IT environments are at the speed it is getting complexer every day. Misconfigured cloud services, forgotten subdomains, exposed API services even shadow IT unknowingly operated by individual teams. These blind spots are exactly the unmonitored assets and the weaknesses that attackers exploit. Leading to data breaches, ransomware attacks and other severe business impact.
Attack Surface
Most businesses focus on protecting what’s obvious: the big systems, the customer databases, the payment gateways. But hackers aren’t always looking for the front door. They look for the backdoor or forgotten places no one thinks to check.
That is your attack surface: every path way an attacker could use to gain access. You might secure the front door, but if the windows are open or the backdoor is unlocked, you are still at risk.
A real-world example: the hidden risk
During a penetration test for a cloud-based web application, we found that the core features were well implemented and secure. The software company had clearly invested in protecting its critical functionalities.
However, under time pressure to meet security compliance requirements for a potential new customer, they apparently rushed to implement an auditing and logging feature. While their intentions were good, the design and implementation hadn’t been carefully thought through. It was a surprise, after taking days to find a serious vulnerability, and then we finally got a serious vulnerability and unauthorized access at the very last moment.
HTTP request: GET /audit/logs/10246 HTTP /1.1 Host: api.example.com HTTP response: { "id": 10246, "event": "password_reset", "timestamp": "2025-03-09T14:05:00Z", "user": "[email protected]", "ip_address": "183.0.2.224", "details": { "reset_link": "https://app.example.com/reset?token=sensitive-token", "temporary_password": "TempPass!23" } }
This became the weakest link in their environment. We were able to gain unauthorized access to their audit and logging data, where we found exposed secrets and passwords. Even impacting multiple tenants. Using these credentials, we were able to gain unauthorized access to user accounts and sensitive data of various customers. We worked closely with them afterward to help remediate the security issues with recommendations and security best practices.
Traditional methodologies are not enough
Traditional methodologies such as scheduled vulnerability scans which running once a week or day, are no longer enough today. In these modern ages we have DevOps teams developing and building applications that only live a couple of hours attached to the internet (‘micro services’). Spinning up and spinning down, leaving these assets hard to detect using traditional scanning methodologies.
We have also seen the speed of exploitation of zero-day exploits (e.g. Log4j and MOVEit), where threat actors weaponized the zero day vulnerabilities within hours after disclosure. And the rise of AI powered attacks, will require shorter scan intervals that are real-time to identify unmonitored assets, exposures and vulnerabilities.
Managing your attack surface
Our real world example highlights a simple truth: your attack surface is constantly evolving. Every new feature, integration, or workaround creates potential new entry points for attackers.
Your organization needs a solution that combines traditional asset management and vulnerability management that fits what we need today. This means a real-time and continuous solution that can:
- Proactively identify and mitigate security exposures
- Continuously Discover New Assets
- Deep Data Enrichment to fully understand the complex Attack Surface and context of assets/vulnerabilities.
- Near real-time scanning to be alarmed before Zero Day exploits are used by threat actors
- Perform Risk Assessment to categorize, prioritize and reduce the potential attack vectors
- Help IT teams and departments with collaboration, sharing insights and coordinate responses through real-time reporting and notifications.
Staying ahead requires a true Attack Surface Management (ASM) solution and a platform that works alongside Bug Bounty Hunters to maximize security outcomes with a true ASM solution.
Start securing your business now!
At Sawah Cyber Security we help business like yours to stay ahead of attackers by continuously monitoring and managing their attack surface. Even combining Attack Surface Management Service with our Continuous Penetration Testing service to take everything out of your hands!
- Interested how we can help?
- Interested in our ASM as Managed Security Service?
- Interested how we can fully empower your team by combining ASM and our Continuous Penetration Test service?
Schedule a call with our Sales Team via our Contact form or by email [email protected] to find more about how can help you and your business.
