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Attack Vectors Definition

KZero Staff
Jul 27, 2023

What are Attack Vectors?

Individuals and organizations face a wide range of potential cyber threats. Cyber threat actors can use various different means to attack an organization. These different potential avenues of attack are known as attack vectors.

What are Attack Vectors?

In a nutshell, an attack vector is a way that a cybercriminal can attack an organization or individual. For example, phishing is a common attack vector. By creating and sending a carefully-crafted email or other message, the attacker may be able to trick the recipient into clicking on a link, opening a malicious attachment, or taking some other action that benefits the attacker.

Cyber threat actors can use various attack vectors to achieve their goals. Some of the most common include:

  • Phishing: Phishing attacks involve sending an email designed to induce the recipient to take some action. Phishing is commonly used to steal sensitive data or deliver malware to a target system.
  • Malware: Malware can be delivered to a system in various ways — phishing, vulnerability exploits, trojans, etc. — and can be used to provide an attacker with remote control over the infected system.
  • Insider Threats: A trusted insider may either take malicious actions to expose the organization to attack or may inadvertently leak sensitive data or insecurely configure settings, creating an opening.
  • Compromised Credentials: Weak, breached, or reused credentials are a common attack vector. With access to a user’s credentials, the attacker can log into the system as the user and take advantage of the victim’s access and privileges.
  • Unencrypted Data: Data that is not properly encrypted can be read by anyone as part of an AitM attack or if it is publicly exposed in the cloud.
  • Vulnerabilities: A vulnerability is a flaw in software that makes it vulnerable to exploitation. Unpatched vulnerabilities in an organization’s systems can be vectors that an attacker can use to gain access.
  • Open Ports: If an organization leaves unnecessary ports open to the public Internet, an attacker may be able to use them to gain access. For example, a publicly-accessible FTP server could be used to upload malware or steal sensitive documents from an organization.

This is not an exhaustive list of all potential attack vectors, and multiple attack vectors may apply to the same systems. For example, an attacker may be able to gain access to an application and the sensitive data that it holds either by using compromised credentials or exploiting a vulnerability in the application’s code.

Managing Potential Attack Vectors

Identifying and addressing potential attack vectors is an essential part of any cybersecurity strategy. The first step in doing so is performing an attack surface analysis. This involves exhaustively seeking and mapping out all of the potential attack vectors within an organization and its systems. The sum of all potential attack vectors is referred to as the organization’s attack surface.

With a clear understanding of its attack surface, the organization can then take steps to eliminate or mitigate the potential threat of various attack vectors. For example, employee training can help to reduce the threat of phishing attacks, while installing a corporate antivirus on all computers may help with blocking malware infections. An organization could address the risks of compromised credentials by implementing multifactor authentication (MFA) or — ideally — switching over to a passwordless authentication scheme that doesn’t rely on passwords for user authentication.

At the end of the day, it’s impossible to completely eliminate potential cybersecurity risk to the organization. However, by identifying, managing, and monitoring potential attack vectors, an organization can reduce that risk and also gain valuable visibility into the ways that an attacker might be able to gain access to an organization’s systems.

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AAA Cyber Security Definition Access Control List Definition Account Sharing Definition Active Directory Certificate Services Definition Active Directory Federation Services Definition Adaptive Authentication Definition Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) Definition Adware Definition AiTM Definition Altcoins API Definition ARP Cache Poisoning Attack Definition Asymmetric Encryption Definition Attack Surface Analysis Definition Attack Vectors Definition Authentication Authentication Protocols Definition Automated Compliance Definition
Beaconing Definition Behavioral Biometrics Definition Biometric Authentication Definition Bitcoin Blockchain Blockchain Authentication Definition Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Definition Bot Definition Botnet Definition Brute Force Attack Definition BYOD Definition
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Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) Definition Email Hijacking Definition Encryption Definition Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Definition Endpoint Management Definition Endpoint Security Definition Equifax Security Breach Ethereum Ethernet Switch Definition Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) Method Definition Eye Authentication
Face Authentication Facial Recognition Definition Fake Hacking Definition Fault Tolerance Definition Federated Authentication Definition FIDO Alliance FIDO Biometrics FIDO Client Software SDK FIDO Cloud Authentication FIDO IoT Security FIDO Server FIDO U2F Authentication FIDO UAF Fido2 Definition Fileless Malware Definition Fingerprint Biometrics Definition Firewall Definition Firewall Rule Definition Firmware Definition Forensic Analysis Definition
Golden Ticket Attack Definition Google Authenticator Google Authenticator Definition Google Authenticator Push Notification
Hacking Definition Hacktivism Definition Hash Functions Definition Heap Spraying Definition HOTP Definition How Does a VPN Work Hybrid Cloud Definition Hyperscale Definition
IAM Definition ICMP Definition ID Ransomware Definition ID Ransomware Definition Howard Poston Identity Authentication Definition Identity Governance Identity Proofing Identity Verification Definition Identity-Based Encryption IDP Definition IKE Definition Incident Response Definition Ingress Vs. Egress Definition Insider Threat Definition Intrusion Detection System Definition IoT Edge Definition
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Key Agreement vs. Key Exchange Definition Key Distribution Center Definition Key management Keylogging
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Network Edge Definition Network Security Definition Node NTLM Authentication NTLM Authentication Definition NTLM Definition
OAuth 2.0 Definition OAuth Definition OCSP Definition On-Path Attack Definition One-Factor Authentication Definition One-Time Password Definition Open banking OpenID Connect Flow Definition OPSEC Definition OTP Definition Out-of-band authentication
PAM Tools Definition Parse Logs Definition Passkeys Password Complexity Password Hashing Password Reuse Password Spraying Definition Passwordless Authentication Penetration Testing Definition Personally identifiable information (PII) PGP Definition Phishing Definition PKI Architecture Definition PKI Authentication Definition PKI Certificates Definition Port Scanning Definition Pretexting Definition Privileged Access Management Definition Protected health information (PHI) Proxy Server Definition PSD1 Definition PSD2 Definition Public Key Encryption Definition Push Authentication
QoS Definition QR Code Authentication Quantum Computing Quantum Cryptography Quantum Encryption
RADIUS Protocol Definition Rainbow Table Random Number Generator Ransomware Red Team Remote Access Trojan Definition REST API Definition REST Protocols Definition Reverse Engineering Risk-Based Authentication Rootkit Definition
Salted Hash Definition SAML Definition SAML Handshake Definition SAML MFA SAML vs OAuth SASE Definition Scareware Definition SCIM Definition SCRAM Definition Security as a Service Security Keys Definition Security Mesh Security Tokens Definition Session Hijacking Definition Shellcode Shoulder Surfing Definition Sidejacking Definition SIEM Definition Single Sign-On Definition Single-Factor Authentication Site-to-Site VPN Smart Card Authentication SOAP Protocol Definition SOAP Secure Definition Social Engineering Software Patch Definition Spam Filter Spambot Spear Phishing Spoofing Definition Spoofing IP Address Spraying Attack Spyeye Definition Spyware SQL Injection SQRL Definition SSH Definition SSL Definition SSL Stripping Attack SSO Definition Stateful Firewall Definition Step-Up Authentication Stuxnet Symmetric Encryption Symmetric Encryption Symmetric Key Symmetric Key Cryptography Symmetric vs Asymmetric Encryption System Logging
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U2F (Universal 2nd Factor) Definition UDP (User Datagram Protocol) UEBA (User and Entity Behavior Analytics) KZero Staff Unified Threat Management (UTM) URL Filtering
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