Credentialed Pre-Port Discovery: Don't Probe the Host, Ask it
Rapid7's version 8.58 adds credentialed pre-port discovery, letting scan engines query hosts for listening TCP/UDP ports instead of network probing.
Rapid7 documents credentialed pre-port discovery, available from version 8.58 as an off-by-default per-template option under Asset Discovery. The scan engine authenticates with existing SSH, Scan Assistant, or Windows credentials and receives the host's authoritative list of listening TCP and UDP ports, skipping the network port scan. Hosts without matching credentials silently fall back to network port scanning. Trade-offs include reporting firewall-blocked ports the engine cannot reach, longer scans, and early termination findings caused by repeated connection failures.
Threat Matrix: Mapping threats across cloud web applications
Microsoft released a Cloud Web Applications Threat Matrix, a MITRE ATT&CK-aligned framework mapping threats to cloud-hosted web apps and serverless platforms.
Microsoft introduced the cloud web applications threat matrix, which organizes attack techniques for cloud-hosted web apps and serverless platforms using MITRE ATT&CK tactics, from resource development through impact. The framework covers attack paths spanning application code, managed runtimes, workload identities, and deployment pipelines, cataloging techniques such as subdomain takeover, code injection in connected repositories, compromised registry images, exposed admin interfaces, and serverless trigger injection. It builds on Microsoft's earlier Kubernetes and storage services matrices to help defenders identify visibility gaps, prioritize hardening, and plan investigations in cloud-native environments.
Vali Cyber ZeroLock 5 brings MFA to the hypervisor command line
Vali Cyber released ZeroLock 5 adding CLI-MFA to protect VMware ESX and Linux hypervisors from insider threats and stolen credentials.
ZeroLock 5 introduces CLI-MFA, requiring time-based one-time passwords for file access, program execution, and network operations at the hypervisor command line on ESX and Linux hosts. The release targets ransomware and nation-state actor pivots to virtualization infrastructure, exemplified by ShinyHunters' shinysp1d3r RaaS platform that encrypts VMware ESX environments using stolen credentials and SSH keys. It adds remotely deployable collectors, reusable multi-site deployment blueprints, SIEM forwarding presets, and support for VCF and ESX 6.7+.
Bot detection arrives in CrowdSec 1.8.0, along with two DoS fixes
CrowdSec 1.8.0 adds WAF bot detection via challenges and fingerprinting and fixes denial-of-service flaws in HTTP and Kubernetes audit datasources.
CrowdSec 1.8.0, released August 31, introduces bot detection in its WAF using client challenges and fingerprinting, plus fixes for two denial-of-service vulnerabilities in the HTTP acquisition datasource (unbounded decompressed body size, trusted Content-Length) and the Kubernetes audit webhook datasource (unbounded request body reads). The release also adds a dedicated Kubernetes datasource pulling logs directly from the apiserver, new HTTP helpers for external queries in the expression language, and performance work on the decisions stream endpoint. The challenge requires SSE4.1 and writable-executable memory, so some legitimate visitors may be blocked.