What is Offensive Cyber Security?

The Importance of Offensive Security

Cyber defenders play a constant cat-and-mouse game with cybercriminals and other cyber threat actors. As attackers develop new tools and techniques, defenders implement defenses against them. Then, the attackers work to circumvent these defenses.

If an organization approaches cyber security only from a defensive perspective, then the tools and defenses that it develops are only truly tested when the organization comes under attack. Additionally, the development of new defenses is performed in a vacuum with limited insight into what is actually needed to close holes in an organization’s defenses.

Offensive cyber security provides organizations with a means of testing their defenses and identifying security gaps that need to be addressed. By simulating real-world attacks, offensive cyber security testing identifies the vulnerabilities that pose the greatest risk to an organization, enabling the company to focus security investment and effort where it provides the greatest return on investment.

Types of Offensive Cyber Security Services

Vulnerability scanning is an automated process used to identify vulnerabilities in an organization’s applications. A vulnerability scanner will attempt to identify the applications that are running on target systems and determine if they contain vulnerabilities. This can be accomplished via a combination of looking for known vulnerabilities for a particular software version and sending malicious inputs — such as common SQL injection strings — to an application.

Vulnerability scanning is commonly used by cyber threat actors to identify potentially exploitable vulnerabilities in preparation for an attack. By performing regular vulnerability scans, an organization can identify and close these vulnerabilities before they can be exploited.

Penetration Testing

Penetration testing is a form of offensive security testing in which a human tests an organization’s cyber defenses. These assessments are designed to identify as many vulnerabilities as possible in an organization’s defenses.

Pen tests can identify vulnerabilities that would be missed by an automated scanner because they are guided by human intelligence and knowledge. Regular pen tests help organizations to close the vulnerabilities most likely to be exploited by a human attacker.

Red/Blue/Purple Teaming

Red team exercises are similar to pen tests in that they are performed by humans, not fully automated. A major difference is that red team engagements test an organization’s defenses against a particular threat, while pen tests are designed to identify as many vulnerabilities as possible.

Blue and purple team exercises refer to the involvement of different parties in the exercise and their level of collaboration. For example, a purple team exercise involves more collaboration and knowledge sharing between the offensive red team and the defensive blue team.

Red team assessments are intended to imitate real-world attacks often with a particular goal, such as data breach or ransomware delivery. By performing regular penetration tests, an organization can identify the vulnerabilities that a human attacker would find and exploit, enabling it to close these security gaps.

White Box / Black Box / Gray Box

White-box, black-box, and gray-box exercises are not a different form of assessment. Instead, they describe the level of knowledge and access granted to the attackers. Each approach has its own pros and cons:

• White Box: In a white-box assessment, the assessor is granted full access to corporate systems and documentation, simulating an attack by a powerful insider such as a system administrator. This knowledge and access make it easier to focus attacks on areas of potential vulnerability but runs the risk that the testers may be biased by the documentation and focus on what systems are designed to do rather than what they actually do.
• Black Box: In a black-box assessment, the tester is given no knowledge or access, simulating an outside attacker. While this form of assessment is better for reducing bias, it can be more intensive in time and resources due to the need to perform reconnaissance and plan attacks.
• Gray Box: A gray-box assessment falls between white-box and black-box assessments, giving the tester the same level of knowledge and access as a normal user. This approach balances the pros and cons of the black-box and white-box approaches.

These three approaches to offensive security testing can be applied to any of the forms of tests mentioned above. With more knowledge and access, a pen tester or red teamer has more options than they would with a black-box assessment. Similarly, additional knowledge and access can influence the placement and configuration of automated tools for vulnerability scanning.

Social Engineering Testing

Many of the tests mentioned above focus on targeting an organization’s IT systems and evading digital defenses. However, many cyber threat actors will target the human element in their attacks rather than attempting to identify and exploit software vulnerabilities.

Social engineering testing is focused on assessing how well an organization’s employees, contractors, etc. protect its data and systems. Social engineers will use trickery, manipulation, and similar techniques to trick or coerce targets into performing some action that benefits the attacker, such as handing over sensitive data or granting access to secure corporate applications or spaces.