What exactly is threat modeling?

The process of threat modeling can be described as a process to optimize system and business processes’ security through identifying the weaknesses and objectives, and then developing strategies to counter the negative effects of threats on the system.

Threat modeling assists in identifying the security requirements for any process or system -everything that is mission-critical or sensitive data or containing valuable information. It is a systematic and well-organized method that is designed to pinpoint the potential vulnerabilities and threats in order to minimize the threat of IT resources. It helps IT administrators to understand the consequences of risks, determine their severity , and establish security measures.

When it comes to software security threat modelling is by far the primary component of developing and designing software. It is not possible to develop applications and systems that are compliant with security policies of corporations and regulations regarding privacy without assessing and reducing security threats.

The use of IT for threat analysis gained momentum in the late 1990s, with the creation of profiles for attackers and threats. Microsoft launched its STRIDE (Spoofing Tampering Repudiation and Information Disclosure and Denial of Service and Elevation Privilege) method of threat modeling in 1999. There are many more strategies. They all require deconstructing the elements of an application system to determine the assets that must be protected and the potential threats that need to be averted. Threat modeling can be used to break down a complicated process into smaller steps, which makes it easier to identify weak points.

Why is threat modeling important?

Every system or application should be designed to resist attacks. However, establishing the security requirements necessary to accomplish this is difficult. Attackers have different thoughts and behaviors from users and developers.

The threat modeling process is an method to identify threats that aren’t usually thought of or discovered in code reviews or other audits. It allows the project team to establish which security controls the application must set to create effective countermeasures to possible threats, and also to deal with issues in the early stages. This leads to much more secure application and through prioritizing potential threats it allows resources to be utilized effectively.

Threat models are an integral element of a successful security development. When threat modeling is an integral part of the DevOps process, developers can integrate security into projects during both the development and maintenance phases. This can prevent common mistakes such as not validating input as authentic, weak authentication, poor error handling, and failure to protect data.
What is this process of threat modelling function?

There are many different threats modeling models and techniques. But the fundamental elements are the same in all of these techniques. They are:

Make the team. The team should comprise everyone involved that are involved, including business owners as well as developers, network architects Security experts, executives at the C-level. A team with a diverse composition will produce an more comprehensive threat analysis.
Determine the definition of the. Determine and define what the model is about. For instance is it focused specifically on an application network, or an application and the infrastructure that it is running on? Make a list of all the components and information that are included, and then map them to the data flow diagrams and architecture. Every type of data must be classified.
Find out the likely threat. All components, which could be considered threat targets, identify which areas of the system are at risk. This exercise creates broad, technical and unpredicted threat scenarios, which include attack and threat trees that discover weaknesses or vulnerabilities that could cause the loss of data or even failure. Tools for modeling threats can be used to simplify and automate this process.
Sort every threat. Find out the risk level each threat represents and then rank them according to their importance in risk mitigation . An easy and effective method is to increase the damage possibility of a threat by the probability of it happening.
Implement mitigations. Determine how you can mitigate any threat or lower the risk to a manageable degree. The options are to eliminate risk or transfer it, decrease it, or accept it.
Record the results. Record all actions and findings for future modifications to the application the threat landscape, operational environment are easily examined as well as the threat models is updated.

Threat modeling best practices

There are a variety of steps you can be taking to ensure a reliable method of threat modeling. These include:

Begin early. Risk modeling is able to be performed anytime in the course of a project. However, sooner is best since the findings will aid in ensuring that the security of the design. It’s also quicker and more cost-effective to incorporate security measures earlier in the process of building.
You should solicit a wide range of opinions. The solicitation of input from a wide range of stakeholders can help discover the most diverse possible threats, motives, adversaries and areas in which the most vulnerable elements are.
Make use of a variety tools. There are a variety of tools available that include some unique approaches. For example The University of Washington’s Security Cards are an idea-generating tool that can help identify unusual or unique threats and the best way to deal with them.
Know your the level of risk tolerance. Particularly, business owners need to fully comprehend and communicate their risk tolerance levels, so that the appropriate approach to mitigate risk can be selected to ensure that business objectives are achieved.
Educate everyone. Instruct everyone who is involved on the various elements of threat modelling to ensure that their inputs are optimized. Like all security issues threat modeling, it’s an ongoing process of development.

Frameworks and methods for modeling threats

Early modeling techniques utilized diagrams of data flow to show the flow of data through a system or application. However, they were restricted for applications that operate within highly connected environments that have numerous devices and users connecting to them.

Process flow diagrams have become frequently employed. They depict the system or application from the viewpoint of user interactions as well as how possible attackers could try to gain access to the application. This helps identify and prioritize potential threats.

Attack trees are also utilized to imagine the effects of an attack on a system with the tree root representing the purpose for an attack and leaves representing ways in which to be successful in achieving the objective. Attack trees can be constructed for specific components of an application or used to analyze a particular type of attack.

An attack tree illustrates the vulnerability that could result from a particular vulnerability in an system or application that is being modelled for threat.

Numerous threat modeling strategies as well as frameworks are being created. The ones that are attack-centric focus on the possible types of attacks, while asset-centric ones concentrate specifically on assets which have to be safeguarded. Most commonly, they employ the following methods:

Damage Reproducibility, Exploitability the affected users, and Discovery (DREAD) It is a numerical risk assessment that evaluates and ranks the threat’s severity.
This guide from the National Institute of Standards and Technologies’ Guide to Threat-Centric Systems Modeling concentrates on the protection of specific kinds of data in systems. It provides a model of the attack and defense of specific data.
Operationally Critical Threat and Asset and Vulnerability Evaluation (OCTAVE) offers an strategic asset and risk-based assessment that can be adapted to specific security goals and risk management. It was created through Carnegie Mellon University for the Department of Defense.
Process for Threat Simulation and Analysis (PASTA) is an attack-focused process that is seven steps long developed to align requirements for technical systems with the business’s goals and the impact on business and the requirements for compliance.
STRIDE is a part in the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle. It is a system-wide tool that identifies entities, events, and boundaries before applying an array of threats that are known to exist. Security teams can detect potential threats.
Trike is an open-source risk-based method that makes sure that each asset’s risk level is accepted by all parties involved.
Visual, Agile, and Simple Threat (VAST) is an extension of ThreatModeler which is an automated threat modeling tool that is designed to be integrated with the Agile Software Development Environment. It also provides useful outputs to developers and security teams.

Tools for modeling threats

The process of modeling threats isn’t simple. There are a myriad of potential threats. Even with a modest project, it is sensible to utilize a threat modeling tool to minimize the amount of time and money required.

Threat modeling tools cut down on the amount of work involved, making it more structured and repeatable. This decreases the amount of resources needed to construct the threat model from scratch and to maintain it as time passes. A effective threat modeling tool helps users design, visualize, plan for and anticipate the occurrence of all kinds of threats. The essential features tools should have are:

the ease of input of security rules and system information;
threat intelligence feeds to ensure that the most recent discovered threats are considered
threat dashboard that offers mitigation strategies;
mitigation dashboard that is integrated to an issue-tracker such as Jira as well as
reports on compliance and the stakeholders.

A few of the most popular tools for threat modeling are:

CAIRIS. A free platform that utilizes intelligence on possible threats to assess the attack surface and verify the security of designs to avoid known security issues and GDPR compliance concerns.

IriusRisk. A diagram-centric threat model tool with adaptive questionnaires that help users to the architectural structure, the planned feature and the security environment that the software provides.

Microsoft Threat Modeling Tool. This tool for free is made to be used by people who are not security experts. It gives guidance on designing and studying threat models within Microsoft’s Security Development Lifecycle. It makes use of the standard notation for illustrating the components of the system, data flows and security zones which makes it simple to recognize different types of dangers based on the structure of the software being developed.

OWASP Threat Dragon. The open-source tool operates as a browser or desktop application. It logs the possibility of threats, then analyzes mitigation options and then shows the components of the threat model and threat models.

SD Elements. It is a Security Compass tool gathers and categorizes system data by vulnerability, and produces audit-ready reports.

Threagile. It is an open-source software that integrates development environments and integrates threat modeling into the application’s codebase. It is able to run on the command-line or as it is a Docker container, or as REST servers.

ThreatModeler. Cloud security, Community as well as application security versions facilitate threat modeling. They can identify, forecast and describe threats, with built-in architecture templates that facilitate integration.

The takeaway

Whatever tool you choose to use The threat modeling process must be repeated every time the software, IT infrastructure or threat environment is changed. The threat model should be kept updated, in case new threats are discovered.

It takes the time and effort. It’s not a simple check-list exercise, but it’s more beneficial to identify a security flaw and address it before hackers find the vulnerability, and threat modeling is the most effective method to accomplish this.