Vulnerabilities pose a significant risk to applications and systems as they can be exploited by malicious actors to gain unauthorized access, compromise data, or disrupt services. In this blog post, we’ll explore the dangers of unknown vulnerabilities and discuss why proactive prevention and continuous vigilance are crucial.
What Are Unknown Vulnerabilities?
Unknown vulnerabilities are security flaws in software that have not (yet) been discovered or documented – mainly because they are hard to identify using conventional testing methods.
Penetration testing will often flag the presence of known vulnerabilities – i.e. existing CVEs, but cannot be relied upon to pick up on deeper issues arising from:
- Complex Code: Large, intricate codebases (often developed by different people/teams and/or supplemented by 3rd party code) – which are much more likely to contain hidden flaws.
- New Technologies: Emerging technology stacks (which people are [too] desperate to adopt to improve functionality/performance/save time) may introduce unforeseen weaknesses due to lack of working knowledge or inadequate testing.
- Human Error: Mistakes in coding or configuration can create vulnerabilities that aren’t immediately obvious and therefore stand no chance of being spotted without at least some form of negative and/or routine regression testing.
- Risk Ownership Issues: Confusion over which person/entity owns the responsibility for (rigorously) testing their respective elements (and then the interfaces between them, when you start to bring them all together).
At CyTAL, we see these problems time and time again. Appointing an independent test lab can help tease out some of these issues, although some vendors prefer to be given tools (ones that are normally reserved for the test lab) to tackle these for themselves.
Why Are Unknown Vulnerabilities Risky?
- Exploitability: Attackers who discover unknown vulnerabilities can exploit them before developers are even aware of them. This gives them a window of opportunity to compromise systems and data before a fix becomes available.
- Impact: The impact of an exploit can be severe. It may lead to data breaches, system outages, or unauthorized access. Even the smallest (or seemingly insignificant) unknown vulnerabilities can lead to major problems.
- Undetected Threats: Unknown vulnerabilities are not easily detected by traditional security measures. Believe it or not, it’s challenging to protect against something if you don’t know what that something is.
- Delayed Response: Even when unknown vulnerabilities are discovered, there may be delays in developing and deploying fixes. During this period, systems remain vulnerable to attacks. If the fix is tricky (to create or deploy) the attack could proliferate.
Strategies for Managing Unknown Vulnerabilities
- Implement Robust Security Practices: Adopting security best practices, such as secure coding standards, code reviews, and threat models, helps reduce the likelihood of introducing vulnerabilities. Regular security audits and penetration testing can also identify potential weaknesses before attackers do.
- Adopt a Defense-in-Depth Approach: Layered security measures ensure that even if one layer is compromised, additional defenses are in place. This might include firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and encryption.
- Keep Software Updated: Regularly update all software components, including third-party libraries and frameworks. While updates usually address known vulnerabilities, they can also improve overall security and potentially close off new attack vectors.
- Monitor and Respond: Implementing real-time monitoring and incident response capabilities can help detect and address security incidents quickly. This includes monitoring logs for unusual activity and having an incident response plan in place.
- Foster a Security Culture: Educate development teams about security best practices and the importance of secure coding. Promoting a security-first mindset can reduce the likelihood of vulnerabilities being introduced in the first place.
- Engage with the Security Community: Participate in bug bounty programs and collaborate with the security community. Engaging with external experts can provide additional perspectives on your specific circumstances.
- Incorporate Fuzz Testing: Fuzz testing (or fuzzing) is a dynamic testing technique that involves inputting a wide range of random or malformed data into a program to identify unexpected behavior or weaknesses – it will find things that don’t get picked up by strategies 1-6. Integrating fuzz testing into your development cycle can help identify and address unknown vulnerabilities early, before they can be exploited.
Conclusion
Finding and then dealing with vulnerabilities early saves considerable time and effort later. Fixing issues retrospectively (irrespective of whether you’ve already been compromised or not) is a very expensive business. In an environment where security threats are constantly evolving, applying sufficient focus on defensive testing strategies and supporting tooling has never been more important.
