Cybersecurity Threat Modeling

Threats

• A threat is an object, person, or entity that may pose danger to a system or asset.
• Management must be informed about diverse threats to effectively protect information through policies, training, and technical controls.

Threat Modeling

• Threat modeling is a process of identifying potential threats through theoretical use cases.
• Microsoft STRIDE model covers six categories of attacks: Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information Disclosure, Denial of Service, and Elevation of Privilege.
• Threat modeling necessitates understanding of assets and vulnerabilities.

STRIDE Threat Modeling

• Spoofing of Identity: An attacker pretends to be a legitimate user by stealing credentials (e.g., phishing attacks).

  • Mitigation: Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA).

• Tampering with Data: An attacker intercepts and modifies data in transit (e.g., changing a bank transaction amount).

  • Mitigation: Utilize encryption (like HTTPS) for secure data transmission.

• Repudiation: An attacker denies performing an action without leaving any traceable proof.

  • Mitigation: Implement secure logging that is tamper-proof to maintain evidence.

• Information Disclosure: Sensitive information is exposed to unauthorized individuals (e.g., data breaches).

  • Mitigation: Encrypt sensitive data and apply access controls.

• Denial of Service (DoS): The system becomes unavailable due to an overload of requests (e.g., DDoS attacks).

  • Mitigation: Employ rate limiting and web application firewalls to prevent overwhelming traffic.

• Elevation of Privilege: An attacker gains higher system permissions than authorized (e.g., a normal user becomes an administrator).

  • Mitigation: Implement role-based access control (RBAC) and limit privilege escalation paths.

Attack Surface Mapping

• An attack surface comprises various points where an unauthorized user can infiltrate a system, network, or solution.
• Each attack surface has its associated risk, likelihood, and impact.
• Sources of attack vectors can be hardware, software/firmware, or communication channels.
• Mapping attack surfaces involves creating an architecture diagram to identify and prioritize attack vectors.
  • Priority is determined by the ease of exploitation and the potential impact.

Steps in Attack Surface Mapping Process

• Listing All Components: Identify components like web servers, application servers, database servers, user interfaces (UI), and third-party API's.
• Preparing an Architecture Diagram: Depict how components communicate (e.g., web server to application server, application server to database, external APIs).
• Labeling Components & Communication: Label each interaction (e.g., HTTP requests, SQL queries, API requests).
• Identifying Attack Vectors: Identify potential attack points (e.g., SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), man-in-the-middle attacks).
• Rating Attack Vectors: Assign priority to each attack vector based on impact and ease of exploitation. - High priority: SQL Injection (high impact, easy to exploit) - Medium priority: Cross-Site Scripting (medium impact, moderate difficulty) - Medium priority: Man-in-the-middle attack (high impact, harder to exploit)

Explore the concept of threats and the importance of threat modeling in cybersecurity. Learn about the Microsoft STRIDE model and how to identify and mitigate potential threats to information systems. This quiz will enhance your understanding of how to protect assets effectively.