All the best things in the universe that remain unhinged by change and challenges are members of the proactive club. Anticipating future scenarios, saving resources for it, and framing the best strategies for the future can save anyone or anything from being vulnerable to threats and challenges. Likewise, when it comes to cyberspace securing an organization, network, device, or system from threats requires proactive analysis and actions. The analysis that offers the best perspective for taking preventative action against cyber risks is called threat modeling. This blog will give you an in-depth understanding of Threat Modeling, its best methodologies, and examples.
What Is Threat Modeling?
Threat modeling is a critical analysis of vulnerabilities of the representations of a system from threats that can exploit or compromise its information security and privacy. However, threat modeling does not give an exhaustive enumeration of every possible threat and vulnerability that a system can face. The threat model can get updated with the changes or updations in the representations of a system or network.
Common stages in threat modeling include:
1. Identifying the vulnerable assets that need to be protected
2. Identifying attack services
3. Recognizing every possible threat
4. Defining security functional requirements
5. Suggesting strategies to mitigate the identified threats
Among many things Threat modeling is used to:
- Get an overview of the quality of the security of a system.
- List the potential attackers and anticipate their goals and methods.
- Gather all the vulnerabilities that already exist or can arise.
Threat modeling can be done at any stage of the system development life cycle and even after. More of the major instances when threat modeling is done include instances when a new feature is added, when security incidents occur, and at times of architectural and infrastructural changes. It is to be understood that threat modeling done at the initial stages of a product development cycle can provide only a quick brief of the weak spots that can open opportunities for threats.
Top 3 Best Threat Modeling Methodologies and Examples
Many methodologies are very useful for efficiently modeling threats. A methodology that works for one system may not be so effective for another. Therefore it is important to give good thoughts as to which methodologies would best help in creating an efficient threat model. Here is a brief on major types of methodologies used in threat modelling.
1. STRIDE
STRIDE is one of the oldest methodologies for threat modeling developed by Microsoft. Its framework can be considered as a checklist that enumerates potential threats based on the specific nature of attacks.
Image Reference: developer.ibm.com
STRIDE is a mnemonic that stands for the following :
a. Spoofing: The attacker manipulates his identity to trick the user to expose data or authorize access
b. Tampering: The altering of codes or important data to carry out malicious goals
c. Repudiation: Attacks that take place at the opportunity of the system or application not implementing adequate controls to log or track user’s actions.
d. Information disclosure: The malicious exposure of sensitive data or information by a person who is unauthorized to access it.
e. Denial of Service: The attacker manipulates the system to deny access to an authorized person
f. Elevation of Privilege: Allowing access without legitimate authority
2. PASTA: The Process of Attack Simulation and Threat Analysis
PASTA is used by many big organizations including GitLab. It is favored because of its riskcentric approach, collaborative nature, evidence-based threat intelligence, and its degree of focus on the probability of each attack. This methodology calls for 7 steps in the process to identify threats your system or business may confront and helps to be proactive in securing the system. PASTA collaborated with the stakeholders to understand the inherent risks and gives good focus to the organizational context. This makes the methodology less static than traditional methodologies like STRIDE.
In brief, PASTA acknowledges that the threat landscapes and weak spots are ever evolving. Respecting that, PASTA has an evolving framework for threat modeling as it passes from one process stage to another
3. CVSS: Common Vulnerability Scoring System
CVSS is another threat modeling technic that is very popular. It works by demanding to classify each vulnerability on a severity scale of 10.
Benefits of Threat Modeling
- Threat modeling helps to save costs by being proactive against external threats and vulnerabilities whose mitigation can cost huge money if ignored.
- It also helps to build a sense of strong customer trust about their sensitive data and resources in the system
- Helps to prioritize threats and mitigation efforts which helps to wisely budget
- Gives complete understanding of cyber kill chain
- Assist in security evaluations and gives direction for security assessment
- Enables a shared security vision
- Provides proof of security by design and proof of compliance
- Gives direction on what are the requirements for security at the development stage itself
Conclusion
To summarise, threat modeling provides a critical overview of the quality of security implemented in a system, network, device, or collectively in an organization. It can be modeled in the stages of design, development, or even after. Threat modeling provides can contribute a lot to security, and save the cost of mitigating attacks and is done for a wide range of things including IoT devices, networks, distributed systems, software, business processes, and more. The most popular and highly efficient methodologies in threat modeling include STRIDE, PASTA, CVSS, Attack Trees, VAST, LINDDUN, and much more. Hope this blog has helped you get a good understanding of threat modeling and its best methodologies and examples.
Misbah Thevarmannil
Misbah Thevarmannil's writing is both tech-savvy and grounded in creativity. She combines a play on words with an encyclopedic knowledge of technical subjects to produce pieces that is clear, concise, and accessible to her audience. Misbah has been at the forefront of technology for years, and she keeps up with software trends from writers, developers, and the like.
