): This module monitors hacker forums for mentions of compromised credentials. If a set of credentials for a corporate VPN is found, this module identifies it as a high-velocity path for an "Unauthorized VPN Access" pivot.
Mobile Application Exposure: This module identifies leaked mobile access tokens. The "Session Hijacking via Exposed Mobile Tokens" path shows how a hijacked token allows an attacker to pivot from a mobile application session into internal cloud environments.
Intelligence Repositories and Global Context
The DarCache suite of intelligence repositories provides the real-world context needed to prioritize remediation of pivot points. It integrates data from the KEV (Known Exploited Vulnerabilities) catalog and EPSS to confirm which vulnerabilities are currently being used by automated Step Tools in the wild.
By tracking the tactics of over 70 ransomware gangs, ThreatNG identifies the specific "Step Actions"—such as exploiting outdated VPNs or PHP vulnerabilities—that these groups most frequently use to establish their initial pivot.
Reporting and Continuous Monitoring
To maintain a proactive defense, ThreatNG provides:
Continuous Monitoring: The platform continuously rescans the external attack surface to ensure that, if a new asset or an internal IP leak appears, the pivot path map is updated in real time.
Actionable Reporting: ThreatNG delivers technical workbooks that identify "Attack Path Choke Points"—critical vulnerabilities where multiple potential pivot paths intersect. Fixing a single choke point, such as a misconfigured PHP server, can collapse dozens of potential adversarial narratives.
Cooperation with Complementary Security Solutions
ThreatNG provides the external "outside-in" intelligence that triggers and enriches the workflows of internal security tools to break pivot chains.
Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR): High-priority alerts from a "VPN Credential Leak" path can trigger automated SOAR playbooks to immediately revoke those credentials and block the associated IP addresses at the firewall.
Identity and Access Management (IAM): When ThreatNG uncovers leaked API keys or secrets that facilitate a pivot, it feeds this data to IAM platforms to trigger immediate key rotation or password resets.
Vulnerability Management and EDR: ThreatNG identifies the specific external assets an attacker is targeting as their pivot. This allows internal scanners to prioritize those assets and enables Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) tools to increase monitoring sensitivity on the specific servers identified in the potential attack path.
Common Questions About Pivoting
What is the difference between a pivot and a lateral movement?
A pivot is the specific maneuver used to move from an external asset into a restricted network or new segment. Lateral movement is the subsequent exploration and movement between systems within that newly accessed segment.
How does ThreatNG find internal IPs if it is an external tool?
ThreatNG identifies internal IP addresses through "Digital Risk Hyper-Analysis" of external exposures, such as leaked configuration files in cloud buckets, debug output from misconfigured servers, and internal documentation found in public code repositories.
Why is a "Choke Point" important for preventing pivots?
A choke point is a vulnerability that appears in multiple different attack narratives. Because most attackers follow a predictable "Kill Chain Phase," securing a single choke point disrupts the most potential pivot paths simultaneously.
Can an attacker pivot through a shared IP?
Yes. ThreatNG identifies "Cross-Tenant Attacks" in which an attacker compromises a vulnerable co-tenant in a shared hosting environment and then uses that access as a pivot point to attack other organizations on the same infrastructure.
