Attack surface analysis is the process of mapping out an organization’s attack surfaces. These consist of the set of attack vectors that an attacker could use to target an organization. Organizations have both external and internal attack surfaces. An external attack surface includes all potential attack vectors that could be used to gain initial access to an organization’s environment from the public Internet.

An attack surface is the sum total of all the various ways that a cyber threat actor could attack an organization. This includes everything from software vulnerabilities, like SQL injection, to lost and stolen devices to social engineering attacks against the organization’s employees or third-party partners. An organization’s overall attack surface can further be divided into its external and internal attack surfaces.

A lot goes into deciding what to buy during the holiday shopping season – shipping times, sale prices, and finding the perfect gift for your niece (who is impossible to shop for) are likely to be at the top of your mind. Unfortunately, attackers are counting on that. An attacker’s best friend is urgency and Black Friday kicks off a perfect season for them.

On November 18, 2024, Palo Alto Networks (PAN) fully disclosed two serious vulnerabilities in PAN-OS software that had previously been partially disclosed on November 8th. The first vulnerability, CVE-2024-0012, is a critical severity (9.3) authentication bypass in the PAN-OS management web interface. It allows unauthenticated attackers with network access to gain administrator privileges by bypassing the authentication check entirely, essentially telling the server not to check for authentication at all.

An authentication bypass in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS software enables an unauthenticated attacker with network access to the management web interface to gain PAN-OS administrator privileges and perform administrative actions, tamper with the configuration, or exploit other authenticated privilege escalation vulnerabilities like CVE-2024-9474.

IONIX today announced the release of our Cloud Exposure Validator, a tool designed to reduce cloud vulnerability management noise shifting focus to findings that represent the biggest threats. The Validator addresses the growing challenges organizations face in managing cloud security risks effectively. This blog post explains how.

A critical authentication bypass vulnerability has been identified in the WordPress plugin Really Simple Security (formerly known as Really Simple SSL), affecting both its free and Pro versions.

External Attack Surface Management, or EASM, has become a necessary component of a proactive cybersecurity strategy. According to research from Enterprise Strategy Group, over 65% of breaches stem from a compromised, externally exposed asset, so knowing your attack surface is key to avoiding breaches. Gartner, for this reason, is recommending EASM as a key pillar in the new approach to proactive security they call Exposure Management.

Third-party vendors are essential for many business operations, from cloud providers to SaaS applications. However, they add to the ever-growing scope of an organization’s risk management. Third-party risk management (TPRM) is the process of identifying, assessing, and mitigating the security risks posed by vendors, contractors, and service providers that have access to your organization’s data or systems.

Two Citrix vulnerabilities (CVE-2024-8068 and CVE-2024-8069) can potentially lead to unauthenticated remote code execution. Note: according to the vendor, privilege escalation to NetworkService Account access in Citrix Session Recording and limited remote code execution with privilege of a NetworkService Account access in Citrix Session Recording is possible when an attacker is an authenticated user in the same intranet.