Metadata Exposure
In cybersecurity, metadata exposure refers to the unintentional or unauthorized disclosure of data that describes other data. While not the primary content, metadata can reveal a significant amount of sensitive information, posing various security risks.
Here's a breakdown:
Essentially, it's "data about data." It provides context and details about a file, document, image, or other digital asset.
Examples include:
Creation dates and times
Author names
Location data (GPS coordinates)
Device information (camera model, software versions)
File paths and software used to create or modify the file.
Cybersecurity Risks:
Information Leakage:
Metadata can reveal sensitive details about individuals or organizations, such as their locations, habits, or internal processes.
This information can be used for targeted attacks, social engineering, or identity theft.
Vulnerability Discovery:
Metadata may disclose the use of specific software or hardware versions, which could be vulnerable to known exploits.
Attackers can use this information to identify and target vulnerable systems.
Targeted Attacks:
Cybercriminals can use metadata to gather intelligence about potential targets, such as their routines, associates, or security practices.
This information can be used to craft more effective phishing attacks or other malicious campaigns.
Privacy Violations:
Exposure to personal metadata can lead to significant privacy violations, especially when location data or other sensitive information is involved.
Metadata exposure is a cybersecurity concern because seemingly innocuous data can, when aggregated, provide a detailed picture that malicious actors can use to their advantage. Therefore, removing or limiting the amount of exposed metadata is essential.
Here's how ThreatNG addresses the challenges of metadata exposure:
ThreatNG performs purely external unauthenticated discovery, meaning it can identify potential metadata exposure sources without internal access or connectors.
For example, ThreatNG can discover an organization's subdomains, cloud services, and mobile apps, all of which can be metadata sources.
ThreatNG provides various assessment ratings that directly relate to mitigating metadata exposure risks:
Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility: ThreatNG analyzes subdomains and DNS records. This is crucial because exposed or forgotten subdomains might contain outdated content or configurations that reveal sensitive metadata.
For example, an old marketing subdomain might still have access to a database containing customer information, and metadata within files on that subdomain could expose details about that database.
Data Leak Susceptibility: ThreatNG assesses cloud and SaaS exposure, dark web presence (compromised credentials), and domain intelligence.
For example, ThreatNG can discover exposed cloud storage buckets that might contain files with sensitive metadata, or it might find compromised credentials on the dark web that could be used to access systems and extract metadata.
Cyber Risk Exposure: ThreatNG considers domain intelligence parameters like certificates, subdomain headers, vulnerabilities, and sensitive ports.
For example, exposed ports and vulnerabilities on a web server could allow attackers to access files and their metadata.
Code Secret Exposure: ThreatNG discovers code repositories and their exposure level and checks for sensitive data.
For example, ThreatNG can find public code repositories containing API keys, credentials, or configuration files that, while not metadata themselves, can provide access to systems where metadata is stored and potentially exposed.
Mobile App Exposure: ThreatNG discovers mobile apps and analyzes their contents for access credentials, security credentials, and platform-specific identifiers.
For example, ThreatNG can identify if a mobile app contains hardcoded API keys or access tokens, which could be used to access backend systems and retrieve sensitive metadata.
3. Reporting
ThreatNG provides various reports, including executive, technical, and prioritized reports.
These reports can highlight areas where metadata exposure is risky, allowing organizations to focus their remediation efforts. For example, a report might list all subdomains with exposed databases or code repositories with leaked credentials.
ThreatNG continuously monitors the external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings.
This is essential for detecting new sources of metadata exposure as they arise. For example, if a new cloud service is provisioned without proper security controls, ThreatNG can detect it and alert the organization to the potential risk of metadata exposure.
ThreatNG's investigation modules provide detailed information that helps in understanding and mitigating metadata exposure:
Domain Intelligence: Provides a broad overview of an organization’s digital presence and specific intelligence related to domains, DNS, emails, WHOIS, and subdomains.
For example, Subdomain Intelligence can identify admin pages, APIs, development environments, and other potentially sensitive areas that might contain metadata. It also identifies ports, known vulnerabilities, web application firewall discovery, and vendor types.
Sensitive Code Exposure: This involves discovering public code repositories and uncovering digital risks, including exposed credentials, API keys, and other secrets.
For example, it can discover database exposures, application data exposures, activity records, and communication platform configurations. This is critical because code repositories are a prime location for accidental exposure of sensitive information and metadata.
Mobile Application Discovery: Discovers mobile apps and their contents, including access and security credentials.
For example, it can identify mobile apps with embedded API keys that could be used to access systems and retrieve user metadata.
Search Engine Exploitation: Helps investigate an organization’s susceptibility to exposing information via search engines.
For example, it can discover files like robots.txt and security.txt, which can reveal information about website structure and security policies, or it can identify potential sensitive information, privileged folders, and user data exposed via search engines.
Cloud and SaaS Exposure: Identifies sanctioned and unsanctioned cloud services, cloud service impersonations, exposed cloud buckets, and SaaS implementations.
For example, it can find exposed AWS S3 buckets containing sensitive data and metadata or list SaaS applications in use, which could have misconfigurations leading to metadata leaks.
Dark Web Presence: Monitors for organizational mentions, associated ransomware events, and compromised credentials.
For example, finding compromised credentials on the dark web indicates a higher risk of account takeover, which could expose metadata.
ThreatNG uses intelligence repositories, including data on the dark web, compromised credentials, ransomware events and groups, known vulnerabilities, and more.
These repositories provide valuable context and help ThreatNG identify and assess metadata exposure risks. For example, information on known vulnerabilities can prioritize remediation efforts for systems with exposed metadata.
7. Working with Complementary Solutions
While the provided document doesn't explicitly detail ThreatNG integrations, its capabilities suggest it would work well with complementary security solutions:
SIEM (Security Information and Event Management): ThreatNG's findings on exposed systems and potential vulnerabilities could be fed into a SIEM to correlate with other security events and provide a more comprehensive view of an organization's security posture.
For example, suppose ThreatNG identifies a server with exposed metadata and a known vulnerability, and the SIEM detects suspicious activity from that server. In that case, security teams can quickly investigate a potential breach.
SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response): ThreatNG alerts could trigger automated workflows in a SOAR platform to take actions such as isolating affected systems, notifying administrators, or initiating vulnerability scans.
For example, if ThreatNG detects exposed credentials in a code repository, a SOAR playbook could automatically revoke those credentials and notify the development team.
Vulnerability Management Tools: ThreatNG can complement vulnerability scanners by providing context for external attack surfaces.
For example, ThreatNG might identify a web application with potential metadata exposure, and a vulnerability scanner could then be used to perform a deeper analysis of that application for specific vulnerabilities.
ThreatNG helps with metadata exposure by providing external discovery, in-depth assessment, continuous monitoring, and investigation capabilities. It also uses intelligence repositories to enrich its findings and can work with complementary solutions to enhance overall security posture.
