Proximity Analysis
In cybersecurity, proximity analysis is a technique used to assess and understand the relationships and connections between different entities within a digital environment based on their "closeness" or similarity. This "closeness" isn't necessarily physical or geographical but logical, contextual, or behavioral.
Here's a breakdown of how it's applied:
Identifying Related Entities: Proximity analysis helps uncover connections between seemingly disparate elements. These elements could include:
IP addresses: Assessing if multiple IP addresses involved in malicious activity are located within the same range or assigned to the same organization.
Domains: Determining if seemingly unrelated domain names share similar registration information, hosting providers, or website code, which could indicate a coordinated attack.
Files: Analyzing if different malware samples share significant portions of code, suggesting the same author or group created them.
User accounts: Examining if user accounts exhibit similar login patterns, access the same resources, or share passwords, potentially indicating compromised credentials or insider threats.
Assessing Risk: By understanding these relationships, security professionals can better evaluate the risk associated with a particular entity or activity. For instance, if a file is found to be closely related to known malware, it's more likely to be malicious itself.
Detecting Anomalies: Proximity analysis can help detect anomalous behavior. If a user account suddenly starts accessing logically "distant" resources from its typical activity, it could signal a compromise.
Improving Incident Response: During a security incident, proximity analysis can help investigators quickly identify the scope of the attack and any affected systems or data.
Enhancing Threat Intelligence: By analyzing the relationships between different threat actors, tools, and techniques, security analysts can gain a deeper understanding of the threat landscape and develop more effective defenses.
In essence, proximity analysis provides valuable context to security data, enabling security teams to move beyond isolated events and see the bigger picture of interconnectedness within their digital environment.
Here’s how ThreatNG's capabilities align with proximity analysis in cybersecurity:
ThreatNG's external discovery is the foundation for proximity analysis. By discovering external assets like subdomains, IP addresses, and cloud services, ThreatNG creates the inventory needed to analyze relationships.
For example, ThreatNG's ability to enumerate subdomains allows for proximity analysis to identify closely related subdomains (e.g., share the same IP address, SSL certificate, or hosting provider), which can reveal potential attack vectors if one subdomain is compromised.
ThreatNG's external assessment capabilities provide data points for proximity analysis:
Domain Intelligence: This feature is crucial for establishing relationships between domains. For instance, ThreatNG's Domain Intelligence can reveal:
Shared WHOIS information: Domains with similar registration details might be owned by the same entity, which is essential for identifying coordinated campaigns.
DNS relationships: Identifying domains that share the same DNS server or IP address can uncover infrastructure dependencies and potential single points of failure.
Subdomain relationships: Analyzing subdomains can show how different parts of an organization's online presence are connected and where vulnerabilities in one area might affect others.
IP Intelligence: Analyzing IP addresses allows ThreatNG to determine:
Network proximity: Identifying IPs within the same range or owned by the same organization.
Geographic proximity: Locating IPs in the same country that might be relevant to understanding the scope of an attack.
Shared hosting: Detecting multiple organizations hosted on the same IP can reveal shared vulnerabilities.
Technology Stack: Identifying an organization's technologies enables ThreatNG to find similarities with other organizations or identify widespread vulnerabilities in a particular technology.
Mobile Application Discovery: Analyzing mobile apps can reveal connections through:
Developer similarities: Apps from the same developer might share code or infrastructure.
API dependencies: Apps using the same APIs might have similar vulnerabilities.
3. Reporting
ThreatNG's reporting capabilities can present proximity analysis findings in a clear and actionable way.
For example, a report could highlight a cluster of related domains with similar vulnerabilities, allowing security teams to address the issue holistically.
Continuous monitoring allows ThreatNG to track changes in relationships over time.
This is important because proximity relationships can evolve, and new connections might indicate emerging threats.
For instance, ThreatNG might detect a previously benign domain suddenly becoming closely associated with known malicious infrastructure, signaling a potential attack.
ThreatNG's investigation modules are designed to facilitate in-depth proximity analysis:
Domain Intelligence: As mentioned earlier, this module provides various data points (WHOIS, DNS, subdomains) that are essential for analyzing domain relationships.
IP Intelligence: This module allows investigators to trace connections between IP addresses, ASNs, and geographic locations.
Sensitive Code Exposure: This module can reveal relationships between code repositories by identifying shared code or credentials, which is crucial for understanding the scope of a potential code leak.
Search Engine Exploitation: This module can uncover relationships between seemingly disparate online assets by identifying how search engines link or index them.
ThreatNG's intelligence repositories provide external context that enhances proximity analysis.
For example:
Dark Web Presence: Correlating dark web mentions with other entities can reveal connections between threat actors and their targets.
Ransomware Events and Groups: Tracking ransomware gang activity allows ThreatNG to identify potential targets based on their proximity to past victims or the gang's preferred targets.
Known Vulnerabilities: Relating vulnerabilities to specific technologies or infrastructure components helps identify systems at risk because they are near known weaknesses.
7. Working with Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG's data on entity relationships can greatly enhance other security tools:
SIEM Systems: Feeding ThreatNG's proximity analysis findings into a SIEM can help correlate external threats with internal events, providing a complete picture of an attack. For example, if ThreatNG identifies a cluster of malicious domains targeting an organization (proximity analysis), the SIEM can highlight internal systems communicating with those domains.
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIPs): ThreatNG's intelligence on threat actor relationships and infrastructure can enrich TIPs, providing more accurate and actionable threat intelligence.
Graph Analysis Tools: ThreatNG's data on entity relationships can be exported and visualized in graph analysis tools, enabling security analysts to perform more sophisticated proximity analysis and identify hidden connections.
ThreatNG facilitates proximity analysis by providing comprehensive external visibility, rich data on entity relationships, and tools to investigate and correlate this information. This enables organizations to proactively identify potential threats and vulnerabilities based on the "closeness" of their digital assets and external entities.
