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Information security is vital to business continuity. Organizations trust their IT teams to enable innovation and business transformation... Risk Management and Vulnerabilities How to optimize the security policy management lifecycle Tsippi Dach 2 min read Tsippi Dach Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 8/9/23 Published Information security is vital to business continuity. Organizations trust their IT teams to enable innovation and business transformation but need them to safeguard digital assets in the process. This leads some leaders to feel that their information security policies are standing in the way of innovation and business agility. Instead of rolling new a new enterprise application and provisioning it for full connectivity from the start, security teams demand weeks or months of time to secure those systems before they’re ready. But this doesn’t mean that cybersecurity is a bottleneck to business agility. The need for speedier deployment doesn’t automatically translate to increased risk. Organizations that manage application connectivity and network security policies using a structured lifecycle approach can improve security without compromising deployment speed. Many challenges stand between organizations and their application and network connectivity goals. Understanding each stage of the lifecycle approach to security policy change management is key to overcoming these obstacles. Challenges to optimizing security policy management ` Complex enterprise infrastructure and compliance requirements A medium-sizded enterprise may have hundreds of servers, systems, and security solutions like firewalls in place. These may be spread across several different cloud providers, with additional inputs from SaaS vendors and other third-party partners. Add in strict regulatory compliance requirements like HIPAA , and the risk management picture gets much more complicated. Even voluntary frameworks like NIST heavily impact an organization’s information security posture, acceptable use policies, and more – without the added risk of non-compliance. Before organizations can optimize their approach to security policy management, they must have visibility and control over an increasingly complex landscape. Without this, making meaningful progress of data classification and retention policies is difficult, if not impossible. Modern workflows involve non-stop change When information technology teams deploy or modify an application, it’s in response to an identified business need. When those deployments get delayed, there is a real business impact. IT departments now need to implement security measures earlier, faster, and more comprehensively than they used to. They must conduct risk assessments and security training processes within ever-smaller timeframes, or risk exposing the organization to vulnerabilities and security breaches . Strong security policies need thousands of custom rules There is no one-size-fits-all solution for managing access control and data protection at the application level. Different organizations have different security postures and security risk profiles. Compliance requirements can change, leading to new security requirements that demand implementation. Enterprise organizations that handle sensitive data and adhere to strict compliance rules must severely restrict access to information systems. It’s not easy to achieve PCI DSS compliance or adhere to GDPR security standards solely through automation – at least, not without a dedicated change management platform like AlgoSec . Effectively managing an enormous volume of custom security rules and authentication policies requires access to scalable security resources under a centralized, well-managed security program. Organizations must ensure their security teams are equipped to enforce data security policies successfully. Inter-department communication needs improvement Application deliver managers, network architects, security professionals, and compliance managers must all contribute to the delivery of new application projects. Achieving clear channels of communication between these different groups is no easy task. In most enterprise environments, these teams speak different technical languages. They draw their data from internally siloed sources, and rarely share comprehensive documentation with one another. In many cases, one or more of these groups are only brought in after everyone else has had their say, which significantly limits the amount of influence they can have. The lifecycle approach to managing IT security policies can help establish a standardized set of security controls that everyone follows. However, it also requires better communication and security awareness from stakeholders throughout the organization. The policy management lifecycle addresses these challenges in five stages ` Without a clear security policy management lifecycle in place, most enterprises end up managing security changes on an ad hoc basis. This puts them at a disadvantage, especially when security resources are stretched thin on incident response and disaster recovery initiatives. Instead of adopting a reactive approach that delays application releases and reduces productivity, organizations can leverage the lifecycle approach to security policy management to address vulnerabilities early in the application development lifecycle. This leaves additional resources available for responding to security incidents, managing security threats, and proactively preventing data breaches. Discover and visualize application connectivity The first stage of the security policy management lifecycle revolves around mapping how your apps connect to each other and to your network setup. The more details can include in this map, the better prepared your IT team will be for handling the challenges of policy management. Performing this discovery process manually can cost enterprise-level security teams a great deal of time and accuracy. There may be thousands of devices on the network, with a complex web of connections between them. Any errors that enter the framework at this stage will be amplified through the later stages – it’s important to get things right at this stage. Automated tools help IT staff improve the speed and accuracy of the discovery and visualization stage. This helps everyone – technical and nontechnical staff included – to understand what apps need to connect and work together properly. Automated tools help translate these needs into language that the rest of the organization can understand, reducing the risk of misconfiguration down the line. Plan and assess security policy changes Once you have a good understanding of how your apps connect with each other and your network setup, you can plan changes more effectively. You want to make sure these changes will allow the organization’s apps to connect with one another and work together without increasing security risks. It’s important to adopt a vulnerability-oriented perspective at this stage. You don’t want to accidentally introduce weak spots that hackers can exploit, or establish policies that are too complex for your organization’s employees to follow. This process usually involves translating application connectivity requests into network operations terms. Your IT team will have to check if the proposed changes are necessary, and predict what the results of implementing those changes might be. This is especially important for cloud-based apps that may change quickly and unpredictably. At the same time, security teams must evaluate the risks and determine whether the changes are compliant with security policy. Automating these tasks as part of a regular cycle ensures the data is always relevant and saves valuable time. Migrate and deploy changes efficiently The process of deploying new security rules is complex, time-consuming, and prone to error . It often stretches the capabilities of security teams that already have a wide range of operational security issues to address at any given time. In between managing incident response and regulatory compliance, they must now also manually update thousands of security rules over a fleet of complex network assets. This process gets a little bit easier when guided by a comprehensive security policy change management framework. But most organizations don’t unlock the true value of the security policy management lifecycle until they adopt automation. Automated security policy management platforms enable organizations to design rule changes intelligently, migrate rules automatically, and push new policies to firewalls through a zero-touch interface. They can even validate whether the intended changes updated correctly. This final step is especially important. Without it, security teams must manually verify whether their new policies successfully address the vulnerabilities the way they’re supposed to. This doesn’t always happen, leaving security teams with a false sense of security. Maintain configurations using templates Most firewalls accumulate thousands of rules as security teams update them against new threats. Many of these rules become outdated and obsolete over time, but remain in place nonetheless. This adds a great deal of complexity to small-scale tasks like change management, troubleshooting issues, and compliance auditing. It can also impact the performance of firewall hardware , which decreases the overall lifespan of expensive physical equipment. Configuration changes and maintenance should include processes for identifying and eliminating rules that are redundant, misconfigured, or obsolete. The cleaner and better-documented the organization’s rulesets are, the easier subsequent configuration changes will be. Rule templates provide a simple solution to this problem. Organizations that create and maintain comprehensive templates for their current firewall rulesets can easily modify, update, and change those rules without having to painstakingly review and update individual devices manually. Decommission obsolete applications completely Every business application will eventually reach the end of its lifecycle. However, many organizations keep decommissioned security policies in place for one of two reasons: Oversight that stems from unstandardized or poorly documented processes, or; Fear that removing policies will negatively impact other, active applications. As these obsolete security policies pile up, they force the organization to spend more time and resources updating their firewall rulesets. This adds bloat to firewall security processes, and increases the risk of misconfigurations that can lead to cyber attacks. A standardized, lifecycle-centric approach to security policy management makes space for the structured decommissioning of obsolete applications and the rules that apply to them. This improves change management and ensures the organization’s security posture is optimally suited for later changes. At the same time, it provides comprehensive visibility that reduces oversight risks and gives security teams fewer unknowns to fear when decommissioning obsolete applications. Many organizations believe that Security stands in the way of the business – particularly when it comes to changing or provisioning connectivity for applications. It can take weeks, or even months to ensure that all the servers, devices, and network segments that support the application can communicate with each other while blocking access to hackers and unauthorized users. It’s a complex and intricate process. This is because, for every single application update or change, Networking and Security teams need to understand how it will affect the information flows between the various firewalls and servers the application relies on, and then change connectivity rules and security policies to ensure that only legitimate traffic is allowed, without creating security gaps or compliance violations. As a result, many enterprises manage security changes on an ad-hoc basis: they move quickly to address the immediate needs of high-profile applications or to resolve critical threats, but have little time left over to maintain network maps, document security policies, or analyze the impact of rule changes on applications. This reactive approach delays application releases, can cause outages and lost productivity, increases the risk of security breaches and puts the brakes on business agility. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Nor is it necessary for businesses to accept greater security risk to satisfy the demand for speed. Accelerating agility without sacrificing security The solution is to manage application connectivity and network security policies through a structured lifecycle methodology, which ensures that the right security policy management activities are performed in the right order, through an automated, repeatable process. This dramatically speeds up application connectivity provisioning and improves business agility, without sacrificing security and compliance. So, what is the network security policy management lifecycle, and how should network and security teams implement a lifecycle approach in their organizations? Discover and visualize The first stage involves creating an accurate, real-time map of application connectivity and the network topology across the entire organization, including on-premise, cloud, and software-defined environments. Without this information, IT staff are essentially working blind, and will inevitably make mistakes and encounter problems down the line. Security policy management solutions can automate the application connectivity discovery, mapping, and documentation processes across the thousands of devices on networks – a task that is enormously time-consuming and labor-intensive if done manually. In addition, the mapping process can help business and technical groups develop a shared understanding of application connectivity requirements. Plan and assess Once there is a clear picture of application connectivity and the network infrastructure, you can start to plan changes more effectively – ensure that proposed changes will provide the required connectivity, while minimizing the risks of introducing vulnerabilities, causing application outages, or compliance violations. Typically, it involves translating application connectivity requests into networking terminology, analyzing the network topology to determine if the changes are really needed, conducting an impact analysis of proposed rule changes (particularly valuable with unpredictable cloud-based applications), performing a risk and compliance assessment, and assessing inputs from vulnerabilities scanners and SIEM solutions. Automating these activities as part of a structured lifecycle keeps data up-to-date, saves time, and ensures that these critical steps are not omitted – helping avoid configuration errors and outages. Functions Of An Automatic Pool Cleaner An automatic pool cleaner is very useful for people who have a bad back and find it hard to manually operate the pool cleaner throughout the pool area. This type of pool cleaner can move along the various areas of a pool automatically. Its main function is to suck up dirt and other debris in the pool. It functions as a vacuum. Automatic pool cleaners may also come in different types and styles. These include automatic pressure-driven cleaners, automatic suction side-drive cleaners, and robotic pool cleaners. Migrate and deploy Deploying connectivity and security rules can be a labor-intensive and error-prone process. Security policy management solutions automate the critical tasks involved, including designing rule changes intelligently, automatically migrating rules, and pushing policies to firewalls and other security devices – all with zero-touch if no problems or exceptions are detected. Crucially, the solution can also validate that the intended changes have been implemented correctly. This last step is often neglected, creating the false impression that application connectivity has been provided, or that vulnerabilities have been removed, when in fact there are time bombs ticking in the network. Maintain Most firewalls accumulate thousands of rules which become outdated or obsolete over the years. Bloated rulesets not only add complexity to daily tasks such as change management, troubleshooting and auditing, but they can also impact the performance of firewall appliances, resulting in decreased hardware lifespan and increased TCO. Cleaning up and optimizing security policies on an ongoing basis can prevent these problems. This includes identifying and eliminating or consolidating redundant and conflicting rules; tightening overly permissive rules; reordering rules; and recertifying expired ones. A clean, well-documented set of security rules helps to prevent business application outages, compliance violations, and security gaps and reduces management time and effort. Decommission Every business application eventually reaches the end of its life: but when they are decommissioned, its security policies are often left in place, either by oversight or from fear that removing policies could negatively affect active business applications. These obsolete or redundant security policies increase the enterprise’s attack surface and add bloat to the firewall ruleset. The lifecycle approach reduces these risks. It provides a structured and automated process for identifying and safely removing redundant rules as soon as applications are decommissioned while verifying that their removal will not impact active applications or create compliance violations. We recently published a white paper that explains the five stages of the security policy management lifecycle in detail. It’s a great primer for any organization looking to move away from a reactive, fire-fighting response to security challenges, to an approach that addresses the challenges of balancing security and risk with business agility. Download your copy here . Schedule a demo Related Articles 2025 in review: What innovations and milestones defined AlgoSec’s transformative year in 2025? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Driving Security Through Observability: Transforming Application Risk into Resilience WhitePaper Download PDF Schedule time with one of our experts Schedule time with one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

Previous Part of the analysis is available here. Next Part of the analysis is available here. Update from 19 December 2020: ‍Prevasio... Cloud Security Sunburst Backdoor, Part II: DGA & The List of Victims Rony Moshkovich 2 min read Rony Moshkovich Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 12/17/20 Published Previous Part of the analysis is available here . Next Part of the analysis is available here . Update from 19 December 2020: Prevasio would like to thank Zetalytics for providing us with an updated (larger) list of passive (historic) DNS queries for the domains generated by the malware. As described in the first part of our analysis, the DGA (Domain Generation Algorithm) of the Sunburst backdoor produces a domain name that may look like: fivu4vjamve5vfrtn2huov[.]appsync-api.us-west-2[.]avsvmcloud[.]com The first part of the domain name (before the first dot) consists of a 16-character random string, appended with an encoded computer’s domain name. This is the domain in which the local computer is registered. From the example string above, we can conclude that the encoded computer’s domain starts from the 17th character and up until the dot (highlighted in yellow): fivu4vjamve5vfrt n2huov In order to encode a local computer’s domain name, the malware uses one of 2 simple methods: Method 1 : a substitution table, if the domain name consists of small letters, digits, or special characters ‘-‘, ‘_’, ‘.’ Method 2 : base64 with a custom alphabet, in case of capital letters present in the domain name Method 1 In our example, the encoded domain name is “n2huov” . As it does not have any capital letters, the malware encodes it with a substitution table “rq3gsalt6u1iyfzop572d49bnx8cvmkewhj” . For each character in the domain name, the encoder replaces it with a character located in the substitution table four characters right from the original character. In order to decode the name back, all we have to do is to replace each encoded character with another character, located in the substitution table four characters left from the original character. To illustrate this method, imagine that the original substitution table is printed on a paper strip and then covered with a card with 6 perforated windows. Above each window, there is a sticker note with a number on it, to reflect the order of characters in the word “n2huov” , where ‘n’ is #1, ‘2’ is #2, ‘h’ is #3 and so on: Once the paper strip is pulled by 4 characters right, the perforated windows will reveal a different word underneath the card: “domain” , where ‘d’ is #1, ‘o’ is #2, ‘m’ is #3, etc.: A special case is reserved for such characters as ‘0’ , ‘-‘ , ‘_’ , ‘.’ . These characters are encoded with ‘0’ , followed with a character from the substitution table. An index of that character in the substitution table, divided by 4, provides an index within the string “0_-.” . The following snippet in C# illustrates how an encoded string can be decoded: static string decode_domain( string s) { string table = "rq3gsalt6u1iyfzop572d49bnx8cvmkewhj" ; string result = "" ; for ( int i = 0 ; i < s.Length; i++) { if (s[i] != '0' ) { result += table[(table.IndexOf(s[i]) + table.Length - 4 ) % table.Length]; } else { if (i < s.Length - 1 ) { if (table.Contains(s[i + 1 ])) { result += "0_-." [table.IndexOf(s[i + 1 ]) % 4 ]; } else { break ; } } i++; } } return result; } Method 2 This method is a standard base64 encoder with a custom alphabet “ph2eifo3n5utg1j8d94qrvbmk0sal76c” . Here is a snippet in C# that provides a decoder: public static string FromBase32String( string str) { string table = "ph2eifo3n5utg1j8d94qrvbmk0sal76c" ; int numBytes = str.Length * 5 / 8 ; byte [] bytes = new Byte[numBytes]; int bit_buffer; int currentCharIndex; int bits_in_buffer; if (str.Length < 3 ) { bytes[ 0 ] = ( byte )(table.IndexOf(str[ 0 ]) | table.IndexOf(str[ 1 ]) << 5 ); return System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(bytes); } bit_buffer = (table.IndexOf(str[ 0 ]) | table.IndexOf(str[ 1 ]) << 5 ); bits_in_buffer = 10 ; currentCharIndex = 2 ; for ( int i = 0 ; i < bytes.Length; i++) { bytes[i] = ( byte )bit_buffer; bit_buffer >>= 8 ; bits_in_buffer -= 8 ; while (bits_in_buffer < 8 && currentCharIndex < str.Length) { bit_buffer |= table.IndexOf(str[currentCharIndex++]) << bits_in_buffer; bits_in_buffer += 5 ; } } return System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(bytes); } When the malware encodes a domain using Method 2, it prepends the encrypted string with a double zero character: “00” . Following that, extracting a domain part of an encoded domain name (long form) is as simple as: static string get_domain_part( string s) { int i = s.IndexOf( ".appsync-api" ); if (i > 0 ) { s = s.Substring( 0 , i); if (s.Length > 16 ) { return s.Substring( 16 ); } } return "" ; } Once the domain part is extracted, the decoded domain name can be obtained by using Method 1 or Method 2, as explained above: if (domain.StartsWith( "00" )) { decoded = FromBase32String(domain.Substring( 2 )); } else { decoded = decode_domain(domain); } Decrypting the Victims’ Domain Names To see the decoder in action, let’s select 2 lists: List #1 Bambenek Consulting has provided a list of observed hostnames for the DGA domain. List #2 The second list has surfaced in a Paste bin paste , allegedly sourced from Zetalytics / Zonecruncher . NOTE: This list is fairly ‘noisy’, as it has non-decodable domain names. By feeding both lists to our decoder, we can now obtain a list of decoded domains, that could have been generated by the victims of the Sunburst backdoor. DISCLAIMER: It is not clear if the provided lists contain valid domain names that indeed belong to the victims. It is quite possible that the encoded domain names were produced by third-party tools, sandboxes, or by researchers that investigated and analysed the backdoor. The decoded domain names are provided purely as a reverse engineering exercise. The resulting list was manually processed to eliminate noise, and to exclude duplicate entries. Following that, we have made an attempt to map the obtained domain names to the company names, using Google search. Reader’s discretion is advised as such mappings could be inaccurate. Decoded Domain Mapping (Could Be Inaccurate) hgvc.com Hilton Grand Vacations Amerisaf AMERISAFE, Inc. kcpl.com Kansas City Power and Light Company SFBALLET San Francisco Ballet scif.com State Compensation Insurance Fund LOGOSTEC Logostec Ventilação Industrial ARYZTA.C ARYZTA Food Solutions bmrn.com BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. AHCCCS.S Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System nnge.org Next Generation Global Education cree.com Cree, Inc (semiconductor products) calsb.org The State Bar of California rbe.sk.ca Regina Public Schools cisco.com Cisco Systems pcsco.com Professional Computer Systems barrie.ca City of Barrie ripta.com Rhode Island Public Transit Authority uncity.dk UN City (Building in Denmark) bisco.int Boambee Industrial Supplies (Bisco) haifa.edu University of Haifa smsnet.pl SMSNET, Poland fcmat.org Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team wiley.com Wiley (publishing) ciena.com Ciena (networking systems) belkin.com Belkin spsd.sk.ca Saskatoon Public Schools pqcorp.com PQ Corporation ftfcu.corp First Tech Federal Credit Union bop.com.pk The Bank of Punjab nvidia.com NVidia insead.org INSEAD (non-profit, private university) usd373.org Newton Public Schools agloan.ads American AgCredit pageaz.gov City of Page jarvis.lab Erich Jarvis Lab ch2news.tv Channel 2 (Israeli TV channel) bgeltd.com Bradford / Hammacher Remote Support Software dsh.ca.gov California Department of State Hospitals dotcomm.org Douglas Omaha Technology Commission sc.pima.gov Arizona Superior Court in Pima County itps.uk.net IT Professional Services, UK moncton.loc City of Moncton acmedctr.ad Alameda Health System csci-va.com Computer Systems Center Incorporated keyano.local Keyano College uis.kent.edu Kent State University alm.brand.dk Sydbank Group (Banking, Denmark) ironform.com Ironform (metal fabrication) corp.ncr.com NCR Corporation ap.serco.com Serco Asia Pacific int.sap.corp SAP mmhs-fla.org Cleveland Clinic Martin Health nswhealth.net NSW Health mixonhill.com Mixon Hill (intelligent transportation systems) bcofsa.com.ar Banco de Formosa ci.dublin.ca. Dublin, City in California siskiyous.edu College of the Siskiyous weioffice.com Walton Family Foundation ecobank.group Ecobank Group (Africa) corp.sana.com Sana Biotechnology med.ds.osd.mi US Gov Information System wz.hasbro.com Hasbro (Toy company) its.iastate.ed Iowa State University amr.corp.intel Intel cds.capilanou. Capilano University e-idsolutions. IDSolutions (video conferencing) helixwater.org Helix Water District detmir-group.r Detsky Mir (Russian children’s retailer) int.lukoil-int LUKOIL (Oil and gas company, Russia) ad.azarthritis Arizona Arthritis and Rheumatology Associates net.vestfor.dk Vestforbrænding allegronet.co. Allegronet (Cloud based services, Israel) us.deloitte.co Deloitte central.pima.g Pima County Government city.kingston. City of Kingston staff.technion Technion – Israel Institute of Technology airquality.org Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District phabahamas.org Public Hospitals Authority, Caribbean parametrix.com Parametrix (Engineering) ad.checkpoint. Check Point corp.riotinto. Rio Tinto (Mining company, Australia) intra.rakuten. Rakuten us.rwbaird.com Robert W. Baird & Co. (Financial services) ville.terrebonn Ville de Terrebonne woodruff-sawyer Woodruff-Sawyer & Co., Inc. fisherbartoninc Fisher Barton Group banccentral.com BancCentral Financial Services Corp. taylorfarms.com Taylor Fresh Foods neophotonics.co NeoPhotonics (optoelectronic devices) gloucesterva.ne Gloucester County magnoliaisd.loc Magnolia Independent School District zippertubing.co Zippertubing (Manufacturing) milledgeville.l Milledgeville (City in Georgia) digitalreachinc Digital Reach, Inc. deniz.denizbank DenizBank thoughtspot.int ThoughtSpot (Business intelligence) lufkintexas.net Lufkin (City in Texas) digitalsense.co Digital Sense (Cloud Services) wrbaustralia.ad W. R. Berkley Insurance Australia christieclinic. Christie Clinic Telehealth signaturebank.l Signature Bank dufferincounty. Dufferin County mountsinai.hosp Mount Sinai Hospital securview.local Securview Victory (Video Interface technology) weber-kunststof Weber Kunststoftechniek parentpay.local ParentPay (Cashless Payments) europapier.inte Europapier International AG molsoncoors.com Molson Coors Beverage Company fujitsugeneral. Fujitsu General cityofsacramento City of Sacramento ninewellshospita Ninewells Hospital fortsmithlibrary Fort Smith Public Library dokkenengineerin Dokken Engineering vantagedatacente Vantage Data Centers friendshipstateb Friendship State Bank clinicasierravis Clinica Sierra Vista ftsillapachecasi Apache Casino Hotel voceracommunicat Vocera (clinical communications) mutualofomahabanMutual of Omaha Bank Schedule a demo Related Articles 2025 in review: What innovations and milestones defined AlgoSec’s transformative year in 2025? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

The cloud visibility imperative WhitePaper Download PDF Schedule time with one of our experts Schedule time with one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

As the most widely adapted open-source container software, Kubernetes provides businesses with efficient processes to schedule, deploy,... Cloud Security Understanding and Preventing Kubernetes Attacks and Threats Ava Chawla 2 min read Ava Chawla Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 10/20/21 Published As the most widely adapted open-source container software, Kubernetes provides businesses with efficient processes to schedule, deploy, and scale containers across different machines. The bad news is that cybercriminals have figured out how to exploit the platform’s vulnerabilities , resulting in catastrophic network intrusions across many company infrastructures. A recent report revealed that 94% of respondents reported security incidents in Kubernetes environments. The question is, what is behind this surge of Kubernetes attacks, and how can they be prevented? How Kubernetes is Vulnerable As a container-based platform, a new set of vulnerabilities, permission issues, and specific images set the stage for the increase in attacks. The threats have included fileless malware in containers, leveraging misconfigured Docker API ports, and using container images for attacks. Misconfigured Docker API Ports Exploitation Scanning for misconfigured Docker API ports and using them for deploying images containing malware is a relatively new type of attack. The malware, designed to evade static scanning, has become a popular method to hijack compute cycles for fraudulent cryptomining. This cryptojacking activity steals CPU power to mine currencies such as Ethereum and Monero. By first identifying vulnerable front-end websites and other systems, attackers send a command through the application layer simply by manipulating a domain’s text field or through an exposed API in the website’s URL. The code then enters the container, where it is executed with commands sent to a Docker container’s shell. A wget command is executed to download the malware. To protect against this attack, enterprises must ensure their container files are not writable, establish CPU consumption limits, and enable alerts to detect interactive shell launches. DDoS Attacks With Open Docker Daemons Cybercriminals use misconfigured open Docker daemons to launch DDoS attacks using a botnet of containers. UDP flood and Slowloris were recently identified as two such types of container-based botnet attacks. A recent blog describes an anatomy of these Kubernetes attacks. The attackers first identified open Docker daemons using a scanning tool such as Shodan to scan the internet for IP addresses and find a list of hosts, open ports, and services. By uploading their own dedicated images to the Docker hub, they succeeded in deploying and remotely running the images on the host. Analyzing how the UDP flood attack was orchestrated required an inspection of the binary with IDA. This revealed the start_flood and start_tick threads. The source code for the attack was found on Github. This code revealed a try_gb parameter, with the range of 0 to 1,024, used to configure how much data to input to flood the target. However, it was discovered that attackers are able to modify this open-source code to create a self-compiled binary that floods the host with even greater amounts of UDP packets. In the case of the Slowloris attack, cybercriminals launched DDoS with the slowhttptest utility. The attackers were able to create a self-compiling binary that is unidentifiable in malware scans. Protection from these Kubernetes attacks requires vigilant assurance policies and prevention of images other than compliant ones to run in the system. Non-compliant images will then be blocked when intrusion attempts are made. Man in the Middle Attacks With LoadBalancer or ExternalIPs An attack affecting all versions of Kubernetes involves multi-tenant clusters. The most vulnerable clusters have tenants that are able to create and update services and pods. In this breach, the attacker can intercept traffic from other pods or nodes in the cluster by creating a ClusterIP service and setting the spec.externalIP’s field. Additionally, a user who is able to patch the status of a LoadBalancer service can grab traffic. The only way to mitigate this threat is to restrict access to vulnerable features. This can be done with the admission webhook container, externalip-webhook , which prevents services from using random external IPs. An alternative method is to lock external IPs with OPA Gatekeeper with this sample Constraint Templatecan. Siloscape Malware Security researcher, Daniel Prizmant, describes a newer malware attack that he calls Siloscape. Its primary goal is to escape the container that is mainly implemented in Windows server silo. The malware targets Kubernetes through Windows containers to open a backdoor into poorly configured clusters to run the malicious containers. While other malware attacks focus on cryptojacking, the Siloscape user’s motive is to go undetected and open a backdoor to the cluster for a variety of malicious activities. This is possible since Siloscape is virtually undetectable due to a lack of readable strings in the binary. This type of attack can prove catastrophic. It compromises an entire cluster running multiple cloud applications. Cybercriminals can access critical information including sign-ins, confidential files, and complete databases hosted inside the cluster. Additionally, organizations using Kubernetes clusters for testing and development can face catastrophic damage should these environments be breached. To prevent a Siloscape attack, it is crucial that administrators ensure their Kubernetes clusters are securely configured. This will prevent the malware from creating new deployments and force Siloscape to exit. Microsoft also recommends using only Hyper-V containers as a security boundary for anything relying on containerization. The Threat Matrix The MITRE ATT&CK database details additional tactics and techniques attackers are using to infiltrate Kubernetes environments to access sensitive information, mine cryptocurrency, perform DDoS attacks, and other unscrupulous activities. The more commonly used methods are as follows: 1. Kubernetes file compromise Because this file holds sensitive data such as cluster credentials, an attacker could easily gain initial access to the entire cluster. Only accept kubeconfig files from trusted sources. Others should be thoroughly inspected before they are deployed. 2. Using similar pod names Attackers create similar pod names and use random suffixes to hide them in the cluster. The pods then run malicious code and obtain access to many other resources. 3. Kubernetes Secrets intrusion Attackers exploit any misconfigurations in the cluster with the goal of accessing the API server and retrieving information from the Secrets objects. 4. Internal network access Attackers able to access a single pod that communicates with other pods or applications can move freely within the cluster to achieve their goals. 5. Using the writeable hostPath mount Attackers with permissions to create new containers can create one with a writeable hostPath volume. Kubernetes Attacks: Key Takeaways Kubernetes brings many advantages to organizations but also presents a variety of security risks, as documented above. However, by ensuring their environments are adequately protected through proper configuration and appropriately assigned permissions, the threat of Kubernetes attacks is greatly minimized. Should a container be compromised, properly assigned privileges can severely limit a cluster-wide compromise. Prevasio assists companies in the management of their cloud security through built-in vulnerability and anti-malware scans for containers. Contact us for more information on our powerful CSPM solutions. Learn about how we can protect your company from Kubernetes attacks and other cyberattacks. Schedule a demo Related Articles 2025 in review: What innovations and milestones defined AlgoSec’s transformative year in 2025? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Cloud computing has become a cornerstone of business operations, with cloud security at the forefront of strategic concerns. In a recent... Cloud Network Security Shaping tomorrow: Leading the way in cloud security Adel Osta Dadan 2 min read Adel Osta Dadan Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. cnapp Tags Share this article 12/28/23 Published Cloud computing has become a cornerstone of business operations, with cloud security at the forefront of strategic concerns. In a recent SANS webinar , our CTO Prof. Avishai Wool discussed why more companies are becoming more concerned protecting their containerized environments, given the fact that they are being targeted in cloud-based breaches more than ever. Watch the SANS webinar now! Embracing CNAPP (Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform) is crucial, particularly for its role in securing these versatile yet vulnerable container environments. Containers, encapsulating code and dependencies, are pivotal in modern application development, offering portability and efficiency. Yet, they introduce unique security challenges. With 45% of breaches occurring in cloud-based settings, the emphasis on securing containers is more critical than ever. CNAPP provides a comprehensive shield, addressing specific vulnerabilities inherent to containers, such as configuration errors or compromised container images. The urgent need for skilled container security experts The deployment of CNAPP solutions, while technologically advanced, also hinges on human expertise. The shortage of skills in cloud security management, particularly around container technologies, poses a significant challenge. As many as 35% of IT decision-makers report difficulties in navigating data privacy and security management, underscoring the urgent need for skilled professional’s adept in CNAPP and container security. The economic stakes of failing to secure cloud environments, especially containers, are high. Data breaches, on average, cost companies a staggering $4.35 million . This figure highlights not just the financial repercussions but also the potential damage to reputation and customer trust. CNAPP’s role extends beyond security, serving as a strategic investment against these multifaceted risks. As we navigate the complexitis of cloud security, CNAPP’s integration for container protection represents just one facet of a broader strategy. Continuous monitoring, regular security assessments, and a proactive approach to threat detection and response are also vital. These practices ensure comprehensive protection and operational resilience in a landscape where cloud dependency is rapidly increasing. The journey towards securing cloud environments, with a focus on containers, is an ongoing endeavour. The strategic implementation of CNAPP, coupled with a commitment to cultivating skilled cybersecurity expertise, is pivotal. By balancing advanced technology with professional acumen, organizations can confidently navigate the intricacies of cloud security, ensuring both digital and economic resilience in our cloud-dependent world. #CNAPP Schedule a demo Related Articles 2025 in review: What innovations and milestones defined AlgoSec’s transformative year in 2025? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Partner solution brief Manage secure application connectivity within ServiceNow Download PDF Schedule time with one of our experts Schedule time with one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

Algosec helps to securely accelerate application delivery by automating application connectivity and security policy across the hybrid network estate. AlgoSec Horizon Platform Secure application connectivity across your hybrid environment Horizon Solution Brief Schedule a demo Experience the power of AlgoSec Horizon— the industry's first application-centric security management platform for the hybrid network environment. Gain deep visibility, automate security changes and ensure continuous compliance in your datacenter and multi-cloud network Streamlining Connectivity & Security with AlgoSec Horizon Applications are the backbone of modern business, but managing their connectivity across hybrid environments is increasingly complex. Disparate systems, security risks, and compliance demands add to the challenge. Futureproofing cloud and datacenter security convergence, the AlgoSec Horizon platform unifies on-premises and cloud environments, ensuring seamless connectivity, robust security, and continuous compliance. eBook - Secure application connectivity across your hybrid environment Discover actionable insights to reduce complexity, secure your applications, and ensure seamless connectivity across on-premises and cloud environments. Download Trusted by over 2,200 organizations since 2004 Watch Chris Thomas, AlgoSec CRO, discussing how securing application connectivity relates to policy changes in the hybrid environment. Discover the business benefits of AlgoSec Horizon Platform in this executive brochure. Download now See how applying an application centric approach allowed Nationwide Insurance to easily visualize and manage their applications' security policies throughout their entire network. Today, leading CISOs strive to bring cloud and datacenter security teams together, recognizing that applications are increasingly interconnected across multiple clouds and datacenters. This complexity demands a platform that provides holistic coverage across their entire estate.
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across your entire application fabric AlgoSec brings together your infrastructure, security policies and the applications that run your business, so you can drive change across the estate and speed application delivery Cloud/SDN ITSM Network & Security DevOps / Automation SIEM/SOAR Micro-segmentation Vulnerability scanners Chat solutions Learn more about our technology partners Schedule a call with an expert to start securing application connectivity today Schedule a call with an expert to start securing application connectivity today Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

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