What is attack surface management?

Attack surface management (ASM) is a part of cybersecurity that focuses on identifying, monitoring, and securing all the points in an organization’s digital ecosystem where unauthorized access can occur, including on-premises and cloud environments. It involves continuous assessment and mitigation of vulnerabilities across all networks, software, and system assets, providing a proactive approach to prevent data breaches and cyber attacks. 

What is an attack surface? 

An attack surface is the sum of all the potential points or areas of an organization’s digital asset ecosystem through which attackers can gain access. The attack surface can vary in size and complexity depending on the organization’s digital footprint, which encompasses not just the company’s networks and systems but also any third-party services it uses, cloud-based applications, devices used by remote workers, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

The larger and more complex an organization’s digital footprint, the larger its attack surface is, and consequently, the more opportunities for a cyber attack.

Elements of an attack surface in a cybersecurity context include various components and points of entry, including the following. 

• APIs (application programming interfaces)—interfaces used for communication between different software applications
• Cloud services—resources and services hosted in the cloud, including storage and computing services 
• Data storage and databases—repositories where sensitive data is stored and managed 
• Email systems—individual accounts and platforms for email communication  
• Endpoints—user devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops, especially those used for remote access 
• External network interfaces—points where the internal network connects with external networks or the internet 
• Hardware devices—physical devices such as servers, computers, routers, and switches  
• Human interaction points—any person with access to an organization’s digital ecosystem
• IoT devices—internet-connected devices, such as sensors, cameras, printers, and scanners 
• Network infrastructure—components such as firewalls, load balancers, virtual private network (VPN) gateways, and open ports 
• Software—external-facing applications (e.g., web services), internal applications, and operating systems 
• User accounts and credentials—usernames, passwords, and other authentication methods 
• Web applications—websites and web-based services accessible to the public 

Why attack surface management is important

The importance of attack surface management lies in its role as a proactive defense mechanism. It offers enhanced, continuous visibility of an organization’s entire digital footprint to help security teams take preemptive measures to detect unusual behavior that could indicate a cyber attack and take swift action to stop it or contain it.  

Reasons attack surface management is important and should be a top priority for any organization include the following. 

Enhancing compliance and reducing risk

Attack surface management helps in maintaining compliance with various regulatory standards, reducing the risk of penalties or fines due to exploits that compromise data privacy and security. 

Evolving digital landscapes

As digital ecosystems become increasingly complex and ever-changing, with assets spread across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments, so do the threats. Attack surface management provides comprehensive visibility into these assets, assessing vulnerabilities from the perspective of a threat actor to uncover hidden risks. 

Identification of vulnerabilities

Attack surface management facilitates the identification of known and unknown vulnerabilities across all digital assets. This includes everything from cloud services and endpoints to IoT devices to provide a comprehensive, holistic view of potential risk areas. 

Proactive security

By continuously monitoring the attack surface, attack surface management allows organizations to adopt a proactive approach to security. It enables the identification and mitigation of vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them. 

Managing unknown digital assets

Despite warnings, users continue to deploy unauthorized digital assets—from IoT devices to cloud services. These unknown or rogue assets, referred to as shadow IT, pose significant security risks. Attack surface management helps detect these on an ongoing basis so that they can be secured and managed. 

Rapid response to emerging threats

The continuous visibility that attack surface management gives security teams allows them to take rapid action to deter emerging threats by detecting gaps in advance of attacks, often in real-time. 

Supporting strategic decision making

Attack surface management gives leadership, particularly chief information security officers (CISOs), actionable insights to inform strategic security decisions. With visibility across all digital assets and details about how they work together, attack surface management helps align decisions with the organization’s broader objectives and risk management strategies. 

Taking an attacker’s perspective

Unlike other cybersecurity tactics, attack surface management approaches security from the attacker’s viewpoint. This gives organizations a unique perspective that helps security teams better anticipate and prepare for various attack methods and identify potential targets. 

How attack surface management works

Attack surface management works by focusing on identifying, assessing, remediating, and continuously monitoring to inform defense strategies and proactively protect against cyber attacks. The process involves several key phases. 

ASM phase one: Asset delivery and identification 

Attack surface management begins with identifying all assets within an organization’s digital ecosystem. The objective is to gain comprehensive visibility into the organization’s entire digital footprint, detecting all digital assets of an organization, both known and unknown, and to create a complete inventory of assets. 

ASM phase two: Asset classification and risk assessment 

Once assets are discovered, the next step is to analyze and classify them based on various criteria, such as the role of each asset within the IT environment, including its usage, ownership, internet protocol (IP) address, and network connections. This phase also involves identifying the configurations of these assets and how they interact with each other. 

Additional context is provided with a risk assessment conducted by scanning for known vulnerabilities, such as outdated software, misconfigurations, open ports, and weak encryption protocols. Along with vulnerabilities, assets are assessed for criticality to operations, data sensitivity, accessibility from the internet, and the potential impact of a breach. Each vulnerability is then assigned a risk score based on these factors. 

ASM phase three: Prioritization

Based on the risk assessment, vulnerabilities are prioritized for remediation. Considerations for prioritization include:

• Impact severity 
• Exploitability 
• Asset criticality 
• Complexity of the risk
• History of exploitation
• Exploitation likelihood 

High-impact and easily exploitable vulnerabilities on critical assets should be given top priority. Then, other risks are considered based on context, which helps security teams make data-driven decisions about remediation and how to allocate resources optimally.  

Attack surface management’s strategic approach to risk prioritization is essential for enhancing an organization’s cybersecurity measures.

ASM phase four: Remediation management

After identifying, assessing, and prioritizing vulnerabilities, attack surface management guides their remediation. This could involve patching software, reconfiguring systems, network segmentation, or decommissioning high-risk vulnerable assets. 

ASM phase five: Continuous monitoring and adaptation

The attack surface management process is continuous. Assets and threats are constantly evolving, requiring ongoing monitoring.  

This phase ensures that new vulnerabilities are quickly identified and addressed, and that the organization adapts to emerging threats. It includes scanning for new vulnerabilities as they emerge, as well as tracking changes to existing ones to ensure that defenses remain effective. In addition, regular testing should be conducted to confirm that security systems are performing according to established standards. 

Functions of attack surface management

Attack surface management encompasses several crucial functions aimed at proactive defenses against and responses to potential vulnerabilities in a digital environment. These include a combination of automated tools, skilled personnel, and well-defined processes.  

Additionally, collaboration across various departments within an organization is necessary to fully understand the scale and scope of risks and deploy effective mitigation tactics.

Asset management

In attack surface management, asset management involves the identification, classification, configuration, and monitoring of assets such as servers, endpoints, applications, and network devices. Effective asset management ensures that every component of the IT infrastructure is accounted for, regularly updated, and securely configured.   

Compliance management

In addition to ensuring that organizations meet security requirements to comply with various regulations, attack surface management solutions can be used to generate reports. These include detailed reports about compliance gaps to direct and prioritize remediation efforts as well as audits that demonstrate that they have taken adequate measures to protect sensitive data and meet other security requirements.    

Configuration management software

These solutions are used to maintain and manage the configurations of network and system components. Configuration management software ensures that all devices and software within the network conform to the organization’s security policies and standards.  

This software also automates the tracking and control of configuration changes, helping to prevent misconfigurations that can lead to security vulnerabilities. It also aids in quickly identifying unauthorized changes. 

Incident response

Insights from attack surface management tools help security teams develop effective incident response plans as well as identify the entry point when a security incident occurs. By continuously monitoring the attack surface, ASM can also help detect potential attacks in progress and automate some incident response tactics. 

Network mapping tools

Network mapping tools help visualize an organization’s network infrastructure. They automatically identify and map network devices such as servers, routers, switches, and firewalls, revealing how these elements are interconnected. This visualization aids in identifying potential vulnerabilities and insecure connections within the network.   

Reporting and visualization

Attack surface management tools provide detailed reports and visualizations of the organization’s attack surface, highlighting areas of concern and tracking progress over time. These comprehensive reports also detail the organization’s security status, including vulnerabilities, threats, and remediation efforts. This facilitates strategic decision-making and communication with stakeholders and executives. 

Security policy enforcement

In attack surface management, security policy involves implementing and enforcing policies across the network, systems, and applications to maintain a consistent security posture. The objective is to mitigate risks associated with vulnerabilities, unauthorized access, and potential breaches. By rigorously applying these policies, organizations maintain a consistent security posture. 

Skilled personnel

Attack surface management relies on skilled personnel to implement, manage, and support systems. This group comprises various cybersecurity experts, including security analysts, penetration testers, network administrators, and incident response teams. Their expertise is crucial in interpreting data from automated tools, identifying false positives, and selecting and implementing appropriate security measures. 

Third-party risk management

Attack surface management provides insights into risks across the growing number of third-party services that organizations depend on for day-to-day operations. It also includes details about their security posture and how it aligns with the organization’s security standards.   

Threat intelligence

Some attack surface management solutions include integrated threat intelligence feeds. These provide details about known threats (e.g., common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs), a list of publicly disclosed computer security flaws) and real-time information about emerging threats.

User and entity behavior analytics (UEBA)

UEBA for attack surface management plays a crucial role in identifying anomalous behavior patterns that could indicate potential security threats. These systems analyze and monitor user and entity activities across the network, using advanced analytics to detect unusual actions that deviate from regular patterns.

This proactive approach helps in early identification of insider threats, compromised accounts, and other malicious activities. By integrating UEBA into attack surface management, organizations can identify elusive, sophisticated, and emerging threats. 

Vulnerability scanners

Vulnerability scanners are crucial tools in attack surface management. They are used to automatically detect and assess vulnerabilities within an organization’s network by scanning systems, applications, and network devices to identify security weaknesses (e.g., outdated software, misconfigurations, and open ports). By providing detailed reports on vulnerabilities, they help organizations prioritize and address security risks effectively.   

Well-defined processes

Key processes in attack surface management include regular risk assessments, incident response planning, patch management strategies, and compliance checks. These processes ensure a structured and consistent approach to managing and mitigating security risks. 

Attack surface management FAQ

How often should attack surface managements be conducted?

ASM assessments should be conducted continuously. This enables real-time identification of vulnerabilities and rapid remediation, which minimizes or eliminates the exploit opportunities for cybercriminals.

How should an organization prioritize attack surface vulnerabilities?

An organization should prioritize attack surface vulnerabilities based on their potential risk and impact. This involves considering factors such as the sensitivity of the data at risk, how likely an exploit is, the potential impact of an attack, and the resources required to remediate the vulnerability. A tool such as the common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) can help quantify and rank these risks.

Additionally, regulatory requirements may dictate the prioritization of particular vulnerabilities.

How can the enterprise mitigate attack surface risks?

Examples of tactics to mitigate attack surface risks include:

• Authentication and access controls 
• Employee training on cybersecurity best practices
• Incident response planning
• Secure configurations 
• Software patch and update management
• Web application security

Proactive security from an attacker’s perspective

Enabling proactive responses and approaching cybersecurity from the attackers’ perspective are two core characteristics of attack surface management solutions. ASM involves continuous probing of all entry points in an environment to identify exploitation opportunities before an attack.  

While it cannot eliminate the threat from cyberattacks, attack surface management gives security teams advance warning and near-real-time alerts to get in front of trouble, blocking it or mitigating potential damage. By adopting ASM, organizations can significantly reduce their vulnerability to cyber attacks, thereby strengthening their overall cybersecurity posture. 

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