Intelligence-Driven Attack Path Analysis
Intelligence-Driven Attack Path Analysis is a cybersecurity approach that combines traditional attack path analysis techniques with threat intelligence to provide a more informed and proactive understanding of potential attack scenarios.
Here's a breakdown of its key components and characteristics:
Traditional Attack Path Analysis as a Foundation: It starts with the core principles of attack path analysis, which involve mapping out the steps an attacker could take to compromise a system or network. This includes identifying entry points, vulnerabilities, and potential lateral movement within the environment.
Integration of Threat Intelligence: The defining characteristic is threat intelligence integration. This is data about known threats, threat actors, their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), and indicators of compromise (IOCs).
Enhanced Accuracy and Relevance: Threat intelligence enhances the accuracy and relevance of attack path analysis by:
Prioritizing Realistic Scenarios: It helps to prioritize attack paths that are more likely based on real-world threat activity.
Predicting Attacker Behavior: It enables security professionals to anticipate how attackers might behave based on their known TTPs.
Identifying Emerging Threats: It allows for identifying new or emerging attack paths that might not be apparent from traditional vulnerability scanning alone.
Proactive Defense: By understanding the most likely and dangerous attack paths, organizations can proactively strengthen their defenses and focus their resources on the areas that pose the most significant risk.
Contextual Awareness: Threat intelligence provides valuable context for attack path analysis, including:
Attacker Motivation: Understanding the goals and motivations of different threat actors helps assess the likelihood of specific attack paths.
Industry-Specific Threats: Threat intelligence often includes information about threats specific to certain industries or sectors.
Geopolitical Factors: In some cases, geopolitical factors can influence the likelihood of specific attacks.
Dynamic Analysis: Intelligence-Driven Attack Path Analysis is a dynamic process that needs to be continuously updated as the threat landscape evolves. Threat intelligence feeds must be integrated and updated regularly to ensure the analysis remains relevant.
Intelligence-driven Attack Path Analysis moves beyond simply identifying vulnerabilities to understanding how real-world attackers will most likely exploit them.
Here's how ThreatNG facilitates Intelligence-Driven Attack Path Analysis:
ThreatNG's external discovery capabilities provide the foundation for Intelligence-Driven Attack Path Analysis by mapping the organization's attack surface from an attacker's perspective. This process identifies potential entry points and assets that could be targeted in an attack. This is similar to how traditional attack path analysis starts, but ThreatNG's intelligence feeds enhance the context of this discovery.
ThreatNG's external assessments go beyond essential vulnerability identification by incorporating threat intelligence to evaluate attacks' likelihood and potential impact. Here are some examples:
BEC & Phishing Susceptibility: ThreatNG uses domain intelligence and dark web presence (compromised credentials) to assess susceptibility to these attacks. This incorporates intelligence about common attacker tactics (phishing) and compromised credentials, which are frequently used in attacks, to provide a more informed assessment.
Breach & Ransomware Susceptibility: ThreatNG considers domain intelligence (exposed ports, vulnerabilities), dark web presence (compromised credentials, ransomware events, and gang activity), and sentiment and financials (SEC Form 8-Ks). This combines vulnerability information with intelligence on ransomware trends and attacker activity to prioritize attack paths more likely to lead to a breach or ransomware incident.
Mobile App Exposure: ThreatNG evaluates mobile apps for access credentials, security credentials, and platform-specific identifiers. This assessment is informed by intelligence on common mobile app attack vectors and the types of data attackers typically target.
3. Reporting
ThreatNG's reporting capabilities can present attack path information in a prioritized way based on threat intelligence. For example:
Reports can highlight attack paths that involve vulnerabilities known to be actively exploited by ransomware gangs.
Reports can prioritize attack paths that expose credentials found on the dark web.
This lets security teams focus on the most relevant and dangerous attack paths.
ThreatNG's continuous monitoring ensures that attack path analysis is up-to-date with the latest threat intelligence. ThreatNG can identify new or changed attack paths as new vulnerabilities emerge or attacker tactics evolve.
ThreatNG's investigation modules provide detailed information that enhances Intelligence-Driven Attack Path Analysis:
Domain Intelligence: Provides information on domains, DNS, email, and subdomains, which can be used to understand how attackers might use domain-related techniques (e.g., phishing, subdomain takeover) as part of an attack path.
Dark Web Presence: Provides intelligence on compromised credentials, ransomware events, and gang activity, which is crucial for understanding attack paths that involve credential theft or ransomware.
Sensitive Code Exposure: Discovers exposed code repositories and secrets, providing intelligence on how attackers might obtain credentials or access sensitive information.
ThreatNG's intelligence repositories are a key component of its Intelligence-Driven Attack Path Analysis capabilities:
Dark Web Presence: Provides information on compromised credentials and ransomware events and groups, directly informing the analysis of attack paths involving these threats.
Known VulnerabilitiesThreatNG's knowledge of known vulnerabilities allows it to identify attack paths that exploit these weaknesses.
7. Working with Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG's Intelligence-Driven Attack Path Analysis can be further enhanced by integrating it with other security solutions:
SIEM Systems: Threat intelligence from ThreatNG can be fed into SIEM systems to correlate external attack surface data with internal security events, providing a more complete picture of attack paths.
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIPs): ThreatNG can integrate with TIPs to enrich its attack path analysis with additional threat intelligence feeds.
ThreatNG combines external attack surface management with threat intelligence to provide a powerful approach to Intelligence-Driven Attack Path Analysis. By incorporating intelligence on attacker tactics, compromised credentials, and emerging threats, ThreatNG helps organizations prioritize and mitigate the most relevant and dangerous attack paths.
