Eighty-eight percent of critical and high-severity vulnerabilities identified during live attack simulations this year would have remained undetected by relying solely on vendor advisories or external intelligence sources.
Data from Armadin, an offensive security startup, highlights that 67% of critical findings and 78% of high-severity issues stemmed from custom-written software. Furthermore, 24% of critical findings involved vendor products configured in ways not covered by standard advisories, such as internet-exposed administrative consoles.
The report indicates that 70% of these severe vulnerabilities existed on the unauthenticated attack surface, with 82% of attack chains initiating without credentials. In many instances, attackers reached critical outcomes in three steps or fewer. Exposed service accounts frequently facilitated these breaches, with 71% of compromised credentials belonging to automated applications rather than human users.
Most of these secrets were accessible within configuration files, logs or cloud settings. Armadin emphasizes that 93% of these severe findings require internal remediation rather than third-party intervention. Recommended actions include implementing stricter policies for credential management and conducting regular audits of code repositories to prevent the exposure of sensitive secrets. These findings underscore the necessity for organizations to prioritize internal security posture over passive reliance on external vulnerability disclosures.
Source: Infosecurity Magazine
Kelley Damore is Chief Content Officer at CyberRisk Alliance, where she leads content strategy across the company’s digital brands, research, communities and live events serving CISOs and security practitioners. At CyberRisk Alliance, she is focused on delivering 365-day engagement, trusted journalism and actionable insights to help security leaders navigate an increasingly complex threat landscape.
Kelley Damore is Chief Content Officer at CyberRisk Alliance, where she leads content strategy across the company’s digital brands, research, communities and live events serving CISOs and security practitioners. At CyberRisk Alliance, she is focused on delivering 365-day engagement, trusted journalism and actionable insights to help security leaders navigate an increasingly complex threat landscape.
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