What is Offensive Security? Techniques & Benefits

Businesses are taking different measures to protect their digital assets. One of the most popular approaches amongst them is using an offensive security engine. Businesses need to mitigate the vulnerabilities before they get exposed and exploited, as opposed to the traditional approach of defensive security, which helps fix the vulnerabilities once they are identified. Offensive security by tackling security issues at their roots and predicting threats beforehand. works in that direction, allowing potential vulnerabilities to be identified and resolved.

If a system is vulnerable due to weak security settings or any other reason, it can be exploited by a threat actor by attacking the system, network, or application intentionally. In this blog post, we will explore the meaning of offensive security, how an offensive security engine works, and how it differs from defensive security. We will learn about the key components of defensive security, which include penetration testing, red teaming, and social engineering.

What is Offensive Security?

Offensive security is an important component in the field of cybersecurity. It includes the technique of stimulating manual or automated attacks against a team, system, or software in order to detect and highlight as many vulnerabilities as possible. The main reason for using offensive security is to increase the security of vulnerable systems by preventing them from attacks using techniques like penetration testing, red teaming, social engineering, and vulnerability assessment.

This is an active approach that helps discover all the vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by an attacker. An Offensive security engine helps businesses by putting preventive measures in place. It enables them by making them understand how their applications can be exploited by attackers.

Once the organizations are aware of their systems’ weaknesses and how vulnerable they might be, businesses can take appropriate measures to safeguard themselves. The main goal of the offensive security approach is to help organizations enhance their overall security postures.

Offensive Security Vs Defensive Security

For businesses to protect their digital products, they should be aware of the differences between offensive and defensive security so they can choose the correct approach for them. Let us look at some of the key differences between offensive security vs defensive security:

Key Components of Offensive Security

A variety of techniques and strategies compose any offensive security activity. Each of those is a required part of a general security strategy. Offensive security consists of key components such as penetration testing, red teaming, vulnerability assessment, social engineering, and exploit development.

1. Penetration Testing

Penetration testing, often known as “pen testing,” is a simulated attack on a system, network, application, etc. The process is carried out by security professionals, mostly known as penetration testers. They usually apply a special set of tools and techniques to identify the points where one can break in. They are also defined as vulnerabilities.

The process is normally conducted in phases, which are planning, exploitation, and reporting. The goal of such testing is to provide an understanding of methods by which it is possible to break into the system and perform a certain task or set of tasks. Penetration testing allows for identifying weak spots of a specific layer of security and providing recommendations or a report on the strongest attack. The penetration testing may be applied to different types of domains, such as network, application-layer, social engineering, and even physical security.

2. Red Teaming

The objective of red teaming is to evaluate the ability of the organizations to prevent or, if not possible, handle incident response to data access or leak. The introduction of planned attacks, which can consist of up to five layers of penetration and may be carried out by different parts of a red team or multiple penetration groups, can mimic real attacks.

3. Vulnerability Assessment

Vulnerability assessment is a system-specific process used to determine vulnerabilities in system software, hardware, or networks. The assessment process to determine vulnerabilities is based on automated tools such as scanners along with manual testing of applications and networks. An offensive security engine can discover vulnerabilities and prioritize them based on their level of severity.

4. Social Engineering

Social engineering allows threat actors to target people and cause data breaches by forcing them to leak personal info, either on purpose or by accident. For this purpose, the red team delivers the exact form of a stage of the attack, such as phishing emails to the company to use its information later for access, also using incorrect information or baiting. If an organization doesn’t have a strong Offensive Security Engine in place, the attack will bypass its traditional security parameters.

5. Exploit Development

The exploit development can be seen as a minimal step of technical training within the offensive testing, which provides the development of tools or scripts that can use the identified vulnerability. Often, security engineers make proofs of concept (also known as PoC) to understand clearly the potential damage of a threat and provide the dedicated software engineer with the data to deploy a patch.

The Offensive Security Lifecycle

The offensive security lifecycle is a defined approach with multiple phases. Each of these phases is essential for identifying the security posture of an organization’s system. Let’s discuss each phase of the offensive security engine and its lifecycle details.

• Reconnaissance and Information Gathering

The first step of the offensive security lifecycle, reconnaissance and information gathering, can be thought of as an effort to behave as a real spy. The goal here is to obtain information about the target system, such as its tech stack, business opening hours, customer info, server versions, cloud provider being used, and any other information.

• Vulnerability Analysis

In the vulnerability analysis phase, the information obtained in the reconnaissance stage is analyzed to determine the relevant vulnerabilities. In addition, security engineers determine the priority of vulnerability by analyzing the given vulnerability or the exploitability of this vulnerability with the help of severity. To this end, vulnerabilities are rated from 1 to 10, and 10 is the most critical. These ratings are often seen in many standardized scoring systems, such as the NVD’s Common Vulnerability Scoring System.

• Exploitation

The exploitation phase involves trying to exploit the identified vulnerabilities to hack into the target system. In this phase, security testers/engineers simulate a real hacker-style attack and see where it can lead. In addition, enterprise tools for various advantages are used for exploitation. This phase is an important part of any Pentest, as it is important to understand what can be achieved via the security vulnerabilities of a particular system.

• Post-Exploitation and Pivoting

The final phase is post-exploitation and pivoting. Once a system is compromised and an attacker has access to the target system, the security testers/engineers attempt to maintain access to that system. This means that penetration testers try to move from the application to the system root level and interconnect hosts to one another.

• Reporting & Remediation

The last phase of the lifecycle is reporting and remediation. At this stage, security professionals gather their findings into a report and make conclusions. The report contains information about any vulnerabilities that have been detected, the methods used to exploit them, and some meaningful recommendations to fix the issues found.

Benefits of Offensive Security

Offensive security is advantageous to businesses that are leaning toward implementing cyber security posture. Some of its advantages are as follows:

1. Proactive Identification of Vulnerabilities: Offensive security makes it possible for organizations to find vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them. By simulating real attacks, security teams are able to discover the weak points in their systems and applications.
2. Improved Incident Response: By practices of offensive security, organizations are able to refine their Incident Response Plan. By knowing how an attacker thinks, security teams can develop more effective strategies for detection, response, and recovery from security incidents. This preparedness greatly limits the damage caused by real attacks.
3. Enhanced Security Awareness: By conducting offensive security exercises, such as penetration tests and social engineering simulations, employees are made more aware of potential threats. Such training helps staff members recognize and react against malicious e-mail or other methods of social engineering. Also, it creates a culture of security within the enterprise.
4. Regulatory Compliance: Many industries have strict regulations on protecting data and cyber security. Offensive security practices can help companies meet standards of control based on law. This proactive approach also eases the load for security teams by streamlining compliance work.

Exploitation Techniques Used for Offensive Security

There are various exploitation techniques used as part of offensive security. These techniques help ethical hackers or penetration testers identify potential vulnerabilities and exploit the target system. These techniques play a major role in helping organizations to implement better defensive mechanisms against threats. Some of these techniques are as follows:

1. Buffer Overflows

Buffer overflow is the type of attack that happens because more data is sent than the buffer can handle, and such an attempt is going to overwrite adjacent memory. Usually, such behavior results in unexpected outcomes, application crashes, or even execute malicious code. Buffer overflows are used by attackers to break into or elevate their control within the system.

2. SQL Injection (SQLi)

SQL injection is the type of attack in which malicious SQL queries are used to access the database behind the web application. Therefore, SQLi may lead to unauthorized data access, data modification, and even the database’s deletion. When developers use poorly sanitized inputs to build SQL queries, the attackers can build and submit commands that violate security measures and enable them to access confidential information or change data-store records.

3. Remote Code Execution

Remote code execution (RCE) is a vulnerability that allows the attacker to run any kind of code on the victim’s system remotely. These can be due to a chain of vulnerabilities in software, such as improper user input handling or a lack of checking for invalid commands. When successful, RCE attacks allow attackers to take full control of a system that is potentially breached (to deploy malware or exfiltrate data),

4. Privilege Escalation

A privilege escalation is a type of vulnerability that allows access from the lower level to some or more higher-level accesses. Some of these vulnerabilities will include but are not limited to, attackers exploiting existing signals (e.g., misconfigured permissions) or introducing new areas for a command execution with a higher level of administrative access. This makes it possible for threat actors to gain access to confidential information, change system settings, or deploy malicious programs, thus significantly increasing the impact of an attack.

5. Man-in-the-middle Attacks

A Man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack is a type of cyber eavesdropping in which the attacker interrupts and records an encrypted message between two parties who believe they are communicating with each other. This will enable an attacker to read the messages and, in some cases, modify and authenticate as a partner. MITM attacks, by taking advantage of the vulnerabilities in network protocols or weak Wi-Fi connections (WiFi spoofing), can be a serious threat to data integrity and confidentiality.

Common Defensive Measures Against Offensive Techniques

Organizations need to create strong defensive measures to respond to various offensive techniques employed by threat actors. Let’s discuss a few of them.

• Implementing Security Controls

Multi-layered security architecture should be implemented by organizations, which implies the use of firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and intrusion prevention systems. Firewalls are devices that operate as barricades between trusted and untrusted networks. IDS is used to monitor the traffic of your organization, and whenever something seems peculiar to administrators, it provides alerts.

IPS is somewhat similar to the previous one but is capable of blocking threats. Another opportunity is to implement endpoint protection platforms with endpoint detection & response, thereby having an opportunity to secure your organization’s end devices and detect threats in real time.

• Continuous Monitoring and Threat Detection

A robust security posture must include continuous monitoring and threat detection. An SIEM would benefit the organization. It is capable of aggregating log data and analyzing it from a variety of sources. Furthermore, it can identify anomalies in real time and alarm the organization to possible indicators. Incorporating threat intelligence feeds to help organizations rapidly learn about known threats and attack techniques is also a great security measure.

• Incident Response

To minimize damage from security incidents, your organization should also have a detailed incident response plan. This document should outline not only a response to security incidents themselves but also to any potential indicators of threats, as well as measures for how systems affected by security incidents should be recovered.

Frequent testing through tabletop exercises and drills should also be encouraged so that teams know exactly what to do in case of an incident. Post-incident reviews are also important for understanding how past incidents occurred and how similar incidents can be prevented in the future.

• Implementing Access Controls

Access controls are one way to decrease the possibility of unauthorized access to data and systems. Organizations should implement a zero-trust security model. This model requires the organization to prove the devices’ identity and state and constantly check them before access is allowed to the systems.

Additionally, organizations should use role-based access control. It will only provide the user with the lowest permission level he or she needs to do their job. This is a useful prevention of insider threat, as it prevents lateral movement.

• Regular Security Training

Human errors are an important cause of security incidents that need to be considered. It is necessary to make regular training mandatory for employees. People should get to know how to spot a phishing message, scan a link for a redirect, and have good browsing habits. Training should also ensure that employees understand how strong the passwords should be. Thus, at least usernames and passwords will remain intact from the attackers.

Why SentinelOne for Offensive Security?

SentinelOne Singularity™ Cloud Native Security is an agentless CNAPP solution that eliminates false positives and takes rapid action against alerts. It supercharges your offensive security and team’s efficiency with its Verified Exploit Paths™. You can outsmart attackers with its cutting-edge Offensive Security Engine™ and safely simulate attacks on your cloud infrastructure to detect critical vulnerabilities. You’ll even learn about weaknesses and security gaps you weren’t previously aware of, even the ones that stay hidden, unknown, or undetectable.

SentinelOne Singularity™ Cloud Native Security can identify more than 750+ secret types hardcoded across code repositories. It will keep them from leaking out. You will be able to stay on top of the latest exploits and CVEs and quickly determine if any of your cloud resources are affected. SentinelOne has a CSPM solution with more than 2,000 built-in checks that automatically resolve all cloud asset misconfigurations.

You can get support from major cloud service providers, including AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, DigitalOcean, and Alibaba Cloud. Take advantage of its cloud compliance dashboard to generate real-time compliance scores for multiple standards, including NIST, MITRE, and CIS. It also comes with a CWPP solution that can protect your cloud workloads and VMs, which is built on an eBPF architecture.

As the world’s most advanced and autonomous cyber security platform, SentinelOne’s CNAPP also bundles additional features such as – Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Scanning, Cloud Detection and Response (CDR), and Container and Kubernetes Security. It is a comprehensive solution that builds a strong foundation and enhances your overall offensive security strategy.

Conclusion

It is important to understand the offensive security techniques to safeguard the organization’s digital assets. If companies are able to understand the different techniques used by attackers, such as buffer overflows, SQL injection, and privilege escalation, they can take steps to build the security of their applications. Using a wide range of defensive mechanisms, such as multi-layered controls, monitoring, or incident response, can not only help reduce the risks but also ensure that the company responds to the crisis in a timely manner.

Apart from that, addressing the issue of human error can be beneficial in reducing the chances of a successful attack. Continuous efforts in the area of technical protection and employee training will help modern companies stay immune to threats as they develop. On the whole, such an approach will contribute to the transformation of the potential flows into chances for growth, helping companies to become more resilient to various modern challenges.

FAQs

1. What is Offensive Security in Cybersecurity?

An offensive security approach is wherein a company, either by itself or by a third party, simulates attacks on its own systems, networks, or applications. This is done to find the vulnerabilities before the real attack takes place and the vulnerabilities are exploited by the attackers. This involves penetration testing, red teaming, ethical hacking, etc. It means actively trying to find the weaknesses in order to make the organization’s security stronger.

2. Difference Between Offensive and Defensive Security?

The difference is based on the focus and the method. Offensive security is proactive, while the other is not, meaning the former tries to penetrate and find out the weaknesses. Offensive security is getting into the system and trying to identify its loopholes, while others are not getting in and only trying to prevent, like firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, and incident response approaches.

3. What are the Offensive Security Practices?

Penetration testing, red teaming, vulnerability assessments, social engineering, exploit development, etc., are some of the approaches through which loopholes can be identified and security risks can be avoided.

4. Offensive Security Tools List

There are multiple offensive security engine tools that can be used to implement its approach for vulnerability assessment. Some of them are:

• SentinelOne’s agentless CNAPP as your all-round Offensive Security Engine and real-time cloud security solution
• Metasploit as a penetration testing framework.
• Nmap as a network scanning tool
• Burp Suite to help with application security testing