Defensive security tools are vital to protecting organizational assets and applications, but proactive security testing (sometimes called offensive security or penetration testing) is also critical for strong security posture. It is much less expensive to find and address an exploitable vulnerability in testing than it is to pay to deal with a breach after it happens.
But human-led offensive security testing has traditionally been a siloed effort, not well integrated into other security operations workflow, such as attack surface management (ASM). Consequently, pentesting has been relegated to static type tasks such as yearly compliance checks, rather than being used proactively to look for exploitable vulnerabilities present in organizational assets and applications. Thus security posture degrades over time.
At the same time, today’s external attack surface is constantly evolving for organizations due to factors like dynamic cloud deployment, inter-company supply chains, shadow IT, mergers & acquisitions and more. An integrated and continuous approach to security testing is required to keep up with the rapid pace of change in modern application deployments.
Integrating ASM with pentesting
Synack’s Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS) platform manages security testing for critical vulnerabilities and gains visibility into the root causes of security risks. The platform harnesses a talented, vetted community of security researchers to deliver continuous pentesting along with a host of other offensive security testing solutions.
Palo Alto Networks (PANW) Cortex Xpanse is an active attack surface management solution that helps an organization actively discover, learn about and respond to unknown risks in all connected systems and exposed services.
Combining the two solutions, newly discovered assets can be placed into a security testing queue to check for potential vulnerabilities, keeping pace with the threat landscape and helping to maintain and improve security posture. The Synack/PANW Cortex Xpanse integration offers benefits like:
- Integrating pentesting and other security testing with your ASM workflows
- Ensuring your security testing stays current with newly discovered assets
- Providing continuous alignment between security testing and evolving attack surfaces
- Automating security testing to identify and remediate vulnerabilities before bad actors can exploit them
- Leveraging Cortex Xpanse tagging and filtering to prioritize security testing of your most important assets
- Proactive vulnerability identification and remediation to reduce risk and increase visibility
- Continuous workflow enabling ongoing security posture improvement
Synack is a validated PANW integration partner, please see our joint solution brief.
How it works
Synack’s integration with PANW Cortex Xpanse Attack Surface Management allows customers to manually or automatically import assets present in their PANW Cortex Xpanse Inventory, into the Synack Platform’s Asset List. Once in the listing, assets are eligible for human-led pentesting & other security testing by the Synack Red Team (SRT), a vetted and expert community of security researchers. Security testing can be conducted on-demand or continuously to keep pace with the latest threats and changes in attack surface exposure. And because attack surface inventory can be voluminous, the integration offers a variety of filters to help focus on the assets that matter most.
The integration allows for asset inventory to be checked daily for newly discovered assets, compared against filters and tags to inform their importance and relevance, then routed to the Synack Platform to be queued for testing. Once Synack’s safe, controlled security testing is conducted, exploitable vulnerabilities and remediation recommendations are available for your team to handle, closing security gaps before they’re exploited.
How to get the integration
Current Synack PTaaS Platform and PANW Cortex Xpanse subscribers can make use of the integration at no additional charge. To learn more about how to implement the integration, please download the attached guide.
About Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto Networks is the global cybersecurity leader, committed to making each day safer than the one before with industry-leading, AI-powered solutions in network security, cloud security, and security operations. For more information, visit www.paloaltonetworks.com
