What Is an Attack Surface?

The attack surface is defined as all the vulnerabilities and entry points relevant to an organization that a bad actor could use to access or abuse resources inside a network without authorization or technical controls. This can include local software, process execution, external devices connected to the network, embedded systems, data analysis routines, edge and endpoint devices, data transmission pipelines, cloud applications, and even physical media such as USB thumb drives.

Types of Attack Surfaces

Understanding and owning the attack surface has become foundational for an organization’s comprehensive cyber defense strategy. The more an organization understands its ever-evolving attack surface, the quicker it can remedy potential vulnerabilities before they are exploited or exfiltrated. Continuous, fully-automated external attack surface management tools, sometimes a capability provided through an External Risk Management solution, help organizations to discover the full extent of the attack surface that must be defended.

Attack surfaces can be broadly categorized into three types:

Digital Attack Surface

The attack surface of a company’s IT environment is the sum of all weaknesses in software and in any other digital assets involved in the web, including:

• Web Applications: Weaknesses in web applications, such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS).
• Servers and Databases: Misconfigurations or unpatched vulnerabilities in servers and databases.
• Endpoints: Laptops, desktops, mobile devices, and other endpoints that connect to the network.
• Cloud Services: Vulnerabilities within cloud network infrastructure and services.

Physical Attack Surface

The ‘physical attack surface’ relates to the literal hardware that might be attacked to gain unauthorized access and includes:

• Network Devices: Routers, switches, and other networking hardware.
• On-Premises Servers: Physical access to data centers and server rooms.
• Workstations and Laptops: Physical access to employees’ devices.

Social Engineering Attack Surface

Social engineering attack surface involves exploiting human psychology to gain unauthorized access, including:

• Phishing attacks: Emails or messages designed to trick users into providing sensitive information.
• Pretexting: Creating a fabricated scenario to steal personal information.
• Baiting: Leaving malicious devices (such as USB drives) in places from which they might be taken and used.

Importance of Attack Surface Analysis

Analyzing the attack surface is vital for several reasons:

• Identify possible vulnerabilities: Understanding all entry points will allow companies to identify their weaknesses before hackers start targeting them. One method to identify such vulnerabilities is penetration testing.
• Prioritize Security: Asset owners can use attack surface analysis to reorder their defense work plan to focus on the most vital cyber risks and exposures first.
• Improve incident response: Knowledge of your attack surface makes it so that responses to security incidents can be more effective and efficient.
• Compliance and Auditing: Regular analysis keeps to the industry rules and prepares the organization to be examined by security audits as well.

Strategies for Reducing the Attack Surface

You achieve an attack surface reduction by eliminating the footprint of possible entry points and weaknesses. Some approaches include:

• Regular Updates and Patching: Installing patches from their security patch list keeps all systems and applications updated and closes holes that attackers try to use.
• Network Segmentation: Carving up the network into sections so that an attack can’t spread too far limits the impact of troublesome breaches.
• Access Control: The implementation of robust access control measures, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), ensures that only authorized users have access to sensitive systems and data, which significantly reduces the risk of account compromises and unauthorized access.
• Employee Training: Training staff for such scenarios reduces the impact of social engineering attacks by educating employees about common tactics for causing a security breach, as well as specific methods for phishing scams, etc.
• Vulnerability Management: Running regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing to identify and mitigate potential risks. Vulnerability management can help to harden your organization against many different cyber attack methods.

Attack Surface Management Tools and Services

Several tools and services can help manage the potential attack surface:

• External Attack Surface Management (EASM): EASM tools have a process of continuous monitoring external-facing assets to identify and reduce IT footprint.
• Security Information and Event Management (SIEM): SIEM solutions can capture and analyze security-related data from multiple environments and act when an anomaly is detected.
• Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDPS): IDPS solutions watch network traffic for signs of an attack and can prevent it from happening by blocking the attacker.

Attack Surface Management with IGS

Taking effective action to manage an organization’s attack surface is something you should never stop doing, and you will undoubtedly need the best tools and services to help you.

Check Point’s Check Point Services (IGS) can provide exactly that, including around-the-clock attack surface management, so your employees can do what you hired them to do – work on all those new products and services to take your business to the next level, while we take care of your cybersecurity needs. Boost your cyber resilience with Check Point’s cutting-edge attack surface management.