Crypto-related issues (particularly misconceptions of SSL) are given special attention when assessing an organization’s external attack surface. why? The widespread use for attackers and users, configuration complexity, and visibility make them more likely to be exploited.
This highlights how important SSL configurations are to maintain security for web applications and minimize attack surfaces. However, studies show that most (53.5%) websites have insufficient security and weak SSL/TLS configurations are one of the most common application vulnerabilities.
Getting the SSL configuration correctly increases cyber resilience and keeps your apps and data safe. However, you can make that mistake and increase the attack surface of your organization and expose your business to more cyberattacks. We investigate the effects of SSL misconceptions and explain why they pose such a serious offensive risk. Below is how a solid EASM platform can help you overcome the challenges associated with detecting misconfiguration issues.
Understanding the misconceptions and attack aspects of SSL
SSL misconceptions occur when SSL certificates are inappropriately set up or managed, leading to vulnerabilities within your organization’s network. These misconceptions include outdated encryption algorithms, false certificate setups, expired SSL certificates, and more. Such vulnerabilities directly affect the attack surface of an organization by creating possible entry routes for hackers.
SSL Misconfiguration: Critical attack risks
SSL certificates provide a secure channel for sending data between clients and servers. They authenticate the identity of the website and ensure that users communicate with the intended entities. However, misunderstandings about SSL certificates can lead to the following risks:
Intermediate (MITM) Attacks: MITM attacks allow an attacker to intercept communication between two parties (usually a user and a web service), allowing an attacker to steal, modify or redirect communications. Both SSL stripping and certificate spoofing can lead to MITM attacks. Wire tapping: Wire tapping is when an attacker passively intercepts communication between two parties. Rather than modifying the data, attackers simply listen and collect sensitive information. Weak encryption ciphers and expired certificates can allow bad actors to eavesdrop. Data Breach: Violations occur when cybercriminals gain unauthorized access to their systems (and steal sensitive data). Misconceptions about SSL can both lead to data breaches, such as the insecure redirection and the presence of mixed content. Desensitization: Repeated issues with expired or invalid SSL authentication on a company’s website can decolorize users against common cybersecurity practices. A few months of cybersecurity awareness training has been drilled, where websites pose a risk and should not visit without running SSL certificates. Asking them to overlook the issue on your own website can make phishing or scam attempts more accessible later because they are “familiar with” the “HTTPS error” on your site.
Challenges in identifying misconceptions about SSL
Identifying SSL misconceptions without a comprehensive external attack surface management (EASM) solution is difficult. The fact is that most traditional security tools do not have the ability to continuously monitor and analyze all your organization’s internet-facing assets. Combining this with the dynamic and constantly changing nature of a digital environment where assets are frequently added and updated, it makes it even more difficult to effectively maintain a secure SSL configuration. Specifically, for two reasons:
Traditional security tools have limited capacity. Most traditional security tools are designed to monitor and protect internal networks and assets. However, due to SSL misconceptions, there is often a lack of specialized capabilities to scan and analyze a wide range of internet-facing assets, such as websites, web applications, and APIs. Traditional tools can easily overlook SSL certificate satisfaction and weak cipher suites, leaving your organization vulnerable. The digital environment is constantly changing. Your organization’s digital environment is dynamic as teams continuously add, remove, or update content, applications, and services. And this constant change means that SSL misconceptions can be inadvertently and easily introduced.
Mitigate SSL misconceptions and mitigate EASM
To get a proactive approach (including SSL configurations) to manage and protect the external attack surface of your organization, consider investing in an automated, cloud-based EASM solution that monitors all known, unknown assets. The best solution is:
Perform continuous discovery and monitoring: Invest in solutions that scan and monitor all internet-facing assets for SSL misconceptions, ensuring vulnerabilities are quickly identified and addressed. Encryption certificate monitoring: The solution you choose should also monitor expiration dates, certificate chains, TLS protocols, and issuer SSL certificates to prevent the use of secure, expired or expired certificates. Benefits of automated analysis: Automatically analyze SSL configurations, consider solutions that identify potential issues, and rank them based on their potential severity. This continuous analysis and prioritization will help you better target your remediation efforts. Receive aggressive alerts: You don’t know what you don’t know. Find solutions that provide aggressive alerts about SSL misconceptions and take prompt action to mitigate potential security risks. Take the handoff approach: For the most convenient approach to protecting the external attack surface of your organization, consider the providers that provide managed EASM services. With managed EASM providers, vendors need to provide continuous 24/7 monitoring, and connect regularly to check for threats and fix identified vulnerabilities.
One solution to check all these boxes is the EASM platform on Outpost24. Cloud-based platforms can increase cyber resilience. This solution continuously maps the growth attack surface of your organization, automatically collects and analyzes data from both known and unknown assets, and adds a cyber threat intelligence feed for a more comprehensive approach to cyber risk. The platform then offers a variety of potential remediation actions that can be taken to eliminate security gaps and ensure a digital presence against SSL vulnerabilities.
Your organization’s internet assets continue to grow – and so is your offensive side. Understand the surface of attack and increase cyber resilience with Sweep Easm on Outpost24. Contact us for more information on how EASM can help reduce attack cyber risk.
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