Attack Path Analysis
Attack path analysis is a cybersecurity technique for visualizing and analyzing the sequences of actions an attacker could take to achieve a specific malicious goal, such as gaining access to sensitive data or disrupting critical systems.
Here's a more detailed breakdown:
Mapping Potential Attack Routes: At its core, attack path analysis involves mapping out all the possible routes an attacker might take through a system or network. This includes identifying potential entry points, vulnerabilities, and their connections.
Chaining Vulnerabilities: Attackers rarely exploit just one vulnerability. They often chain together multiple weaknesses to penetrate a system deeper. An attack path analysis identifies these chains and sequences of exploitable vulnerabilities.
Identifying Attack Vectors: An attack vector is an attacker's method or pathway to access a system. Attack path analysis helps reveal the various attack vectors present, even those that might not be immediately obvious.
Assessing Risk and Impact: By visualizing attack paths, security professionals can better evaluate the potential risk and impact of different attack scenarios. This allows them to prioritize security efforts and focus on the most critical vulnerabilities and attack routes.
Proactive Security Measures: Attack path analysis is a proactive security measure. It allows organizations to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them.
Complex Systems Analysis: Modern IT environments are complex, with many interconnected systems and devices. Attack path analysis is instrumental in these environments, as it helps to understand how vulnerabilities in one area could be exploited to compromise seemingly unrelated systems.
Different Perspectives: Attack path analysis can be performed from various perspectives, such as an external attacker trying to gain initial access or an internal attacker moving laterally within a network.
Here's an explanation of how ThreatNG helps with attack path analysis:
ThreatNG performs external unauthenticated discovery without using connectors. This is the crucial first step in attack path analysis. It allows security professionals to see their organization's digital footprint from an attacker's perspective. For example, ThreatNG can discover exposed subdomains, cloud services, and potential entry points into web applications. This capability maps the initial points from which an attack path could originate.
ThreatNG provides various external assessment ratings that directly contribute to attack path analysis:
Web Application Hijack Susceptibility: ThreatNG analyzes externally accessible parts of web applications to identify potential entry points for attackers. This reveals how an attacker might begin their attack by hijacking a web application.
Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility: ThreatNG assesses a website's subdomains, DNS records, and SSL certificate statuses. This assessment highlights subdomain vulnerabilities that could be exploited to gain control of a website.
BEC & Phishing Susceptibility: ThreatNG uses domain intelligence (including domain name permutations and email intelligence) and dark web presence (compromised credentials) to determine susceptibility to business email compromise and phishing attacks. This helps understand how attackers might use social engineering as an initial step in an attack path.
Data Leak Susceptibility: ThreatNG identifies potential data leaks through cloud and SaaS exposure, dark web presence (compromised credentials), domain intelligence, and sentiment and financials (lawsuits and SEC Form 8-Ks). This shows potential paths an attacker could take to exfiltrate sensitive information.
Cyber Risk Exposure: ThreatNG considers domain intelligence parameters like certificates, subdomain headers, vulnerabilities, and sensitive ports. Exposed ports and known vulnerabilities are key elements in mapping attack paths.
Code Secret Exposure: ThreatNG discovers code repositories and their exposure level and checks for sensitive data. Exposed code secrets (like API keys or credentials) can provide attackers direct access to systems and data.
Cloud and SaaS Exposure: ThreatNG evaluates cloud services and SaaS solutions, identifying potential misconfigurations or vulnerabilities that could be exploited.
Compromised Credentials: ThreatNG considers compromised credentials on the dark web, which can be used to gain initial access or move laterally within a network.
Supply Chain & Third-Party Exposure: ThreatNG uses domain intelligence, technology stack analysis, and cloud and SaaS exposure to assess supply chain risks. This helps map attack paths that involve compromising third-party vendors.
Breach & Ransomware Susceptibility: ThreatNG analyzes exposed sensitive ports, exposed private IPs, known vulnerabilities, compromised credentials, and ransomware events and gang activity. This assessment helps understand the potential attack paths that lead to data breaches and ransomware incidents.
Mobile App Exposure: ThreatNG discovers mobile apps and analyzes them for access credentials, security credentials, and platform-specific identifiers. This reveals attack paths that involve compromising mobile applications.
3. Reporting
ThreatNG provides various reports, including executive, technical, prioritized, and security ratings reports. These reports can present the findings of the assessments in a way that highlights potential attack paths, allowing security teams to understand and communicate the risks effectively. For example, a "Ransomware Susceptibility Report" can outline the specific vulnerabilities and exposures that make the organization susceptible to ransomware attacks, effectively mapping out likely attack paths.
ThreatNG continuously monitors external attack surfaces, digital risks, and security ratings. This is essential for attack path analysis because attack surfaces are dynamic. New vulnerabilities can emerge, and existing systems can be reconfigured, creating new attack paths. Continuous monitoring helps organizations stay ahead of these changes.
ThreatNG's investigation modules provide detailed intelligence that is critical for attack path analysis:
Domain Intelligence: Provides domain overview, DNS intelligence (including domain name permutations and Web3 domains), email intelligence, WHOIS intelligence, and subdomain intelligence.
For example, subdomain intelligence includes identifying potential vulnerabilities, exposed ports, and web application firewalls. This information is critical in mapping out how an attacker might move from an initial access point to a target system.
Sensitive Code Exposure: Discovers code repository exposure and investigates the contents for sensitive data, such as API keys, credentials, and configuration files.
For example, finding an exposed API key in a code repository reveals a direct attack path to the associated system.
Mobile Application Discovery: Discovers mobile apps and analyzes them for access credentials, security credentials, and platform-specific identifiers.
For example, discovering hardcoded credentials within a mobile app can expose a path for attackers to access backend systems.
Search Engine Exploitation: Helps users investigate an organization’s susceptibility to exposing sensitive information via search engines.
For example, discovering exposed admin directories or susceptible files through search engines can reveal an easy initial access point for attackers.
Cloud and SaaS Exposure: Identifies sanctioned and unsanctioned cloud services, cloud service impersonations, open exposed cloud buckets, and SaaS implementations.
For example, identifying an exposed cloud storage bucket reveals a potential path for data exfiltration.
Online Sharing Exposure: Identifies organizational entity presence within online code-sharing platforms.
For example, finding sensitive information in a public code snippet on Pastebin can provide attackers with valuable data for an attack.
Sentiment and Financials: Provides information on organization-related lawsuits, layoff chatter, SEC filings, SEC Form 8-Ks, and ESG violations. While not directly a technical attack path, this information can be used in social engineering attacks or to understand the potential impact of a successful attack.
Archived Web Pages: Discovers various files and data that have been archived, such as API keys, documents, and login pages.
For example, finding an old, archived login page might reveal outdated authentication mechanisms vulnerable to attack.
Dark Web Presence: Monitors for organizational mentions, associated ransomware events, and compromised credentials.
Compromised credentials found on the dark web are a significant component of many attack paths, allowing attackers to bypass initial authentication.
Technology Stack: Identifies the technologies used by the organization.
This information helps attackers identify potential vulnerabilities associated with specific software or systems.
6. Working with Complementary Solutions
While the document doesn't explicitly detail integrations, ThreatNG's capabilities strongly suggest it would complement other security solutions:
SIEM (Security Information and Event Management): ThreatNG's external attack surface intelligence can feed into a SIEM to provide valuable context for security events. For example, suppose ThreatNG identifies a vulnerable entry point, and the SIEM detects an attack attempt targeting that entry point. In that case, the SIEM can correlate the information to generate a high-priority alert.
SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation and Response): ThreatNG's findings can trigger automated responses in a SOAR platform. For example, if ThreatNG detects a compromised credential, a SOAR playbook can automatically initiate account lockouts and password resets.
Vulnerability Management Tools: ThreatNG's external assessment capabilities can complement internal vulnerability scans. ThreatNG provides the external view, while vulnerability scanners provide in-depth internal vulnerability information. This combined view gives a complete picture of an organization's attack surface.
Identity and Access Management (IAM) Systems: ThreatNG's compromised credential detection can be integrated with IAM systems to enforce stronger authentication or trigger account reviews for potentially compromised accounts.
ThreatNG's external discovery, assessment, reporting, continuous monitoring, investigation modules, and intelligence repositories provide a comprehensive set of capabilities essential for practical attack path analysis. By understanding the attacker's perspective and identifying potential attack routes, organizations can proactively strengthen their security posture and reduce their risk of compromise.
